MAGIC FOR SMILES
Report of the Trustees
for the Year Ended 31[st] December 2020
Charity: Magic for Smiles (MFS) Registration number: 1182676 Address: 77 Percy St, Oxford OX4 3AD Trustee names: Sioned Jones (Chair), Stella Jones Anne Cooper
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The Trustees present their report for the year ended 31 December 2020.
1. Structure, Governance, Management
Structure
Magic for Smiles (MFS) is a charitable incorporated organisation constituted under the foundation model and registered on 28 March 2019.
Governance
The charity has three trustees and a technical adviser. The current trustees were recruited in November 2020 on the basis of their ability to provide the necessary support to the charity’s mission, especially with its need to increase its funding and awareness – this recruitment required skills, knowledge, experience and a willingness to give the required time. In November 2020, MFS was fortunate enough to recruit these skills through a new chair Sioned Jones, together with Stella Jones (marketing expertise) and Anne Cooper (fundraising expertise).
The trustees met monthly during the year to monitor the activities of the charity against its strategic objectives and review and amend these in light of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as carry out routine support, advice and governance of the charity. Each of these meetings was attended by Jamie Balfour-Paul, theFounder and de-facto CEO of the charity.
Management
Day to day management of the charity is carried out, on a voluntary basis by Jamie Balfour-Paul. He is also the charity’s humanitarian magician and for this work he is employed by the charity on a consultancy basis and is remunerated. He is supported in the charity’s management by the Trustees.
2. Objectives and Activities
The charitable objects of Magic for Smiles are: the relief and assistance of refugees and other vulnerable children in the Lebanon and other countries of the Middle East and beyond through the provision of magic as a form of entertainment and psychosocial support, with a view to the relief of stress and trauma and improving the lives of such persons.
As in 2019, the charity began the year continuing to focus on refugees (and host communities) in Jordan and Turkey and not Lebanon, as physical access was not possible. The focus remained on countries with the highest per capita refugee populations in the world. Nevertheless, the COVID pandemic, that started in March 2020, had a considerable impact on our activities as all travel to the region was stopped. The charity responded by moving its work online which also allowed it to broaden its reach to include Lebanon and the UK. The three objectives in place for the year were :
Objective 1 : MFS to become established regionally
Objective 2 : MFS to focus down on sustained partnerships as well as further consolidation of its spread in the region.
Objective 3: Successful funding secured from at least two trusts or foundations during 2020
The Trustees confirm they have given due regard to the Charity Commission’s published guidance on public benefit when determining the charities activities.
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3. Achievements and Performance,
Objective 1: Regional establishment
With the pandemic, MFS was not able to sustain partnerships with all previously engaged 13 organisations in Turkey and 10 organisations in Jordan but did manage to conduct the following 48 events benefiting 1574 children (430 pre-COVID and 1144 post COVID)
-
11 events pre COVID (with 5 partners) - 4 shows, 7 workshops
-
37 events during COVID (with 8 partners in the region including one in Gaza and 6 in the UK). – 14 shows, 13 workshops, and 10 private mostly tuition events for UK fundraising
Partnerships during COVID included two new partners in Turkey and six new partners in the UK. MFS was also able to resume events in Lebanon online by the end of 2020.
By way of comparison MFS conducted 59 events in 2019 all in the Middle East, and 8 fundraising events mostly talks benefiting 4055 children (of which 120 were in tuition workshops). Lower numbers of beneficiaries this year were not only due to COVID preventing the gathering of children but an increased amount of tuition workshops involving fewer children.
Feedback gathered through evaluations immediately after the events were restricted due to the online nature of events whereas face to face evaluations have proved much more effective and popular. Nevertheless, the key feedback was that the shows impact particularly on emotional benefits (especially entertainment, de-stressing and happiness), cognitive benefits (especially imagination) and social benefits (especially interaction, and self confidence in particular from tuition).
Objective 2: Sustained partnerships
The champion partners identified in 2019 (2 in Jordan and one in Turkey) for sustained integration of magic into programming were out of a target of two per country. However, during 2020 with the impact of the COVID pandemic, capacity for this kind of integration proved not possible as partners had so many other challenges related to loss of funding, and an obligation to focus where they could on basic activities such as online education. It is hoped that once the pandemic has lessened that more momentum in this area can be regained online and offline. The online expansion into Lebanon might provide further opportunities for sustained partnerships as could the UK and other countries we have begun to explore in 2021.
The greater presence of tuition workshops – alongside the production of tuition materials - also offers, for some, a more meaningful partnership.
Objective 3: Grant funding from two trusts and increased awareness
One additional Trust gave MFS a grant during the year compared to 2019, Furthermore, another UK refugee charity was instrumental in providing fundraising support. Opportunities for networking through seminars and conferences were reduced during the year with the lack of international conferences even online in which MFS could have contributed or was invited.
4. Financial review
Total income for the year 2020 was very similar to 2019 and stood at £16,271. The main source of income was small donations from the general public. In addition, the charity was awarded one grant of £5000 by the Borno Foundation and £1000 from Wallace Curzon
Expenditure in 2020 was slightly more than 2019 at £12,629. The majority of the expenditure is the payment of invoices and expenses to the humanitarian magician for delivering our services. Minimal costs were incurred on materials given the work was mostly online and there was no international travel.
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The charity has little overheads and therefore does not need significant reserves and therefore manages income and expenditure to deliver our services as planned and always have at least £200 in the charity account to cover the small commitments such as website hosting to ensure the continuation of the charity and its activities.
Fundraising:
Magic for Smiles raised the majority of its funds via donations from the general public, switching from Crowdfunder UK to JustGiving in August 2020 and has a donations button on its website. In partnership with the Sevenoaks Welcomes Refugees we ran a fundraiser event which raised £1,929.
We do not work with professional fundraisers.
5. Details of any funds held as a custodian trustee
No funds are held as a custodian trustee.
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Magic for Smiles
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Recei ts and a ments accou p p y
For the period 01/01/2020 To from
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted
Restricted funds
funds
to the nearest £ to the nearest £
Endowment funds to the nearest £
| A1 Receipts | 7,830 - 2,319 - - - - - 10,149 - - - 10,149 |
122 6,000 - - - - - - 6,122 - - - 6,122 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 7,830 | - | |
| Grants | - | - | |
| Earned income(payment for shows) | 2,319 | - | |
| - | - | ||
| - | - | ||
| - | - | ||
| - | - | ||
| - | - | ||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 10,149 | - | |
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||
| - | - | ||
| - | - | ||
| Sub total | - | - | |
| Total receipts | |||
| 10,149 | 6,122 | - |
A3 Payments
| Humanitarian Magiciian | 6,147 | 3,753 | - | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| International Travel | - | 2,369 | - | |||||||
| Website andpublicity | 200 | - | - | |||||||
| Membershipsubscription | 160 | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | ||||||||
| **Sub total ** | 6,507 | 6,122 | - | |||||||
| A4 Asset and investment | ||||||||||
| purchases, (see table) | ||||||||||
| - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | ||||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | - | |||||||
| Total payments | 6,507 | 6,122 | - | |||||||
| Net of receipts/(payments) | 3,642 | - | - | |||||||
| A5 Transfers between funds | - | - | - | |||||||
| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) A6 Cash funds last year end |
1 |
4,383 | - | 31/10/2021 - |
Cash funds this year end 8,025 - -
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
31/10/2021
2
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the perio
| Categories B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets |
Bank Account Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
Unrestricted funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|
| 8,025 | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| 8,025 | ||
| OK | ||
| Unrestricted funds to nearest £ |
||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - |
B3 Investment assets
| Fund to which asset | ||
|---|---|---|
| Details | belongs | |
| Fund to which asset | ||
| Details | belongs |
B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use
| Fund to which | |
|---|---|
| Details | liability relates |
B5 Liabilities
CCXX R3 accounts (SS)
~~31/10/2021~~
~~3~~
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
Signature Print N Sioned M
CCXX R4 accounts (SS)
31/10/2021
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182676
unts
CC16a
31/01/2020
Total funds
Last year
to the nearest £ to the nearest £
| 7,952 | - | |
|---|---|---|
| 6,000 | - | |
| 2,319 | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| 16,271 | - |
| - | ||
|---|---|---|
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| 16,271 | - |
| 9,900 | - | |
|---|---|---|
| 2,369 | - | |
| 200 | - | |
| 160 | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| 12,629 | - |
| - | ||
|---|---|---|
| - | ||
| - | - | |
| 12,629 | - | |
| 3,642 | - | |
| - | - | |
| ~~5~~ 4,383 |
- |
CCXX R5 accounts (SS)
31/10/2021
8,025 -
CCXX R6 accounts (SS)
31/10/2021
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od
| od | |
|---|---|
| Restricted funds to nearest £ - - - - OK Restricted funds to nearest £ - - - - - - |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| OK | |
| Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|
| - | - |
| - | - |
| - | - |
| - | - |
| - | - |
| - | - |
| Cost (optional) - - - - - |
Current value (optional) |
|---|---|
| - | - |
| - | - |
| - | - |
| - | - |
| - | - |
| ~~7~~ Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Amount due (optional) - |
Current value (optional) |
|---|---|
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| When due (optional) |
|
CCXX R7 accounts (SS)
31/10/2021
| - - - - Name M Jones |
|
|---|---|
| Date of approval | |
| 30/10/2021 | |
CCXX R8 accounts (SS)
31/10/2021
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