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2025-03-31-accounts

ALFIESWISH.ORG.UK

CONTENTS

2 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDERS

As we look back over the past year, we continue to be proud of how much Alfie’s Wish continues to grow. With that growth, however, comes a deeper understanding of the increasing challenges facing the families we support. The need for our charity has never been greater, and we remain committed in ensuring that children with cancer and their families remain at the heart of everything we do.

The ongoing rise in the cost of living is affecting families more than ever. The average monthly cost of having a child with cancer has increased from £600 to £750 which is a significant financial burden at an already devastating time. When families are forced to prioritise household bills and travel costs, the opportunity to create lasting memories becomes even harder to reach.

On top of this, the cost of trips, days out, and special experiences has risen sharply, placing even more pressure on parents who simply want to give their child a moment to smile. These moments matter. They bring comfort, smiles and relief during a journey that no family should ever have to take.

This is why Alfie’s Wish is here. Our role is to lift some of that weight and take away as much stress as possible, giving families the chance to step away from hospital life and make precious memories together. We see firsthand the difference this makes, the joy, the hope, and the sense of normality it brings, even if just for a day.

None of this would be possible without the extraordinary generosity of our supporters. Your kindness allows us to continue delivering this vital support at a time when families need it more than ever.

With our heartfelt thanks,

James & Charlotte Butler (Alfie’s Parents)

3 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

VISION AND MISSION

4 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

HIGHLIGHTS AND SUCCESSES

This report covers the period April 2024 to March 2025. During the year we received 117 referrals (down from the 159 referrals 2023-24). This was a result of the conscious decision to focus our geographic reach to the South of England (previously all of the UK).

We arranged 103 special experiences for families living with cancer (down from 144 in 2024-25). The top memory-making locations continue to be theatre shows, zoo visits and major theme parks and attractions.

5 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

PRIORITIES

Alfie’s Wish was formed with the simple goal of making memories. Helping families through their darkest hours by enabling them to create moments of happiness.

In our earlier years, we set about creating the foundations for a successful future. Making sure the charity evolved in a carefully managed and sustainable way.

This year we wanted to do more for our families and help forge stronger, more impactful links. We continued to develop and grow our corporate funder relationships and our fundraising activities and events grew in both size, variety and complexity.

We recognised that we would need to bolster our administrative function to help us meet current and future demand and deliver efficient and effective back-office support.

“Don’t count the days, make the days count”.

6 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

PRIORITY 1 FAMILY SUPPORT

It’s why we’re here

Helping families living with cancer create magical memories through experiences at a range of attractions and events. And we want to do as much as we can to help.

Alfie’s Wish exists to support as many families as possible. Since 2020, we’ve now helped to create memories for almost 400 families. This year, we took the strategic decision to consolidate our hospital network to those based in London and the South East of England.

This has enabled us to develop deeper relationships with hospitals and families as we are better able to build trust and rapport. Ultimately this has helped us deliver better memorymaking experiences.

7 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

PRIORITY 2 CORPORATE RELATIONSHIPS

All fundraisers are important

Since our early beginnings, we have been staggered by the love and support of our many and varied fundraisers who have walked, ran, climbed, boxed and sky-dived their way towards raising valuable memory-making funds.

Many of our fundraisers are active year after year, but it would not be prudent to overly rely on such loyalty.

For the future health of the charity, it is important to diversify funding sources and the corporate sector holds much potential.

Developing links

Business networking forms an important focus for our operational manager. Membership of formal networks such as the Hampshire Business network group and BNI Hampshire have helped to connect with like-minded professionals and to raise the charity profile.

Experience has been gained working with Blue Chip corporate partners. This has helped us to better understand how big business manages philanthropic activity. We have been able to network with employees and this has directly benefitted fundraising. Having these experiences under our belt enhances our credibility and our ability to engage with other reputable and major businesses.

Links have been established during the year in the private education sector, the leisure sector, hospitality, finance and investment industries. Connections with professional athletes and sporting clubs has also been achieved.

The experience gained by our management team in navigating these new challenges will prove extremely valuable going forwards.

8 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

PRIORITY 3 OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

Creating a sustainable operational environment

Running a charity involves managing many moving parts. Planning, preparation, organising and recording. All functions need to work efficiently and effectively in order to meet the high compliance standards expected and deliver the best outcomes for all our stakeholders.

Personnel

The charity experienced strong and continuing growth throughout the 2024/25 reporting period. Fundraising activities grew substantially in both size and complexity as evidenced by the incredible increase in fundraising revenue.

We successfully delivered our first large scale fundraising event, our Great Gatsby themed charity ball. This was attended by over 160 guests but took months of planning.

In response to the growing administrative requirements, we took on a part-time administrator in March 2025.

Compliance

We continued to develop polices and procedures to meet our operational needs and reinforce our compliance requirements. We moved onto the Xero accounting system which helped streamline our financial reporting.

Focusing effort

Availability and bandwidth of key personnel was a major limiting factor. The Board of Trustees considered the case for investment in both support staff resource and a customer relationship system to help professionalise back-office support. The benefits of both of these investments will start to be realised in the next reporting period.

9 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

FUTURE PLANS

Opportunities

Challenges

• Sustainable geographic footprint – a strategic decision was made by the Board of Trustees in the year to change the reach of the charity from the whole of the UK to the South of England and London. This was done to put the charity on a more sustainable footing.

10 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

TRUSTEES AND KEY PERSONNEL

Trustees and operational management

Introducing our Trustees and Management team who served during the year.

During the year, Louise Thompson stepped down as Trustee. The Board thanks Louise for her contribution and dedication to the charity. In March 2025, the operational team welcomed Kerrie King into a part-time role. Kerrie’s appointment reflects the strong growth in activity and the importance placed on robust charity management.

All Trustees and charity management have due regard for the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance.

11 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

FUNDRAISING HIGHLIGHTS

Events

16 events, 425 participants, 53 volunteers. Some of the many highlights are presented below. We once again take this opportunity to thank every single one of our fundraisers – we could not make memories without you.

April 2024: Wishy our mascot joined in the ABP Southampton marathon event supporting our fundraising effort to raise over £5,000.

May 2024: Our first charity ball – ‘The Great Gatsby’ themed evening saw 182 attendees

attend a glittering sponsored event raising almost £19,000.

July 2024: We hosted our 3[rd] Golf Day at the Ampfield golf club. A whopping £10,000 was raised. 176 golfers and our patron David Prutton was able to join us.

July 2024: Sky diving heroics from a brave team of 6 who leapt from a plane at 15,000 feet raising £2,304 in the process.

August 2024: 5 plucky gentlemen took on the 3 peaks challenge and scaled dizzying fundraising heights helping to raise £3,100 [background image].

September 2024: A dragon boat racing event took place featuring several children’s cancer charities as part of cancer awareness month. We entered 3 teams and raised over £5,000.

September 2024: Walk the Test Way – our first year taking part and we had 55 walkers ranging from 5 to 26 miles. Solo walkers, teams and corporate sponsors all represented raising a collective £2,612.

November 2024: Jacob Adams donned boxing gloves, entered the ring and helped to raise £945 in a charity boxing match.

November 2024 – Dave Moteane took on the Beast Challenge running 465 miles in 1 month – raised £4,665 for Alfie’s Wish.

December 2024 – We were chosen by Chris Woods as one of his charities he would be supporting during his cricket testimonial year for Hampshire. A Testimonial Dinner at Lords helped raise £3,750.

Dec 2024 – Took part in the BIG Give Christmas challenge raising £21,000 in 7 days (£10,000 donated by Hampshire Cricket Foundation – we had to get matching donors).

12 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

FINANCIAL SUMMARY: INCOME 2024-25 £167,815

13 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

FINANCIAL SUMMARY: EXPENDITURE 2024-25 £117,667

14 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES: REFERRALS

Note from August 2024, the geographic focus of the charity switched from being all of the UK to the South of England.

15 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES: FUNDED

Note from August 2024, the geographic focus of the charity switched from being all of the UK to the South of England.

16 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

ALFIESWISH.ORG.UK

Charity registration number: 1191020

Alfie’s Wish is a charitable incorporated organisation Principle address: 6 Minchin Road, Romsey, Hampshire SO51 0BL

17 ALFIE’S WISH ANNUAL REPORT 2024-25

Alfies Wish Alfies Wish 1191020 1191020 1191020 CC16a
For the period
from		 01/04/2024 To 31/03/2025
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 £
Donations 42,863 - - 42,863 33,595
Gift aid recovered 1,147 - - 1,147 -
Fundraisingevents 106,945 - - 106,945 79,172
Grants 15,280 - - 15,280 -
Interest on deposit accounts 1,564 - - 1,564 48
Sales 17 - - 17 -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total(Gross income for
AR)
167,816		 - - 167,816 112,815
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
-
- -
Sub total - -
Total receipts
A3 Payments
112,815
Charitable activities 32,027 - - 32,027 42,520
Cost of fundraisingevents 32,113 - - 32,113 19,782
Wages,salaries and national insurance 34,742 - - 34,742 26,851
Pension contributions 2,024 - - 2,024 1,430
Advertising,Marketingand Networking 7,724 - - 7,724 3,047
Business Entertaining 35 - - 35 80
General Expenses 289 - - 289 54
Insurance 404 - - 404 283
Printing. postage, stationery and
computer supplies		 1,964 1,964 1,342
Professional fees and Subscriptions 1,527 1,527 936
Staff training 3,345 3,345 -
Telephone,internet 627 627 608
Travel and Subsistence 846 - - 846 339
**Sub total ** 117,667 - - 117,667 97,272
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
97,272
50,149 - - 50,149 15,543
-
-
- - -
114,243 - - 114,243 -
164,392 - - 164,392 15,543

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

06/12/2025

1

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories
B4 Assets retained for the
charity’s own use
B5 Liabilities
B1 Cash funds
B2 Other monetary assets
B3 Investment assets		 Current accounts
Personal accounts surplus balances
Personal accounts deficit balances
Details
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))
Details		 Current accounts
Personal accounts surplus balances
Personal accounts deficit balances
Details
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))
Details		 Unrestricted
funds
to nearest £		 Unrestricted
funds
to nearest £		 Restricted funds
to nearest £		 Restricted funds
to nearest £		 Endowment
funds
to nearest £
164,392 - -
- - -
- - -
164,392 - -
OK
Endowment
funds
to nearest £
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
Details Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Details
Details		 Fund to which
asset belongs
Fund to which
liability relates		 Cost (optional)
-
-
-
Amount due (optional)		 Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
When due
(optional)
-
-
-
Signed on behalf of the charity's trustees
Signature(s)
Full name(s)
Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc
Date		 James Sturgess
Treasurer
James Butler James Sturgess
Chair Treasurer
05/12/2025

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

06/12/2025

2

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ANO WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts lrydependent Examiner's Report" Report t) t:1e trustees ALFIES WISH On accoJr."' 'ea:- 1 311312025 efloea Charity no (if any) 1191020 Set out on pages 1-2 I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (Ihe Trusf) for the year ended 3110312025. Responsibilities and basis of r8DOrt As the charivs trustees, you are responsible for th8 preparation of the accounts in accordance wtth the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (Yhe AGY). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examiyation. I have followed all the applicable DireGtions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5}{b) of the Act. Independent l tr.2ve completed my examination. I confimi that no material matters have examiner's sk,iement come tc ni.y attention in connection with the examination letl¥w- s619s￿') which gives me cause to believe that in, any material res?C&C... the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 04 the nb.arities Act,- or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records,. or -'n+.s d-;d not comply with the applicable requirements conceming the fom and content of acxounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement tb.a+ thts accounts gtve a Irue and fair, view which is not a matter corysidered as part of an independent examination. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection Wtth Ihe examination to whiGh attention should be drawn in this report in order io enable a prO￿r understanding of the accounts to be reached. Ple se d8let8 the words in the brackets rfthey do not apply. Signed: Date: 1811112025 Name: KEELEY COUSENS Relevant professional qualification{sl vl" b- dy (if any): FCCA Dip PFS Address: 2a Poles Copse. Poles Lane, Otterboume, S021 2DZ IER Oct 2018

Section B Disclosure Only complele if the examiner needs to highlight maLerial Matte￿ of concorD. (see CC32. Independent examination of charity accounts.. directions and guidan￿ for examiners). Give here brief detalls ot any Items that the examiner wish85 to disclose. IER Oct 2018