## **TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT**
## **For the period beginning: 1 January 2020**
**Ending: 31 December 2020**
Ref: TRTP-TAP-1
|**Charity name**
**Registered charity number**
**Charity's principal address**|THE ROAD TO PARITY|
|---|---|
|||
||
1187425|
|||
||
Office 4, Westminster Chambers|
||106 Lord St|
||Southport|
||PR8 1LF|
||Email:steps@theroadtoparity.org
Website:www.theroadtoparity.org|
## **TRUSTEES**
|**No.**|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year**|**Name of person (or body) entitled**
**to appoint trustee (if any)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|1|Jonathan Hill|Founder & Chair|||
|2|Richard Owens|Secretary|||
|3|Margaret Evison||||
## **ADVISORS**
|**ADVISORS**|**ADVISORS**|**ADVISORS**|
|---|---|---|
|**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|||
|India partner
representative|Sudeep Dube|Learning Links Foundation, Allied House, 2nd Floor, Near
B-7 Post office, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070|
|India partner
representative|Rashmi Mishra|Learning Links Foundation, Allied House, 2nd Floor, Near
B-7 Post office, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070|
|India partner
representative|Rashid Siddiqui|Learning Links Foundation, Allied House, 2nd Floor, Near
B-7 Post office, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070|
## **Structure, governance and management**
## **Trusts**
The charity is governed by a constitution document, dated 27 November Type of governing document 2019. The Road to Parity was initially set up as a community organisation. In How the charity is constituted January 2020, the Charities Commission for England and Wales granted the organisation registered charity status – as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Trustees to date have been appointed. However, the charity welcomes Trustee selection methods approaches from people not connected to existing trustees.
**TAR**
**2020**
1
## **Additional governance**
The Road to Parity currently works with one overseas partner. Learning Links Foundation in India provides on the ground support and is engaged through an agreed Memorandum of Understanding. The MOU specifies the nature of the partnership, responsibilities, expected outcomes and monies involved.
## **Objectives and activities**
To relieve poverty in developing countries through the provision of micro **Summary of the objects of the** grants to enable beneficiaries to participate in the local economy and **charity set out in governing** sustain themselves and their families in a manner that would otherwise **document** be beyond their reach. **Summary of main activities** The Road to Parity currently runs a poverty alleviation initiative in India **undertaken for the public** called Project Unnati. It is run in conjunction with partner, Learning Links **benefit in relation to objects** Foundation. Under Project Unnati, people in extreme poverty are given the opportunity to start a business with the help of a micro grant. Using a strict screening and monitoring process, entrepreneurs are provided with the equipment and supplies necessary to begin trading. Unlike many similar initiatives in developing nations, the small grant available through Project Unnati is not a loan and does not need to be repaid. TRTP believes people in extreme poverty have suffered enough. The project was named _Unnati_ (meaning progress) after one of the first beneficiaries said she felt her new business would bring prosperity to her family after years of desperate poverty. While TRTP currently only has a presence in India, the charity’s longterm plans are to expand to other developing countries.
**TAR**
**2020**
2
**Additional details of objectives and activities**
Project Unnati takes a three-pronged approach:
## **Identifying and selecting beneficiaries:**
Slum and street market areas of the Indian capital, Delhi, are visited to identify aspiring entrepreneurs among the slum and pavement dwellers. Details of prospective beneficiaries are captured in a pre-defined format. Once the details are captured, a screening process starts.
Beneficiaries are screened using a strict points system. At its core is identifying people in extreme poverty – households who have been scraping an existence on around £10 or less, per person, per month.
Other factors considered include helping the poorly educated, sole breadwinners supporting large families, the physically and mentally challenged, women, victims of domestic violence, and young men struggling on unstable labouring income while supporting families - effectively trapping them in extreme poverty.
## **Finalise business needs and secure required equipment/stock:**
Once a beneficiary has been identified, a discussion takes place on the equipment, supplies and stock that are required to get the business off the ground. Once this is agreed with the entrepreneur, the necessary items are sourced and procured. This supervised process is eased for recurrent business themes, such as the popular vegetable carts and boiled egg stalls. The average grant awarded is around £52.
## **Three months ‘hand holding’ support:**
Each beneficiary receives support to ensure their fledgling enterprise succeeds, such as guidance on record keeping, negotiation skills, handling customers and marketing. This three-month period of support helps overcome initial challenges and provides a path for success. It is made clear from the start that the grant is one-off assistance and there is no coming back for more money.
## **Achievements and performance**
Despite the hurdles created by Covid 19 in 2020, a total of 32 businesses **Summary of the main** were set up during the year. This follows on from the 8 enterprises **achievements during the year** established in late 2019 at the beginning of Project Unnati (meaning progress). The beneficiaries - often illiterate and without any prior business experience - were helped to set up a variety of enterprises, including tailoring and ironing businesses, and stalls selling popular items, such as shawls and dupattas, cosmetics, hosiery, children’s clothes, vegetables, and snacks.
All businesses so far have been started in slum districts of the Indian capital, Delhi with assistance from TRTP’s partner in India, Learning Links Foundation. LLF’s input has been particularly valuable as they have carefully navigated the evolving Covid restrictions to ensure beneficiaries could begin trading as soon as possible.
**TAR**
**2020**
3
## **Achievements and performance**
|**Type** **of business**|**Number of businesses**|
|---|---|
|Chowmein and roll shop|2|
|Boiled eggs and omelette stall|1|
|Vegetable pushcart|4|
|Hosiery items and children’s wear|4|
|Crockery stall|1|
|Cosmetics stall|3|
|Fabric stall|1|
|Tailoring business|5|
|Food and breakfast stall|1|
|Ladies’suit fabric|1|
|Boiled egg stall|3|
|Tea stall|1|
|Momos and fritters stall|1|
|Dupatta and shawl stall|1|
|Ladies’suit stitching business|1|
|Gas ironing venture|1|
|Cosmetic/household goods stall|1|
|**Total businesses in 2020**|**32**|
|**Total businesses so far**|**40**|
|||
In 2020, 26 of the entrepreneurs were women and six were men. In 2019, there were four female-run businesses and four set up by men.
## **OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2020**
**In February,** The Road to Parity announced it had been granted registered charity status by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. There are different legal structures for a charity. TRTP opted for becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), which means fewer administration requirements - freeing up more time and money to help the poor.
**In June** , following the establishment of seven businesses in November 2019, the results of a review were published into how the micro grantbased model was working. It is important to highlight that many beneficiaries are illiterate and have no prior business experience. The findings showed:
- None of the businesses established failed
- Household incomes increased by 13% to 120%
- Household incomes increased on average by 65%
- Businesses benefitted households of up to 9 people
- The average grant provided was £52 (66 USD)
- Data was based on a 3-month pre-Covid period
**In July,** once the business model had been shown to work, donation channels were opened in readiness for a charity fund-raising challenge. On 11 July, The Road to Parity’s Founder, Jonathan Hill, began cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Daily updates on the solo, unsupported trip were posted on Facebook and a total of £2,356 was raised, exceeding the £1,500 target. A dedicated image gallery was set up within theroadtoparity.org reflecting the 24-day, 932-mile adventure.
**TAR**
**2020**
4
## **Achievements and performance**
The money raised during this challenge has funded many of this year’s entrepreneurs with the remainder to be used in early 2021.
**In August** , Kohinoor’s was among the many beneficiary stories shared throughout the year. Here is the story that was posted on social media illustrating the nature of the charity’s work.
It reads: _Kohinoor was already in poverty with 4 children when her husband – earning a pittance as a labourer – was killed in a road accident._
_When her only brother and sister-in-law died through chronic illnesses, she had to take on another 4 children. Kohinoor lives in a Delhi slum, and with her father and mother under the same roof, there were 11 mouths to feed on a domestic helper’s salary._
Image: Kohinoor with her vegetable stall in Delhi
_So, you can imagine how much her face lit up when we discovered her and told her about Project Unnati, which we run with our partner in India, Learning Links Foundation._
_Kohinoor said she’d love to have a vegetable stall. With a grant of £58 (USD 77), we helped get her started; a cart, weighing scales and some stock. Now, Kohinoor buys vegetables from a wholesale market early in the morning – does her domestic helper job during the day – and returns to her business to sell vegetables in the evening. Full of pride, she reports already doubling household income._
**TAR**
**2020**
5
## **Financial review**
|**Brief statement of the**
**charity’s policy on reserves**
**Details of any funds materially**
**in deficit**
**Further financial review**
**details**||As the charity provides only one-off grants, there are no ongoing
programme costs in the field. Once the businesses have been set up,
they operate on a commercial basis and are self-sustaining. This
minimises the necessity for reserves.|As the charity provides only one-off grants, there are no ongoing
programme costs in the field. Once the businesses have been set up,
they operate on a commercial basis and are self-sustaining. This
minimises the necessity for reserves.|
|---|---|---|---|
|||There has not been a financial deficit since TRTP was set up in
November 2018.||
|||The charity opened fund raising channels in July 2020, once the
programme model had been tested in the field with positive results.
The principal source of funds in 2020 was donations from members of
the public. The main fund-raising activity was a cycling challenge from
Land’s End to John O’Groats during July and August.
Expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity by
addressing poverty in developing countries by enabling beneficiaries to
become self-sustaining in the local economy.
The main expenses for the year – aside from issuing grants – were back-
office support, website charges and field expenses, including 70% of an
outreach salary. This is to secure the time of an individual who is
otherwise committed to projects through his principal employer, Learning
Links Foundation. All other staff involved with the charity work on a
voluntary basis.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records
which disclose with reasonable accuracy the charity’s financial position.
Trustees ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charity
Commission's SORP 2005.
Due to Covid restrictions in India, not all funds could be dispersed to
beneficiaries in 2020, resulting in a higher-than-expected balance of
£987 on 31 December 2020.
**Total income**
£3,888
**Total expenditure**(including grant provision)
£2,901
**Bank balance**as of 31 December 2020
£987||
|||**Total income**|£3,888|
|||**Total expenditure**(including grant provision)|£2,901|
|||**Bank balance**as of 31 December 2020|£987|
|||||
## **Declaration**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
## **Signature(s)**
**Full name(s)** Jonathan Hill **Position (eg Secretary, Chair,** Chair **etc)**
**Date** 17 September 2022
**TAR**
**2020**
6
**No (if any)**
**THE ROAD TO PARITY**
## **Receipts and payments accounts**
**For the period** 1/1/2020 12/31/2020 **To from**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
**Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total funds funds funds funds to the nearest to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ £**
**to the nearest £ to the nearest £**
## **A1 Receipts**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
DONATIONS 3,888 - - 3,888
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
3,888 - - 3,888
Sub total (Gross income for AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - -
Total receipts 3,888 - - 3,888
A3 Payments
DONATIONS 2,901 - - 2,901
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ 2,901 ] - - 2,901
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - -
Total payments 2,901 - - 2,901
Net of receipts/(payments) 987 - - 987
A5 Transfers between funds - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end - - - -
Cash funds this year end 987 - - 987
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
||||**Unrestricted**||**Restricted**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Categories**|**Details**||**funds**||**funds**|
|**B1 Cash funds**|BANK|**_Total cash funds_**|**to nearest £**
**987**
**-**
**-**
**987**|
|**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|
||(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))||OK|OK||
||||**Unrestricted**||**Restricted**|
||||**funds**||**funds**|
|**B2 Other monetary assets**|**Details**||**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|
|**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|
|**B3 Investment assets**|**Details**||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**|**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**||
|**B4 Assets retained for the**|**Details**||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**|**Cost (optional)**
**-**||
|**charity’s own use**||||
|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|
|**B5 Liabilities**|**Details**||**Fund to which**
**liability relates**|
|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**|
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
Signature
Print Name
I HILL
**----- Start of picture text -----**
CC16a
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **Last year**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
## **Endowment funds**
**to nearest £ - - - -**
OK
**Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - - -**
**Current value (optional) - - - - -**
**Current value (optional) - - - - - - - - -**
**When due (optional)**
Date of approval
1011612022