## **Saving Suffering Strays**
**(Registered Charity 1191852)**
**144 Geneva Road**
**Darlington Co Durham DL1 4HT**
**Charity Accounts (UNAUDITED)**
**Year Ended 31 March 2022**
## **1. Charity Information**
|**Trustees**|Peter Egan|
|---|---|
||Maria Slough|
||Julie Chilton|
||Kim Powell|
||Kelsey Harkness-Jones (Resigned)|
||Dr Roger Bralow|
||Hannah Surowinski|
|**Address**|144 Geneva Road|
||Darlington|
||Co Durham|
||DL1 4HT|
|**Bank**|Lloyds TSB Bank – Account Numbers 23045962 & 43295462|
|**Independent Examiner:**|Brook & Co Accountants|
||1 Market Place|
||Brackley|
||Northants|
||NN13 7AB|
The Trustees present their Annual Report and Charity Accounts for the period 16 October 2020 (date of registration) to 31 March 2022. Accounts are prepared on a receipts & payments basis and are independently examined.
Saving Suffering Strays were delighted to receive its official UK Charity Registration on 16 October 2020. The charity is overseen by a Board of Trustees and operates within its Governing document. Trustees are not renumerated for their trusteeship except for expenses relating to the course of the charity’s activities. The Trustees are elected to serve for a period of one year and are re-elected and approved at the Annual General Meeting. Any new trustees are nominated and approved by the board before becoming active within the Charity. The Board seeks to ensure that they have the requisite skills between them to run the CIO.
The charity operates within its Governing Document – Saving Suffering Strays Constitution dated October 2020
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
## **Induction and Training of new Trustees**
The Trustees are already familiar with the practical work of the organisation. New Trustees are given a short, informal training session to familiarise themselves with the charity and how it operates which covers:
Obligations of Trustees
The Governing Document within which the Charity operates including Policies and procedures Access to current financial position Future plans of the Charity
Maintaining objectives and ensuring each dog is treated as an individual life within the day to day running of the organisation.
## **Operation**
The UK Charity is 100% volunteer led. No salaries are paid only expenses reimbursed relating to the course of the charity’s activities. Volunteers work remotely across the UK and rest of the world and support the Charity’s activities with admin, rescue and rehabilitation, adoption, social media support, home-checking and fundraising, education, and raising awareness of the general care and well-being of a sentient dog.
Volunteers when recruited are informally interviewed by either our Communications Manager or a Trustee with information on how the Charity operates. During COVID 19 those were undertaken across various social media platforms, messenger chats and zoom meetings. The volunteers are then issued with a volunteer contract and once signed and returned, given access to the governing document, policies and procedures. They then undertake a period of observation within the department they have joined and are supported during this integration process.
## **Charitable Objects**
To advance animal welfare for the benefit of the public
- To relieve the suffering of animals in need of care and attention and, in particular, to provide and maintain a rescue and rehoming service for the reception, care and treatment of stray dogs in the UK, Bosnia & Herzegovina and such other European countries as the Trustees may decide who by reason of abandonment are in need of such carte and attention.
- To educate the public in matters pertaining to animal welfare in general and the prevention of cruelty and suffering among animals
## **Achievements & Performance**
In the year 16 October 2020 to 31[st] March 2022 the charity experienced some challenges that lockdown living and Covid presented us with. All transport of our dogs from overseas was cancelled and rescue was limited due to the strict restrictions imposed in Bosnia. In the U.K. the demand for dogs caused concern and we suspended all rehoming. During the periods where lockdown was relaxed we took extra care to investigate any potential new home and how that household would be functioning after lockdown. We still managed to rescue dogs in need overseas even with armed curfews in place and continued to offer full rescue back up here in the U.K.
On social media we grew our followers dramatically during lockdown offering tips approved by a veterinary trustee on how to care for your companion animals and help stimulate their senses as life changed with everybody staying at home.
We have implemented top tips on how to keep your dog safe and calm during the fireworks season and how to keep them safe during the heat of the summer as well as tips on what not to let them eat at Easter and Christmas.
We have worked hard to grow our reach on social media and use the platform to communicate clearly with our supporters and improve the transparency of our work. We use social media as a way of communicating with the people that help us save these dogs and encourage two-way conversations.
We embarked upon a project to purchase a small property in Bosnia with a view to running a volunteer lead program out there to help socialise dogs and work with the local people to better understand the benefits of having a companion animal. We put together a proposal for funding and presented it to various charitable foundations. This was achieved and the property remains a part of the charity’s assets. Due to Covid and then the war in the Ukraine, we have not been able to find a suitable resident to run this facility, but it provides a vital in-country address for us as we apply for a local NGO status, which will support our UK charity status and the work that we do.
In the summer of 2021, a recce to Bosnia was financed by one of our major donors and consisted of a trustee, a vet nurse and translator. The visit was well documented across our social media platforms when the team visited Milena Malesevic and the dogs kept at the Sanctuary to provide much needed veterinary supplies which were purchased by launching an online medical fundraiser. During this financial period, we continued to support the rescue work of lone rescuer Milena Malesevic as well as growing our own rescue efforts responding to calls from members of the public and emergency requests for dogs in need.
We used the time that lockdown gave us all to work with a charity application advisor on applying for U.K. charity status. We implemented updated policies and procedures that reflect our belief that EVERY SINGLE LIFE MATTERS and held regular zoom meetings with the volunteer team to bring our paperwork in line with our ideas.
As an organisation that is entirely volunteer led, we concentrated on building the team and keeping all our volunteers engaged with our vision for the charity moving forward. Off-line fundraising came to a halt so we concentrated on an online auction and the dedicated team continued to bring some funds in. We achieved charity status in October 2020.
We rehomed, with the help of our rehoming partners Just for Dogs in Derbyshire and Dogs4Rescue in Manchester and our own in-house Adoptions team, 95 dogs in the year 16 October 2020 to 31 March 2022 within our remit of Europe and the UK. These dogs were rescued working with our own rescue team supporting the work of lone rescuers like Milena Malesevic and responding to emergency calls for help. During the three month lockdown there was no transport and the implementation of Brexit caused major boarder issues and bought transport to a halt for the whole of January and February 2021. During this period, we worked tirelessly to form relationships with border agencies overseas and in the UK and ensure that we were building a solid foundation for any future transports that we needed. Full compliance and transparency in any dogs we rehome coming in from outside the U.K. is something we take very seriously.
We have formed a new working partnership with a grade 1 quarantine facility in Bosnia.
These post-Covid months have presented the charity sector with a new set of hurdles. As a charity, we were very thorough with rehoming during lockdown and therefore, we had no dogs returned to us. However, the general huge surge of dogs unwanted as people returned to work has had a massive impact on how many people have applied to adopt the dogs that we have rescued. We saw this as a national problem and came together as a charity to decide how we would tackle that. We provided rescue back up for any dogs in the UK that found themselves in the situation and were successful in rehoming several that came to us.
We took the decision in 2022, having rescued three pregnant females, to limit our rescue efforts so that we could better manage our finances and the rehoming process. We have however continued to respond to and offer sanctuary to dogs in extreme circumstances.
We made a decision to look for economical ways to help the dogs in our care that did not cost a lot of money. With this in mind, we are introducing extra enrichment to our kennel partners using plants and herbs to stimulate the dogs and plan to create a playground made from reclaimed goods. We are also planning to implement a basic Soundsystem to our kennel partners facility, so that the sounds of the modern world can be introduced to rescue dogs very gently from the moment they are rescued so that they can start to get prepared for eventual rehoming.
Also, in 2023, we are planning to launch a veterinary corner where Dr Roger Bralow will release short video clips about basic care for our companion animals.
## **Fundraising & Appeals**
With the additional restrictions and lockdowns seen with COVID-19, live fundraising events were not possible during the financial year 2020/2021. However, the charity continued to raise funds with online fundraising activities including a monthly auction (now reduced to a bi-monthly event) with a handmade online auction in November where our caring supporters donate their time and handmade items for auction. The charity also run occasional seasonal fundraising events for example, online raffles. All food and transport costs are appealed for separately. The main appeals that the charity tend to run are for transport, food (which is purchased direct from a supplier in Bosnia) and specific urgent rescues.
We also have an amazing team of volunteers who run their own fundraising events from attending car boot sales, scratch-cards, raffles, making items such as facemasks (during COVID-19), snuffle mats to help dogs eat slowly, buy it now occasion cards and one team member running a matched fundraiser to help finance one of our transport runs.
The charity has a number of donors who regularly donate and supporters are continually invited to sponsor dogs with either a full or part sponsorship and the Charity have seen a total of 13 dogs (7 who have had a full sponsorship) supported although that has reduced since Covid.
An unprecedented amount of rainfall in November 2021 had a devastating effect in Bosnia especially for one rescuer who found their kennels flooded in over a foot of water. Saving Suffering Strays appealed to their followers and were able to raise over £300 to help with emergency funding to help this rescuer and their dogs .
## **Rescue Fundraising**
In the summer of 2020 prior to registration, following a cry for help from two student members of the public, the charity rescued a total of 12 puppies from underground tunnels in Sarajevo. The puppies were days old and faced certain death. The city was in an armed curfew lockdown so with the help of our in country local contacts we negotiated for permission to carry out the rescue. In the U.K. Olsen Animal Trust
immediately contributed funds for the initial rescue, veterinary health checks and kennel/food costs for the dogs and partnered with us to get the dogs to safety. A further fundraiser, naming each puppy raised enough donations from the public for the puppies continued kennel, veterinary care including all vaccinations & passports and food until the puppies were old enough to be able to travel to their new homes either through our own exacting direct adoption process at Saving Suffering Strays UK, or via our rehoming partners Just For Dogs in Derbyshire and Dogs4Rescue in Manchester. The charity is always overwhelmed and extremely grateful at the support from the general public who help us achieve our goals in any appeals that are run and we are constantly looking for new ways to fundraise and inspire people to support our work and engage with those as we gently illustrate the joys of having a relationship with a companion animal. All this is done under the watchful eye of a veterinary trustee.
**Tunnel Pups –** In the underground tunnels of Sarajevo. The rescue begins
**Safe** at last and being kept warm under a heat lamp, the tunnel pups being well cared for by our Bosnian kennel partners Riad Bubu
## **Learning to Trust**
**Name a Pup** to raise funds
**Socialising & Play** with our kennel partners Mersad & Melissa
**Happy Ever After** – 6 of our Tunnel Pups in their forever homes. All were adopted
## **Financial Review**
Year Ended 31 March 2022
During this combined financial period the Charity’s total incoming resources were £157,277.00. The resources were mainly from donations, adoption fees and fundraising activities. Total resources expended were £156,644.00. The Charity’s free unrestricted reserves as at 31 March 2022 amounted to £6,545.00.
## **Risk Management**
The trustees have examined the major strategic and operational risks which the Charity faces and confirm that systems have been established to enable regular discussions, meetings and reports so that necessary steps can be taken to lessen the risks.
The trustees’ annual report was approved on 24 January 2023 and signed on behalf of the board of trustees by:
………………………………………………
………………………………………………
Kim Elizabeth Powell – Trustee Maria Dawn Slough - Chair
## **NOTES TO THE CHARITY ACCOUNTS**
## **YEAR ENDED 31[ST] MARCH 2022**
## 1. **General Information**
Saving Suffering Strays CIO is a registered charity. The registered office is 144, Geneva Road, Darlington, Co Durham DL1 4HT
## 2. **Accounting Policies**
## **Basis of Preparing the Accounts**
Financial statements of a charity, which is a public benefit entity under FRS 102, are prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) 'Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)', Financial Reporting Standard 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' and the Charities Act 2011.
Charity Accounts for Saving Suffering Strays have been prepared on a Receipts & Payments basis as annual income is below £250,000.
## **Income**
All income is recognised in the Receipts & Payments and once the charity has entitlement to the funds, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.
## **Tangible Assets**
All tangible assets are recorded at cost. A vehicle was purchased in September 2020. Registered to Milena Malesevic, the vehicle is used to support rescue, veterinary visits and the daily visits to care of rescued dogs currently residing at the sanctuary in Bosnia.
A property in Bosnia was purchased during financial year 2021/2022 and information concerning the property is detailed above in this annual report.
## **Expenditure**
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. This is usually when an invoice has been received. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:
**Expenditure on Cost of Charity Activities** – any expenditure relating directly to fulfilling the charitable objects of the Charity: private kennel costs; help or assistance needed for dogs at the sanctuary; any repairs to fencing, dog houses etc at the sanctuary; transport costs which includes passports, vaccines, microchip, quarantine, transport, border charges, shipping agent charges, indirect taxes for the import of dogs and actual transport from Bosnia to the UK; veterinary care including spaying or neutering, health checks, emergency veterinary care, emergency rescue and any food cooked for dogs
**Food** – dry kibble is purchased direct from the supplier, paid for by Saving Suffering Strays UK and delivered to direct in Bosnia. There has been an in increase in dry kibble expenditure especially since the war in the Ukraine began. We purchase a high value dry kibble which is complimented with home cooked food to ensure that all the dogs get the vitamins and nutrients they need.
**Admin Costs** are support costs for those functions that assist the work of the charity but do not directly undertake charitable activities. They comprise administrative and IT expenses and also governance costs. Governance costs are costs that relate to the direct running of the Charity, allowing the Charity to operate and generate the information required for public accountability. They include the costs of independent examination, insurance and any legal fees both in the UK and overseas. They are split into two categories, one which covers core operating costs and the other any administrative costs in relation to the Forever Centre.
## **Taxation**
The charity is exempt from tax on its charitable activities
## **Fund Accounting**
Unrestricted funds can be used in accordance with the charitable objects at the discretion of the trustees.
Restricted funds can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the charity. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes.
## **Reserves**
The Board of Trustees will consider the level of reserves that is prudent for Saving Suffering Strays to have. Consideration will be given to operation costs and any other significant factors that should be taken into account should the charity dissolve.
The trustees aim to maintain free reserves in unrestricted funds at a level which equates to between one and three months of unrestricted charitable expenditure.
However, the current economic climate has had a significant effect on funds raised and the balance held of unrestricted funds as at 31 March 2022 stood at £6,545.00.
## **Financial Instruments**
Financial assets and financial liabilities are recognised when the Charity becomes a party to the contractual provisions of the instrument. All financial assets and liabilities are initially measured at the transaction price (including transaction costs).
The Charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value.
## **Going Concern**
The Trustees have reviewed future plans for the Charity and consider that it is a going concern.
|**Charity Name**||**No (if any)**|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Receipts andpayments accounts**||||**CC16a**|
|**For the period**
**from**|Period start date
16/10/2020|Period end date
**To**
31/03/2022|||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**55,239**
**11,338**
**4,008**
**300**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**195**
**1,126**
**72,205**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**72,205**
**28,631**
**11,504**
**-**
**8,117**
**5,239**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**5,812**
**1,323**
**2,213**
**1,970**
**-**
**-**
**64,809**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**64,809**
**7,396**
**-**
**3,904**
**-**
**572**
**3,625**
**6,545**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**20,359**
**-**
**-**
**1,000**
**20,000**
**9,763**
**33,950**
**-**
**-**
**85,072**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**85,072**
**3,724**
**2,581**
**961**
**-**
**2,251**
**17,846**
**33,417**
**572**
**3,081**
**75**
**1,126**
**26,201**
**91,835**
**966**
**-**
**966**
**92,801**
**-**
**7,730**
**3,904**
**15,540**
**11,715**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**75,598**
**11,338**
**4,008**
**1,300**
**20,000**
**9,763**
**33,950**
**195**
**1,126**
**157,277**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**157,277**
**32,355**
**14,085**
**961**
**8,117**
**7,490**
**17,846**
**33,417**
**572**
**8,893**
**1,323**
**2,213**
**2,045**
**1,126**
**26,201**
**156,644**
**966**
**-**
**966**
**157,610**
**-**
**333**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|Donations|**55,239**|||||**-**|
|Adoption Fees|**11,338**||||||
|Gift Aid|**4,008**|||||**-**|
|Grant Core Funds|**300**|||||**-**|
|Grant Forever Centre|**-**|||||**-**|
|Food Fund|**-**|||||**-**|
|Transport Fund|**-**|||||**-**|
|Credit Returned Foreign Payment|**195**|||||**-**|
|Credit from Forever Centre|**1,126**|||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|
**72,205**|||||**-**|
||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||
||**-**||||||
||**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|
**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**|||||||
|||||||**-**|
||||||||
|
Cost of Actvities to achieve Charity
Purpose|**28,631**|||||**-**|
|Kennel Fees|**11,504**|||||**-**|
|Rescue Costs|**-**|||||**-**|
|Sanctuary|**8,117**||||||
|Vet Costs|**5,239**||||||
|Food - DryKibble|**-**||||||
|Transport|**-**||||||
|Funds Raised for Other Charities|**-**||||||
|Admin & OperatingCosts|**5,812**|||||**-**|
|Facebook Fees|**1,323**|||||**-**|
|FundraisingFees|**2,213**|||||**-**|
|Bank Charges|**1,970**|||||**-**|
|Forever Centre - Debit to Core Funds|**-**|||||**-**|
|Forever Centre Admin & OpCosts|**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**64,809**|||||**-**|
||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||
|
**Improvements to Land**|**-**||||||
||**-**||||||
|**_Sub total_**|**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**Loss on Currency Exchange**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||
|||||||**-**|
||||||||
||**7,396**|**-**
**7,730**|**-**|**-**
**333**||**-**|
||**-**
**3,904**|**3,904**|**-**|**-**||**-**|
||**-**
**572**|||**-**
**572**|||
||**3,625**|**15,540**|**-**|**19,165**||**-**|
||**6,545**|**11,715**|**-**|**18,260**||**-**|
**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** CCXX R1 accounts (SS) 1
30/01/2023
|**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**
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)|**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
GBP Paypal
**Details**
GBP Lloyds 23045962
GBP Lloyds 43295462
**Details**
Land (Unrestricted)
Improvements to Land
Improvements to Land
Purchase of Caravan
Purchase of Caravan
House Purchase
**Details**
Signature
2|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**1,306**
**-**
**5,239**
**-**
**-**
**11,715**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**6,545**
**11,715**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
Unrestricted
**7,800**
Unrestricted
**6,300**
Restricted
**965**
Restricted
**3,231**
Restricted
**4,721**
Restricted
**21,642**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Kim Powell
Maria Slough|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
||||30/01/2023|
||||30/01/2023|
||||30/01/2023|
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
CHARITY COMMISSION
FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
Independent examiner's
report on the accounts
Section A
Independent Examiner's Report
Report to the Iruslee
membors of
On accounts for the year
ended
31131
Charily no
(If any)
Set out on pages
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above
charity (Ihe Trusl") for the year ended .£1 i 0,31 l£Jg1-
Responsibillties and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation
basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act
2011 {"the Act").
I report in respecl of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out
under section 145 of the 2011 Act arKI in carying out my examination, I
have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission
under section 14515){b) of the Act.
I have completed my examination. I confimi that no material matters have
come to my attention (other than that disclosed below ') in connection with
the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material
respect:
accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of
the Act or
the accounts do not accord the accounting records
Independent
examiner's statement
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection
with the examination lo which attention should be drawn in order to enable a
proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Please delele the words in the brackels if they do not apply.
Signed:
Dat¢:
Name:
Relevant professional
qualification{sl or body
(if any):
Fio
Address:
IER
October 2018
Section B
Disclosure
Only complete if Ihe examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32,
Independent examination of charity accounts.. directions and guidance for
examiners).
Give here brief details of
any items that the
examinerwishes to
disclose.
IER
October 2018