## – Cofn Club Colchester Registered Charity 1182860 Annual Report 2024/25 

Coffin Clubs help people to reclaim a participatory relationship with death and build strong, supportive communities where people can have frank conversations and reflect on their future with camaraderie. We empower people and help them understand their choices and options for low-cost funeral planning. 

Coffin Club UK is based on a model that has successfully run in New Zealand for a number of years. It is for elderly people, people who are terminally ill, or their carer’s, and for anyone interested to come and work out their funeral wish-list, plan and cost their funeral and learn what steps they can take now in regards to advancing years/end of life admin that will help their loved ones in the future. 

Coffin Club Colchester Registered Charity 1182860 is affiliated with, although financially separate from, Coffin Club UK through which it receives support and advice and whose Patron is the actress, Miriam Margolyes. It seeks to gain its own independent financial support in order to run a club in Colchester thus widening the impact. 

We are the first Coffin Club in Essex! 

Coffin Club Colchester aims to run its free 6-day courses in Spring (culminating in ‘Dying Matters Awareness Week’) and Autumn (culminating in Mexican Day or the Dead) each year mirroring its successful Autumn 2019 course when we had 13 participants, two of whom decorated their own coffins!  The attendees enjoy talks, Q & A and discussion about elements of their ‘Funeral Wish List’ each week, an example is shown below: 

Week 1  – ‘There’s more than one choice for your final farewell’ course overview – Independent Civil Celebrant 

Week 2 – Manager of Oakfield Wood, Natural Burial Ground, Wrabness 

Week 3 – Manager of the Local Crematorium & Cemetery 

Week 4 – Local Independent family run Funeral Directors 

Week 5 – Organ & Body Donation 

Week 6 – Lawyer specialising in End-of-life administrative planning including Wills, Probate, Advance Directives, Enduring Power of Attorney etc 

Coffin Club Colchester has its own website www.cofnclubcolchester.co.uk, and a social media presence on Facebook. 

During this annual reporting year, Coffin Club Colchester received a donation of £40 from Mr P***r Bl*****n and we are very grateful to Matthew Edwards for his continuing support in providing the refreshments for our courses. 

Our Spring course 2024 went ahead with 5 ‘clubbers’ in our usual venue of Community360, Winsley’s House, High Street, Colchester. 

Coffin Club Colchester offers free (non-financial) support to individuals and families at risk of funeral poverty* by supporting people in their applications for government monies and/or helping them to crowdfund or apply for grants from charitable bodies to alleviate their financial burden and where appropriate take councils to task over their statutory duties for public health funerals. 



Coffin Club Colchester is an active member of Compassionate Communities, Tendring Older Persons Forum and Compassionate Cities (Colchester) and have utilised services and networking opportunities through Community Voluntary Services Tendring and Community 360. 

Jenny Edwards, Beth Hatwell and Josh Price (the current Trustees of Coffin Club Colchester) are all happy to stand again at the AGM scheduled for 28th May 2024. 

Coffin Club Colchester looks forward to continuing to open up the once taboo subject of death and dying, giving a voice to the merits of having those conversations with your loved ones and encouraging healthy debate about various elements of our comprehensive ‘Funeral Wish List’. 

*funeral poverty is where the price of a funeral is beyond a person's ability to pay 



Accounts for Cofn Club Colchester Registered Charity: 1182860 from 6th April 2024 – 5 th April 2025 

## Opening Balance £1865 

## Receipts and Payments 

Receipts 

|Unrestricted funds to||||Total funds to|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|The nearest £||||the nearest £|
|‘Start Up’ fund pledged by|Trustees|£    0||£    0|
|Donatons||£  40||£  40|
|Grants||£    0||£    0|
|Cofns||£    0||£    0|
|Gif Aid|£    0||£    0||
|Other income||£   17||£  17|
||||Total to 5thApril 2025|£  57|
|Payments|||||
|Charity PLI||£       0||£      0|
|Afliatons||£     10||£    10|
|Speakers Expenses||£   173||£  173|
|Advertsing (incl. website/Stand)||£   300||£  300|
|Cofns||£       0||£      0|
|Training (incl. room hire)||£   180||£  180|
|Sundries||£       7||£      7|
|Start Up Funds pledged by|Trustees|£   400||£  400|
||||Total to 5thApril 2025|£1070|
|Opening Balance||£1865|||
|Total Receipts||£     57|||
|Less payments||£1070|||
|Remaining||£  852|||