31/03/2021
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Braillists Foundation Annual Report
## Braillists Foundation CIO
## Annual Report for the Period 07/01/2020 to 31/03/2021
## Trustees
The following people served as Trustees during the financial period:
- Dave Williams (Chair)
- Matthew Horspool (Secretary, and Treasurer from 22/01/2021)
- Ed Rogers (Treasurer to 22/01/2021)
- Ilka Staeglin (appointed 14/01/2020)
- Ben Mustill-Rose (appointed 06/05/2020)
## Staff and Contractors
There were three designated paid roles during the financial period: Community Campaigner, Course Manager and Equipment Manager. All three roles were filled on a self-employment basis, with staff responsible for their own tax, national insurance, holiday and sick pay.
The role of Community Campaigner was held by two people during its lifetime, but the first person resigned within the first four weeks of employment and no remuneration was provided.
In addition, the Foundation procured the services of a freelance transcriber for which remuneration was arranged in line with industry practices.
## Income and Expenditure
The vast majority of the Foundation's income was obtained through grant funding and all expenditure was made against these grants.
Less than 3% of the Foundation's income was obtained through individual donations and less than 1% through Credit Union interest.
No trustees received any remuneration from the Foundation during the financial period.
## Decision-Making and Supervision
The Trustees met 17 times during the financial period, settling into a pattern of one meeting per month, with meetings lasting an hour on average. No meetings were declared inquorate and all business was ratified in meetings, although discussions took place by email outside meetings from time to time.
At least two trustees met with staff and volunteers on a weekly basis, except where sickness absence or holiday prevented this.
## Activities and Achievements
The following activities and achievements occurred during the financial period:
- Launch of free Masterclasses to improve competency amongst braille users
- Delivery of two free "Braille for Beginners" courses
- Provision of opportunities for braille users to talk with producers and experts in the field
- Formation of a braille Book Club to allow braillists to practice their reading
- Continued upkeep of the Braillists email forum for braille users to exchange advice and support
The Braillists Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales, no. 1187244
31/03/2021
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Braillists Foundation Annual Report
- Creation of additional email groups for beneficiaries of "Braille for Beginners" and Book Club
- Distribution of low cost braille equipment
- Increased frequency in publication of the Braillecast podcast
- Provision of personalised and personable email support
- Increased use of social media to promote Braillists activities and engage with braille users, especially Facebook and Twitter
- Training, technical support and signposting to enable the Tactile Times newspaper to begin hard copy production
- Weekly community support Zoom calls in response to the Coronavirus pandemic
- Weekly mindfulness Zoom calls in response to the Coronavirus pandemic
The estimated reach of the Braillists Foundation is currently 1500, comprised predominantly of blind and partially sighted people, but also including teachers and other professionals supporting braille users.
## Future Plans
In 2021-22, the Braillists plans to build on the work undertaken in 2020-21. In particular, we hope to:
- Continue with Masterclasses, the Book Club, the email forum and the Braillecast podcast
- Introduce a "Braille Bar" drop-in service
- Extend our support services to encompass social media
- Complete text transcripts for all recorded media to facilitate access for people who are deafblind
- Offer our content to people who cannot access the internet
- Improve the discoverability of our content for people who can access the internet
- Improve "Braille for Beginners"
- Be present at key face-to-face conferences and events as they arise
The Braillists Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales, no. 1187244
||**The Braillists Foundation CIO**|**The Braillists Foundation CIO**|**The Braillists Foundation CIO**|**The Braillists Foundation CIO**|**The Braillists Foundation CIO**|**1187244**|**1187244**|**CC16a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**For the period**
**from**||Period start date
07/01/2020||**To**|Period end date
31/03/2021|||
||||||||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||||||
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**||**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|Grants|**-**||**10,000**||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**10,000**||**-**|
|Donations|**353**||**-**|||**353**||**-**|
|Interest|**6**||**-**|||**6**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|
**359**||**10,000**||**-**|**10,359**||**-**|
||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||||
||**-**||||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|||
||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**|||||||||
||||||**-**|**10,359**||**-**|
||||||||||
|Staff|**-**||**4,960**||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**4,960**||**-**|
|Contractors|**-**||**116**|||**116**||**-**|
|Donated Equipment|**-**||**1,646**|||**1,646**||**-**|
|Stock items for future donation|**-**||**500**|||**500**||**-**|
|Postage|**-**||**35**|||**35**||**-**|
|Infrastructure|**-**||**144**|||**144**||**-**|
|Memberships|**-**||**50**|||**50**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**||**7,451**||**-**|**7,451**||**-**|
||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||||
||**-**||||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|||
||**-**|||||**-**|||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
|**_Total payments_ **
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||||
||||||**-**|**7,451**||**-**|
||||||||||
||**359**||||**-**|**2,907**||**-**|
||**-**||||**-**
**-**|**-**||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
||**359**||||**-**|**2,907**||**-**|
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
16/11/2021
1
|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of**|**the period**||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Stock items for future donation
Bristol Credit Union
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Signature|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**359**
**2,549**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**359**
**2,549**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**500**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||OK|
|||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
|||||Date of
approval|
||||||
||||||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
16/11/2021
2