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Saving Strays

(Registered Charity 1191852)

144 Geneva Road

Darlington Co Durham DL1 4HT

Charity Accounts (UNAUDITED)

Year Ended 31 March 2025

Charity Information

Trustees	Peter Egan
	Maria Slough
	Julie Chilton
	Kim Powell
	Dr Roger Bralow
	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 2025. 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 remunerated 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 reelected 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.

Message from Co Chair Maria Slough and Peter Egan

Welcome to the annual report from Saving Strays. We are proud of the work that we are achieving in these extremely challenging times in the world and we are so thankful to all of our volunteers that work so hard across each year. Small independent charities are all struggling to keep their doors open and we believe achieving that is something to be celebrated while never giving up on your bigger dreams and visions.

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 monthly 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 Charities activities with admin, adoption, social media support, homechecking 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 2024 to 31[st] March 2025 the charity has continued to develop as a team, unified by their driven goal to make life better for dogs in need. Following on from last year‘s report; In April 2024 our Co- chair Maria Slough led a team of volunteers with our General Manager to Bosnia to complete the second sensory garden attached to the newly built Hans Haven area, which was achieved with the support of Olsen Animal Trust. The garden received brand-new Astroturf for part of the space with the majority being natural grass and sensory plants, including mature trees to provide shade. The team also took a supply of raised beds and vet bedding, toys and enrichment tools for our dogs and cold weather apparel donated by Vegan Happy Clothing for our working partners. Bosnia’s first ever oxygen masks for dogs were also introduced to the local fire team having been kindly donated by Smokey Paws in the UK. After a few days co-chair Peter Egan joined the team to see all the work that had happened in the

previous 18 months. Raised bowls for feeding and water were also introduced across the site and 11 dogs were brought to safety from the streets. The team also carried out promotions for the summer Fundraiser, Pedal for Paws.

We continued to run our food appeals every second month as the demand on our supporters is too much to run monthly and our Auctions bi-monthly. Our co-chair made regular visits to the retreat sanctuary in Kent to visit some of our former Land dogs that are living in Sanctuary there. We continued our excellent working relationship with clinical behaviourist, Emma Phillips who

provided support to every dog that was adopted or fostered into a new home. Emma stays in touch with the family and the dogs, giving support and advice to help them settle during the initial 6 week period and beyond as needed.

In May 2024 one of our long-standing supporters sponsored a fundraising evening for us. Our Patrons Rick Wakeman, Peter Egan and Ian Waite all took to the stage as well as Soprano Annette Wardell. The evening was attended by Ricky Gervais and Jane Fallon and raised just shy off £14k for the dogs in need. Freedom, the rescue dog also attended.

June saw our first ever Pedal for Paws fundraiser go live and participants were sponsored to cycle the virtual kilometres from London to Sarajevo and back. People took part from all over the globe, in Australia, LA, Canada and across Europe. The event culminated at the one summer’s day event in Surrey which saw two static bikes play host to members of the public as they raced against each other to raise funds and cover the kilometres. The community spirit and outreach was key in making it a success and this year raised £5000 for the charity. The brainchild of Trustee Lynne Chitty, the event is set to be a regular feature in the calendar.

The year also saw the launch of the 365 club, once again from Lynne Chitty and a micro launch of a range of clothing and apparel for the 365 club, courtesy of Vegan Happy Clothing. This all organic PETA approved range formed part of the 365 club fundraising incentive where people donate from as little as a penny a day but commit to donating something every single day of the year. This was created to give core fund stability to the charity and is something that we plan to grow over the next decade.

In September, our trustees Roger Bralow MRCVS and Maria Slough returned to our dogs in Bosnia. During this visit every single dog, not only the ones in our care, were given a health check by Roger and flea and worming medicine was administered, kindly donated by the World Veterinary Service. Our patron, Rachel Wakeman joined the trip for a few days and undertook, with Maria, the rescue of a tiny puppy from the streets. They named her Baby and she was adopted to a wonderful family in the UK within days of her rescue. Baby arrived a couple of months later once all the necessary health checks had been undertaken. The team visited a local public shelter and arranged for an elderly retriever to be taken into their care as he was suffering from severe ulcers and growths on his eyes. We named him Goldie and there will be an update in next year’s report on how he is doing in his foster retirement home in the UK. Further work was done in the second sensory garden with some volunteers joining us for a few days and building new ramps and replacement beds, as well as vet bedding to keep on top of wear and tear. We connected with our local fire station and gifted them with the oxygen masks for Dogs. They undertook a full site check and advised us on what extinguishers, hoses

and smoke alarms were needed for the site. A fundraiser was launched to purchase these and by the end of the trip, the money had been raised with all supplies purchased for the site. Once again, we filled suitcases gifted by IT luggage with donations from Pets at Home in Walton-on-Thames and were able to supply our dogs with toys and treats, safe harnesses and leads, slow feeders and many other vital supplies. Shortly after we left severe flooding hit Bosnia and we were able to donate some of the supplies to the areas that were worst hit. We also rescued a dog we named Roni who was found drowning in the waters.

A full risk assessment of the site was carried out and fire evacuation procedure was put in place.

We worked with an American based incentive called Hearts of Gold which encourages children to connect with their artistic instinct as they create portraits of abandoned dogs that are looking for homes. This was a collaboration that we welcomed and saw both the children and the dogs benefit. The portraits that the children draw are then used to help the dogs find their forever families.

At the end of November, some of the volunteers spent two days hosting a stall for the charity at Guildford Cathedral Christmas fair. Both Ian Waite and Peter Egan joined the team and they even enjoyed a visit from The Teddy Bear ladies. With handcrafted gifts made by the Head of Fundraising Jay Chilton, some donated by Lynne Chitty and more made by Volunteer General Manager Suzy Penn, the team managed to raise £1,500 over the two days. This event will now become a yearly date for the diary.

December saw the return of our Saving Strays at Christmas with Rick Wakeman concerts and this year was very special as we welcomed our Bosnian working partners to the UK for the very

first time. At Saint Mary’s Church in Bocking the team came together as Rick Wakeman kicked Christmas off and raised over £20,000 for the charity. Our Co-Chair, Peter Egan sponsored the expenses for our working partners Mersad and Melisa to be able to visit the UK for three days and they were reunited with two of the dogs they had cared for in Bosnia, Freedom and Pirate.

On social media we continued to grow our following with weekly features such as Freedom Friday. Our Educating Kindly features also continued to grow with the input of clinical behaviourist, Emma Phillips and our trustee vet Roger Bralow and work on the publication of our book of the same name continued. Dog Fact Monday continued 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 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 7 dogs in the year 1[st] April 2024 to 31[st] March 2025 and 3 into foster. Ever mindful of the growing costs to keep our doors open we never say no to an emergency but rescued responsibly bringing 15 dogs from the streets to the safety of our sanctuary.

Every week on social media, we continued to 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. The 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 outreach in the area of Hadzici in 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.

Prior to adoption all blood samples are shipped to APHA (Animal, Plant and Health 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 two years ago and have fulfilled. Our dog’s boosters are kept up to date, as well as flea, worming and rabies vaccinations and, all dogs are spayed and neutered at rescue if they are over 1 year as guided by our UK vet trustee.

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.

It was a very harsh winter in Bosnia and we kept the dogs safe and warm using straw and vet bedding. Our working partners gave the dogs a wonderful Christmas and we were able to successfully raise all the money needed for our Christmas food appeal. The challenges of the seasons continue to get worse and so we have plans to raise the funds to upgrade the buildings and include heating and air-conditioning over time.

January and February 2025 saw a targeted dental campaign in Bosnia as we treated every dog with grade 3 and 4 tartar and some that needed removals. This was under the advisement of our UK vet trustee Roger and the work was carried out by Citi Vet in Sarajevo. The same is planned for next year.

Our Co-Chair Maria received an invitation to the Bosnian Embassy in London for an event where she met with the Ambassador and his team and formed an excellent rapport for the charity to build on so we can reach a wider community both here in London and overseas

In March 2025 Maria returned to Bosnia once again with Volunteer-General Manager, Suzy Penn. All fire regulations were finished with 14 new fire extinguishers in place and smoke alarms in all Dog houses. The team undertook various meetings to achieve NGO status in

Bosnia and a mini photo shoot for a new hat range to help raise funds for the dogs was completed featuring dogs in need of adoption. The dog log was brought up-to-date and the volunteers supported our working partners helping with cleaning, walking the dogs and making preparations for the rest of the year. All dogs received flea and worming courtesy of World Veterinary Services and the incredible Luke Gamble. The team also spent time with dogs living in the community safely, including flea and worming elder dogs that they monitor on a regular basis.

Fundraising & Appeals

The charity has continued to raise funds with online fundraising activities including a bimonthly event run by the volunteers that included a Handmade auction and collectables auction. We continue to collaborate with Vegan Happy Clothing who have raised monies and donated to our funds through the sale of their products.

Our bi-monthly food appeals aim to cover the £1800 needed to feed our dogs and an evergrowing food bill. This is updated twice a week and hosted on the JustGiving 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, raising almost £4,000. Two of our adopters ran an indoor market for several weeks and raised over £800.00

We also have an amazing team of volunteers who host their own fundraising events from scatchcards and raffles to having stalls in local events including Cobham and Guildford Cathedral as well as smaller stalls through the summer and at Christmas.

With the help of trustee Lynne Chitty, our greetings cards range expanded considerably and we have new lines in our cards. Many of our volunteers sew and make items for us to sell, thus minimising our outlay on stock.

Alongside the introduction of notebooks for fundraising. Our Patron Rachel Wakeman painted an exclusive drawing entitled “Surrounded by Love” it has been made into tea towels, notebooks, cards and playing cards and she has plans to grow this range for the future. The printing costs are sponsored by Rick and Rachel and so all profits come to the charity.

The charity have 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 7 dogs (5 who have had a full sponsorship) supported over the year.

Freedom Friday continued to run every single week on our social media and Freedom Friday auctions continue to bring in funds raising £1,910 this financial year.

Financial Review

Year Ended 31 March 2025

During this year the Charity’s total incoming resources were £101,073. The resources were mainly from donations, adoption fees and fundraising activities. Total resources expended were £108,250. The Charity’s free unrestricted reserves as at 31 March 2025 amounted to £16,474 and restricted reserves £8,297.

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 20 January 2026 and signed on behalf of the board of trustees by:

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Kim Elizabeth Powell – Trustee

Maria Dawn Slough – Co-Chair

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

YEAR ENDED 31[ST] MARCH 2025

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 Sanctuary Land has been transferred back to Milena Malesevic to support her rescue and the dogs in her care.

The house in Pale, purchased 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. The Charity is entirely volunteer led so we aim to keep admin costs to a minimum.

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.

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 Charity no 31 March 2025 ended (if any) 1191852 Set out on pages 1-2 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended DD / MM / YYYY 31/03/2025 .

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 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: 15.01.2026 Name: Anita Brook Relevant professional qualification(s) or body ACCA (if any): Address: 1 Market Place Brackley NN13

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 .