2022-10-31-accounts - Centre For Enabling Ea Learning & Research

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Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research (CEEALAR) 36 York Street, Blackpool, FY1 5AQ Charity registration number: 1189768 Ceealar.org contact@ceealar.org 07863146329

Annual Report 2021/22

We are a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), controlled by three trustees - Gregory Hamish Colbourn (hereafter, Greg Colbourn), Florent Berthet and Peter Alexander Cooper. Day-to-day management of the organisation is directed by our Executive Director (Greg Colbourn), and managed by our Operations Manager(s) and Community Manager. Our organisation structure is shown (as of October 2022) in the figure below:

The trusteeship has remained the same since the founding of the organisation. However, we remain open to recruiting new trustees (in addition to the current three, or replacing any one of us if one of us were to leave), and have in the past reached out to various supporters of the project in this regard.

We make grants to individuals and charities in the form of providing free or subsidised serviced accommodation and board, and a moderate stipend for other living expenses. The Trustees apply the charity’s funds in accordance with the charitable purposes and objectives of the charity. Namely:

To advance education, learning and research in all fields of academic study through the provision of free or subsidised living accommodation to those undertaking such learning and research.
To promote the efficiency and effectiveness of charities and the efficient use of charitable resources for the public benefit by promoting the study of efficient use of charitable resources.
To advance such other purposes which are exclusively charitable according to the law in England and Wales as the trustees may from time to time determine.

Our funding comes from individual donors (primarily those associated with the global Effective Altruism community) and grants from philanthropic foundations; to date: Survival and Flourishing Fund, and FTX Future Fund. Regarding the latter, we were dismayed by the events of November 2022 surrounding the collapse of FTX, and condemn the actions of Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX/Alameda inner circle. We reported this as a serious incident to the Charity Commission, and await further developments. We will keep abreast of the situation for the next 6 years and assume it is safe after that should there be no further developments in relation to our grant in that time.

Our activities this year (the year this report covers, 1 Nov 2021 - 31 Oct 2022) have primarily been those related to our core objectives of providing education and research opportunities to our grantees, by hosting them at our building in Blackpool. In the year to come (1 Nov 2022 - 31 Oct 2023), we have primarily been doing the same. Following last year’s report, Greg Colbourn has been continuing to oversee the renovation of the adjoining property, that he owns, with a view to donating it to us (CEEALAR) so as to expand our capacity (from being able to host 14-18 grantees concurrently, to being able to host around 30 concurrently). It is expected that this process will be completed by the end of the year (before 31 Oct 2023).

Our achievements are summarised on our Outputs page: ceealar.org/outputs. This year contained a period of building maintenance, where we closed our doors to new grantees from mid-May to the end of July 2022, and had a limited number of grantees for the remainder of the year to 31 October 2022. Of note, we had grantees accepted to the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative Machine Learning Alignment Theory Scholars (SERI MATS) program, and the Principles of Intelligent Behaviour in Biological and Social Systems (PIBBSS) Fellowship, after spending time learning relevant material around AI existential risk during our hosting of them.

In the coming year (FY 2022/23, to 31 October 2023), we have the following objectives:
Maintain income from donations and grants to a level where we have at least 6 months’ reserves, aiming toward 12 months reserves if possible. Last year we did not achieve this, dropping below 6 months’ reserves before a significant grant came in in May 2022.
Increase our average occupancy rate by grantees (down during building maintenance) to a level where we are maximising the efficiency of our resources (building and staff). This would be preferably 80% (to leave contingency for accepting promising grantees when they apply). We achieved last year’s objective of increasing average occupancy rate following the pandemic, and, as of March 2023 (continuing to the time of writing, August 2023), increased average occupancy to ~80%.
Increase our capacity for hosting grantees by 70% by expanding to the adjoining property. As of August 2023 we are on target to achieve this by October 2023.
Maintain the percentage of grantees going on to develop their career in a manner that is focused on maximising public benefit (this could be further study, internships, work at charitable organisations within the Effective Altruism community and beyond). This has been a motivation of ours from our founding. We are however, cognizant of the fact that many of our grantees are at an early stage of their career, or making a career transition, and are therefore experimenting to some degree, so it cannot be expected that all will succeed. Because of this we feel that an ongoing rate of 50% for this objective is appropriate and achievable.

Financially, we are currently down to 6 months of operating expenses (as of August 2023), but are hopeful that we will receive significant grants within the next couple of months. As of the end of this year (October 2022), we had 6 months’ operating expenses in reserves. We aim to maintain at least this level of operating reserves throughout the next year (until October 2023), and preferably increase this to a minimum of 12 months’ operating expenses, but this is conditional on receiving further grants from previous supporters, and the nature of our income being blocked into significant grants means that it is difficult to maintain reserves at a stable level. Reserves are held in cash. If we reach greater than 12 months operating reserves, we intend to develop a (low risk) investment strategy, with the aim of preserving the value of our reserves relative to inflation. We have no debts. We do not hold any funds as a custodian trustee.

In our last Annual Review, we addressed a number of recommendations for improvement from the independent examiner’s report on our accounts (see third to last paragraph). We can confirm that these have been actioned in full. We have a financial controls policy, that specifies thresholds above which payments need to be dual-authorised. To facilitate this, we are in the process of applying (as of August 2023) for a new bank account that allows this (our current bank account nominally has dual-authorisation, but it doesn’t work correctly, allowing a single person to authorise using two devices). The Trustees have approved the accounts accompanying this report.

In carrying out its activities in the year under review, the Trustees confirm that they have complied with their duties under Section 17 of the Charities Act 2011, to have regard for the public benefit guidance issued by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Specifically, the Trustees confirm that they have strived to ensure that the two conditions of achieving public benefit are met: 1) that there are identifiable benefits to our work, and 2) that the benefits are to the public or a section of the public. Please refer to our objectives, listed above, which explain the nature of our work in relation to meeting the public benefit requirement.

Approved by the members of the board of Trustees on 31st August 2023, and signed on their behalf by:

Dr Gregory Hamish Colboum 311812023

Profit and Loss

Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research For the year ended 31 October 2022

Profit and Loss Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research For the year ended 31 October 2022
	2022
Turnover
Donations Received	55,341.04
Grant Income	99,305.65
Total Turnover	154,646.69
Cost of Sales
Cost of Goods Sold	200.24
Direct Expenses	21,849.09
Direct Wages	57,039.16
Total Cost of Sales	79,088.49
Gross Profit	75,558.20
Administrative Costs
Audit & Accountancy fees	8,663.23
Bank Fees	428.56
Bank Revaluations	(2,645.42)
Charitable and Political Donations	(1,500.00)
Cleaning & Waste	2,614.91
Equip Expensed	1,662.00
Furniture	45.06
FX Gain / Loss	(65.75)
General Expenses	894.74
Insurance	1,800.00
IT Software and Consumables	1,492.09
Legal Expenses	2,691.00
Light, Power, Heating	14,138.52
Pensions Costs	603.55
Printing & Stationery	60.38
Repairs & Maintenance	13,665.35
Staff Training	684.61
Subsistence	345.12
Telephone & Internet	7,232.73
Travel - International	768.09
Travel - National	95.37
Total Administrative Costs	53,674.14
Operating Profit	21,884.06
Profit on Ordinary Activities Before Taxation	21,884.06
Profit after Taxation	21,884.06

Profit and Loss Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research

Balance Sheet

Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research As at 31 October 2022

Balance Sheet Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research As at 31 October 2022	Balance Sheet Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research As at 31 October 2022
31 OCT 2022
Fixed Assets
	Tangible Assets
	Buildings 135,000.00
	Total Tangible Assets 135,000.00
Total Fixed Assets 135,000.00 Current Assets
	Cash at bank and in hand
	Analyzed Non-Profit Checking 24,899.58
	CENTRE FOR ENABLING EA LEARNIN 47,785.42
	GBP PayPal 5,214.82
	WISE EUR 31.19
	WISE GBP 2,284.00
	WISE USD 261.54
	Total Cash at bank and in hand 80,476.55
	Cryto Balance 8,413.21
Total Current Assets 88,889.76 Creditors: amounts falling due withinone year
Directors' Loan Account 89,649.43
Total Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 89,649.43
Net Current Assets (Liabilities) (759.67)
Total Assets less Current Liabilities 134,240.33
Net Assets 134,240.33 Capital and Reserves
Capital - x,xxx Ordinary Shares 1.00
Current Year Earnings 21,884.06
Retained Earnings (22,644.73)
Revaluation Reserve 135,000.00
Total Capital and Reserves 134,240.33

Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research

Balance Sheet

SECTION A	Independent Examiners Report	Independent Examiners Report	Independent Examiners Report
	CENTRE FOR ENABLING EA LEARNING & RESEARCH 31/10/2022 Charity No 1189768
Report to the trustees / members of	CENTRE FOR ENABLING EA LEARNING & RESEARCH
On accounts for the year ended	31/10/2022	Charity No	1189768

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/10/2022

Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent The charity’s gross income exceeded £50,000 and I am qualified to undertake the examination by being a qualified member of CIMA

examiner's statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination. Please consider recommendations listed under SECTION B.

I have no material concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

reached.

SIGNED:
NAME:	Kamran Hussain
DATE:	30/08/2023
PROFESSION:AL BODY:	CIMA
MEMBERSHIP NUMBER:	1-7AS9HR
ADDRESS:	Room 23 Rosehill Business Centre Normanton Road Derby DE23 6RH

Oct 2018

IER

SECTION B

Disclosure

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose.	Recommendations for improvement this year: Recommendations for improvement Carried forward:

Oct 2018

IER