2024-03-31-accounts - Saving Strays

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Saving Strays

(Registered Charity 1191852)

144 Geneva Road Darlington Co Durham DL1 4HT

Charity Accounts (UNAUDITED)

Year Ended 31 March 2024

Charity Information

Trustees	Peter Egan
	Maria Slough
	Julie Chilton
	Kim Powell
	Dr Roger Bralow
	Hannah Surowinski (Resigned)
	Rev Lynne Chitty
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 financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024. Financial statements are prepared on a receipts & payments basis and are independently examined.

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.

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 an informed and detailed outline in writing and in person briefing from an existing trustee to familiarise themselves with the charity and how it operates as well as full support in the early part of their term from existing trustees:

Obligations of Trustees

To operate within the Governing Document within which the Charity operates including Policies and procedures
Responsibility for the financial health of the charity with access and updated knowledge to the current financial position of the Charity
To procure Future plans for the Charity

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 the rest of the world and support the Charity’s activities with admin, adoption, social media support, home-checking and fundraising and producing larger fundraising events.

Volunteers, when recruited, are informally interviewed by our Volunteer General Manager and a Trustee with information on how the Charity operates. During COVID 19 these were undertaken across various media platforms, messenger chat and zoom and these platforms are still used within the recruitment process. We use the volunteer section of ‘Charity Jobs’ to advertise volunteer roles backed up by our social media platforms. 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 care and attention.
To improve the lives of all the dogs in their care on a daily basis
To educate the public in matters pertaining to animal welfare in general and the prevention of cruelty and suffering amongst animals
To work with local communities through education to help relieve the presence of fear of animals and so create a more harmonious existence for both to live in

Achievements & Performance

In the year 1[st] April 2023 to 31[st] March 2024 the charity has grown and developed as a team. Following on from last year’s report - In March/April 2023 a small team of volunteers, led by our Co- chair Maria Slough, undertook a trip to Bosnia. Our patron, TV presenter and Strictly Come Dancing star, Ian Waite joined us on this trip. In addition to the public shelter visit where we rescued Freedom, Grady, Selma and Jed the team saw the completion and opening to the dogs of our first sensory garden. We left Bosnia on the 6th of April with the basic structure in place and vet approved aromatic plants in place for our dogs to forage and enjoy as well as a ramp that had been built. The fencing had been finished and decorated with murals painted by our volunteers and we installed a memorial section where people were able to donate to have a paw print with the name of their loved one on the fence.

Negotiations continued for the release of the remaining dogs from the Freedom 5 Rescue. Lawrence arrived two months later and we continued to talk to the public shelter over the rest of the year and, on the 15th of March 2024, 10 months after we first saw Dreamer, he finally arrived at our sanctuary

along with two other dogs that desperately needed our help. The public shelter that these Freedom dogs were rescued from has now finally been closed down.

In April we launched a new website, streamlined to stay engaged with the changing digital world. We continued to run our food appeals and Auctions bi-monthly and our cochair made regular visits to the retreat sanctuary in Kent to visit our former Land dogs that are living in Sanctuary there. On June 11 at Burgh House in London, Saving Strays was invited to a memorial of one of our long-standing supporters. At an evening in his memory, the charity was introduced to Ricky Gervais and Jane Fallon. That same month Freedom the Rescue Dog was on the cover of Dogs Today magazine and a four-page spread inside told the story of her Rescue and The Freedom Five.

On the 14th of July after some negotiations, the charity announced their new collaboration with clinical

behaviourist Emma Phillips. A committed vegan and animal welfarist, Emma brought to the table in a volunteer capacity, her extensive knowledge of understanding Animal behaviour. We were thrilled to welcome this support which we planned to use to aid the progress of our Dogs rescued in Bosnia but also better understand the needs of those waiting for adoption and support the adoption process as Dogs settled into a new home. Later that month we were once again featured in Dog’s Today magazine with a special appeal for our longest standing resident, a dog named Pirate. Following on from that feature, Pirate was then adopted into a loving home in September.

Thanks to the ongoing support of Olsen Animal Trust, we secured a £16,000 grant from them and on August 12th work began on a new housing area and second sensory garden for the 14 Land dogs that still needed rehoming. With extra funds needed to finish the facility and day-to-day running costs increasing, we were thrilled to announce just a few days later that our patron Rick Wakeman would be launching yearly Christmas concerts in aid of Saving Strays, and we were to kick those off with a very special evening at Guildford Cathedral, followed a month later by a second concert at Saint Mary Le Tower church in Ipswich.

In September, we received a small grant from Animal Friends Insurance, and were featured on BBC radio stations across the country as momentum grew around our Christmas concerts. One of our rescue dogs Ozzy was granted a special dispensation from Guildford Cathedral, so he could enter the building and help Rick promote the fundraising events. He was the first dog to ever be granted this dispensation and Freedom would become the second.

From the 9th to the 13th of October, our trustees Roger Bralow MRCVS and Maria Slough visited our dogs in Bosnia with clinical behaviourist Emma Phillips. During this visit every single dog not only the ones in our care, but under the roof of our working partners were given a health check by Roger, and an evaluation by Emma. This enabled us to put plans in place for every single dog individually tailored to their needs, to aid us support their recovery throughout their lifetime and towards adoption.

In October 2023 Freedom, Selma, Grady and Jed arrived in the UK. Freedom went into Foster (now adopted by our co-chair Maria) Selma was adopted by our trustee Kim, Grady went into lifetime Foster with one of our volunteers and Jed was eventually adopted (December) into a lovely family.

Work continued on the new housing area and second sensory garden for the land dogs and in November the concrete arrived and foundations were laid. That same month we announced that Pets at Home in Walton-on-Thames were supporting us as a charity with a collection point in their large store.

On the 24th of November we launched our Christmas concerts with a stunning event at Guildford Cathedral. Some 400 people gathered to hear Rick Wakeman play, joined by a host of musicians and singers and our own patron actor Peter Egan. The evening was supported by a huge number of our volunteers as well as our faithful supporters and donors and was a great success.

Throughout December, work continued on the new facility in Bosnia with the building finally becoming watertight as the roof went on. Freedom was on the cover once again of Dog’s Today magazine along with our patron Ian Waite and we closed the year with our second concert at Saint Mary Le Tower in Ipswich. It was a magical evening and both concerts introduced us to many new supporters and raised vital core funds to help us keep moving forward.

On social media we continued to grow our following with weekly features such as Freedom Friday a fundraising dedicated feature to help raise funds for the ongoing care of Freedom and her rescued pals as well as to help us liberate more dogs in need.

Our Educating Kindly features also continued to grow with the input of clinical behaviourist Emma Phillips and our trustee vet Roger Bralow and the publication of a book of the same was postponed to 2025 to enable us to develop it further. We launched Dog Fact Monday on social media to help people understand a little more about their companion animals and we continued to update our followers every day on the well-being of our Dogs as well as on the progress of the works being done in Bosnia.

As always, we continue to use all platforms to communicate clearly with our supporters with full transparency of our work. We use social media as a way of communicating with the public whose donations help us save these dogs and to run food appeals, funding appeals for rescue and updating on how our adopted dogs are doing in their new homes. Our private Adoptions Facebook group which offers support to anyone who has adopted from us and helps us keep in touch with our dogs, so we can offer full rescue back up for the lifetime of the individual dog, has become a thriving small community.

We rehomed through our in-house adoptions team, 11 dogs in the year 1[st] April 2023 to 31[st] March 2024.

Every week on social media, we feature a Happy Tails post, sharing updates from our adopters about the dogs that we have rescued into loving homes.

We did not manage to secure a sale on the property that we own in Bosnia that we purchased with the Help of the Anthony Martin Trust and funds raised by ourselves, but we remained in contact with the trust and have expanded our reach to make sure we secure a sale as soon as possible

As an organisation that is entirely volunteer led, we continued to concentrate on building the team and keeping all our volunteers engaged with our vision for the charity moving forward, developing people within our group to help find the position that suits them the best. Strength of our core team continues to grow.

Ever aware of the ongoing dog crisis in the U.K. we offered help rehoming any dog in the U.K. when asked and are developing education in the area of Hadzici, Bosnia to help tackle the crisis there at source.

Full compliance and transparency in any dog we rehome coming in from outside the U.K. is something we take very seriously, and dogs are still tested using full blood tests (not snap tests) at the point of rescue and then again 3 months later.

As proposed in last year’s report, we undertook to send all blood samples to APHA (Animal and Plant Agency) here in the UK for testing of Brucella Canis, and no Dog enters the UK without this certificate in place. This is something we proposed last year and have fulfilled.

As standard we revisit and update all of our working partnership agreements, our volunteer agreements and our policy documents every year, with a view to growing and developing, keeping in line with any new legislation, and bettering the care and support we are able to give our dogs, and support we are able to give our volunteers and working partners.

On the 20th of February 2024 our Co-Chair Maria Slough was invited by APDAWG to speak at the Palace of Westminster about foreign dog rescue, and Freedom was invited as well. At PortCullis house Freedom met with APDAWG founder Marc Abraham, sports presenter Kirsty Gallacher and multiple MP’s from all parties.

Maria’s speech delivered to a packed audience in committee room 14, the largest committee room in the Houses of Parliament, addressed Saving Strays commitment to responsibility and transparency when helping dogs from abroad, educating at source and making sure that the Charity continued to offer UK Rescue as much support as they could. Our volunteer GM Suzy Penn attended the event as well representing the charity.

On 24th of February the new housing for the Land dogs was completed so they could start moving in and between the 29th of February and the 7th of March all 16 dogs came across to their purpose-built forever home and settled into a new way of life as we introduced treat filled Kongs and warm housing for them. We also welcomed three more death row Dogs from the public facility that we had rescued Freedom and her friends from. This included Dreamer, the dog that had helped launch the initial Rescue appeal 10 months before. We never gave up on Dreamer and continued to try and persuade the public facility to hand him over, and finally on the day of their closure we were able to bring him and two of his friends to safety.

Fundraising & Appeals

The charity has continued to raise funds with online fundraising activities including a bi-monthly event run by the volunteers that included a Handmade auction, a collectables auction and a partnership with Vegan Happy Clothing for a one-off event which saw them donate £1 for every item they sold in a month.

Every second month, our food appeal attempts to raise £1000 towards an ever-growing food bill continued. This is updated twice a week and hosted on the Just Giving platform. The main appeals that the charity tend to run are for food (which is purchased direct from a supplier in Bosnia) occasionally transport and for specific urgent rescues.

Our volunteer Steve continued his regular tombola at local markets and added car boots to his incredible fundraising effort that is a vital part of keeping core funds trickling in. One of our adopters ran a garage sale and raised over £300.

We also have an amazing team of volunteers who run their own fundraising events from scatchcards, raffles and making items such as greetings cards, placemats, and keyrings.

With the help of new volunteer Lynne Chitty, a Freedom portrait was commissioned and from that portrait, greetings cards were made as well as an entire range of Freedom merchandise including glass ornaments. Lynne came on board with a host of incredible fundraising ideas to stabilise the income of our core cost needs and one of those ideas was Pedal for Paws which she pitched to us in March 2024. That idea went ahead and full details on its success will be documented in next year’s report.

Our head of day-to-day fundraising and fellow trustee Jay Chilton who oversees all of our regular fundraising worked with Lynne to develop the Freedom merchandise further creating mugs, keychains, mouse mats and coasters for the charity.

September also saw our patron Ian Waite hold our first ever Fitsteps Fundraiser in Bristol, where over 70 people came to undertake a dance fitness class and help us raise £1000.

The charity has a number of donors who regularly donate with either standing orders to its main bank account or have set up recurring donations through PayPal. Supporters are continually invited to sponsor dogs with either a full or part sponsorship and the Charity have seen a total of 9 dogs (5 who have full sponsorship) supported over the year.

Freedom Friday continued to run every single Friday on our social media and together with other fundraising efforts, the Freedom Fund raised £4,865 this financial year.

In September 2023 we also received a very special request from a lady who was travelling from Bosnia to Germany. She had seen a dog on the road at a tollbooth, googled for help and via the Olsen Animal Trust website had got in touch with us. Within one hour of receiving this call in the UK, we had one of our team members on the ground in Bosnia driving towards where this dog had been seen. The little dog was rescued, received worming and flea treatment and given all his vaccinations as well as being neutered, and after a Home Check and quarantine we drove him to Germany to join the family of the lady that had first spotted him. Thanks to the incredible teamwork across both countries Fenick is now living his best life with his canine siblings and his mum and dad.

Financial Review

Year Ended 31 March 2024

During this year the Charity’s total incoming resources were £112,064. The resources were mainly from donations, adoption fees and fundraising events – volunteers run regular events throughout the year and in this financial year hosted an auction at Burgh House and two Christmas concerts hosted by Rick Wakeman and Peter Egan. Total resources expended were £94,448.00. The Charity’s free unrestricted reserves as at 31 March 2024 amounted to £26,894.00 and restricted reserves amounted to £5,054.00.

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 13 January 2025 and signed on behalf of the board of trustees by:

………………………………………………

Kim Elizabeth Powell – Trustee Maria Dawn Slough - Chair

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

YEAR ENDED 31[ST] MARCH 2024

1. General Information

Saving 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

The financial statements of the charity, which is a public benefit entity under FRS 102, have been 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. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention

Income

All income is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities 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. The vehicle that was purchased in September 2020 previously registered to Milena Malesevic has been removed from Saving Strays assets and gifted to Milena to help support her rescue. The property purchased in Bosnia with the help of the Anthony Martin Trust and funds raised by ourselves still remains for sale.

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 and care of sanctuary dogs, dog houses etc at the sanctuary; dog bowls, bedding, dog beds; building work for transfer of sanctuary dogs; extras relating to transport example; passports, vaccines, microchip, quarantine, border charges, shipping agent charges, indirect taxes for the import of dogs; transport costs within the UK; veterinary care including spaying or neutering, health checks, emergency veterinary care, emergency rescue and any food cooked for dogs

Food – kibble is purchased direct from the supplier, paid for by Saving Strays UK and delivered direct to our kennel partners in Bosnia. We feed the dogs good quality kibble and, in the winter,

this is supplemented with hand-cooked food.

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 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.

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 a particular restricted purpose.

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 the future plans for the Charity and consider that it is a going concern.

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the perfod 0110412023 3110312024 Section A Receipts and payments UnmtTiCt8d funds Restricted funds Endowment funds Totsl funds Lasty8aT t•tt twr8¥t £ Al Recer Ado Fe9 Focl Fund Frg&Jom Fwd Fundraisin &veD15 G&neral Lbnation Gilt AKt Grants Rece£4 Rescu2 nsorsfvi Third Part Fundrai¥ Transfer of Land 93 4713 4.865 43.811 20,055 1440 4713 13.444 1865 43.811 19,876 1180 2.3 9.601 50,464 179 133 133 4,t46 17.399 17.399 1329 Tfans Vet Fundraiser C11 lo FoFever Cmre Accoum I1.1 167 Sub total(Gross income fDrAR) 81.5> JO.512 11lW 102.301 A2 Asget and Investment sal•s. (see table Sub total 81,552 30,512 112.Qe4 102.301 A3Pd ents Adrnin & Operating C4st$ Bank RevetIonS a*nIab tknaiK>ns Cost of AclivÈlies to AchVe Owly Purwse 4668 131 450 1fj.634 19.283 29.115 Fpcetwk Fee5 Forever Qntre Fundraisin Event thsts Fundraising Fges KeDwls fyos KenThels iK nl Fees Sanctuary Tiarsport Cosls Vei Cnsts iK & 149 149 718 76 513 6.513 910 965 839 3.365 24.876 178 3.178 135 6.135 Sub total GI.1 31817 ,002 A4 Asset and investment purchases. 1588 table) Sub total Totalpayments 61.631 32.817 B8.002 Net of recelmsfjpayments) AS Transfer5 beiween funds A6 Cash funds last yearend Cash fvnds this yeorend 19.921 2.305 17.616 14,299 9,847 26.894 4,485 5,054 14.332 31.948 14.299 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories B1 Cash funds	Details Saving Strays No. 1 Account Saving Strays No. 2 Account GBP Paypal GBP Euro *Total cash funds*	Unrestricted funds to nearest£ 22,827 2,498 1,219 350 26,894	Restricted funds to nearest£ 1,165 3,889 - 5,054 Endowment funds to nearest£

82 Other monetary assets	(agre balance with reeps and pme accont(s)) Details Land/Sanctuary Improvements to Land Improvements to Land House Purchase	Unrstricted funds tonearest£ Unrestricted Unrestricted	Restricted funds to nearest£ 7,800 6,300 965 21,642	Endowment funds to nearest£


		Restricted Restricted

Fund to which asset Current value Details belongs Cost (optional) (optional)

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83 Investment assets
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B4 Assets retained for the charity's own use

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B5 Liabilities
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Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees

Fund to which asset Current value Details belongs Cost (optional) (optional) Fund to which Amount due When due Details liability relates (optional) (optional) Print Name Date of approval KIM POWELL 07.01.2025 MARIA SLOUGH 07.01.2025

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

08/01/2025

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ Charity Name members of Saving Strays On accounts for the year 31 March 2024 Charity no 1191852 ended (if any) Set out on pages 11 & 12

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31 / 03 / 2024 .

Responsibilities 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
of the 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 the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement 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 with the accounting records

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

Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.

Signed: Date: 07.01.2025 Name: Anita Brook Relevant professional ACCA qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 1 Market place Brackley Nn13 7ab

October 2018

IER

Section B Disclosure Only complete if the 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 examiner wishes to disclose .

October 2018

IER