2022-12-31-accounts

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Life B ANNUAL REPORT 2022

CHAIRPERSON’S MESSAGE __________ 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY __________ 5 VOLUNTEERS IMPACT ____________ 7 ORGANISATIONAL PROFILE ___________ 8 MISSION ______________ 8 VISION ______________ 8 CORE VALUES _____________ 8 MODEL ______________ 8 LEADERSHIP TEAM ______________ 9 VOLUNTEERS _____________ 9 2022 PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES _________ 11 GOING TO UNIVERSITY PROJECT ___________ 11 WORKSHOP FEEDBACK ____________ 13 ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET PROJECT ___________ 16 ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET WORKSHOP _________ 16 SETTING YOURSELF UP FINANCIALLY FOR YOUR FUTURE _______ 16 FIRST ENTERPRISE SEED FUND AWARD __________ 16 MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS PROJECT __________ 17 MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS VIDEOS __________ 17 MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS TRAINING _________ 18 MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS OUTREACH _________ 19 MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS TRACTS _________ 20 CAPACITY BUILDING PROJECT ____________ 21 SEASON OF ADVANCEMENT ____________ 21 AWARENESS AND MAN’S DREAM STATE, SESSION 1-3 ________ 21 FASTING AND ALL NIGHT PRAYERS __________ 23 RELATIONSHIP WEBINAR ____________ 23 LBI PRAYER MEETING ____________ 23 LEADERSHIP TRAINING ___________ 23 BIBLE – IN – A -YEAR _____________ 24 MOTHER AT BIRTH PROJECT ___________ 25 BACK TO SCHOOL PROJECT ____________ 26 INTERNAL ACTIVITIES FOR VOLUNTEERS _______ 27 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ____________ 27 STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH _________ 28 INVESTMENT IN SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE _________ 28 FINANCE ____________ 29 CROWDFUNDING AND DONATIONS ___________ 29 CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL PROJECT _______ 29 DONATIONS FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL PROJECT _________ 29 INCOME AND EXPENDITURE HIGHLIGHTS _____________ 30

CHAIRPERSON’S MESSAGE

We started 2022 optimistic following the uncertainty caused by COVID-19. We were ready to face new challenges and begin with our new normal. However, as the year progressed, the global economic downturn heightened in its door-to-door impact, and yet we persisted through it to continue engaging our stakeholders. Together with coordinators, volunteers, partners, and donors, we achieved most of our 2022 goals through our unique variety of programs offered to our beneficiaries.

We were humbled to see that educational and governmental institutions recognised our commitment to providing exceptional support to young people and living the core values of Life Beacon to the fullest. These recognitions were reified in the following awards in 2022:

Loughborough University School of Business and Economic Dean’s Award for Corporate Social Responsibility
Charnwood Community Heroes Award for Inspiring Others
Loughborough University PhD Awards for Contributing to the Wider Community.

Looking ahead, we aim to sharpen our focus on providing support to many more young people and building stronger relationships with our stakeholders. We are excited about our expansion plans for our current programs, which involve intensifying our youth capacity-building and social action models beyond our current regions. Certainly, it is our continuous hope that all of these actions will bring positive change to the communities where we work. We will continue to adhere to Life Beacon’s unique core values to overcome global problems and other societal issues. We will work together to support young people to build a sustainable future for themselves and their

communities through love, developing relationships and making good use of opportunities available to them.

With this in mind, we developed, in 2022, an organisational vision statement, “Provide sustainable education, well-being, and overall living for young people around the world, now and for the future.” As Life Beacon, we look forward to collaborating with our donors, volunteers, partners, and other current and prospective stakeholders to achieve this goal.

2023 will be a significant year to accelerate the implementation of our “Strategy” and “Values” and to make a giant leap forward. We aim to strengthen our relationship with our stakeholders, make significant progress toward our vision for the future world.

Through my experiences, I have found that growth often comes through taking on activities and responsibilities that one is not fully prepared for. When we are faced with things that we are not sure we can do yet continue to push through them, it is then that we experience breakthroughs and see growth. We are on a journey towards growth and self-discovery in 2023. Therefore, I am incredibly grateful to be the chairperson of Life Beacon International and excited that we can support our society while striving for growth in ourselves. I am also pleased to see that our work aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We will continue to move forward as one team in 2023 without wavering in our efforts to bring about true transformation to the young generation.

Finally, I thank our coordinators, volunteers, partners, donors, and supporters, whose generosity and compassion inspire me even in the most challenging times. I look forward to another year of success in LBI.

Dr Ruby Appiah-Campbell (PhD) Chairperson, Life Beacon International

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Life Beacon was established to support young people by providing advice and assistance as well as organising educational programs and projects to advance their lives. In 2022, the organisation undertook outreach projects, training, and informative programs to equip participants and volunteers with valuable skills. These projects included: Going to University, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Mental Health Awareness (MHA), Faith-based Capacity-Building, Mother at Birth and Back-to-School. Over 8650 people, including our beneficiaries and volunteers, benefitted from LBI projects and programs.

2022 LBI PROJECTS AND IMPACT

Firstly, through the Going to University project, which involved holding workshops for sixth-form and college students, we provided students with the opportunity to hear university students’ experiences, receive advice regarding university education and ask questions to further aid with their decisions to go to university and to prepare for the transition. Topics such as the university application process, managing finances, and university social activities are discussed during the sessions. In 2022, we visited 5 schools in the Midlands region of England and interacted with 565 pupils.

Secondly, the Entrepreneurial Mindset project focused on supporting young people to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and bring their business ideas to life through workshops, mentoring and training. In 2022, 3 workshops were conducted to support 55 young people, and our first Seed Fund was awarded to a volunteer in Ghana.

Thirdly, for the first time, LBI partnered with the Rotary Club of Hendon to conduct one of our major projects of 2022, the Mental Health Awareness (MHA) project. The project comprised of MHA outreach, training, awareness videos, and flyers. All contents were developed and created internally by volunteers and benefited 2,931 young people.

Fourthly, the Capacity- Building project focused on building young people’s spiritual lives, especially internal LBI volunteers. This was done through organised prayer

meetings, a Bible reading challenge, teaching, and training webinars, and created evangelism flyers.

Fifthly, our Mother at Birth project supported mothers and newborn babies. As part of the project, the mothers received counselling and education to improve women’s health care and reduce maternal mortality rate within the community. The mothers were provided with baby essentials and postpartum maternal essentials. The project supported 305 eligible people, attending healthcare at 2 health service facilities in Ghana.

Lastly, the Back-to-School project took place in Central Assahoun in Togo, West Africa, where we supported underprivileged school-going children with essential school items and refurbished 5 classroom blocks of the school building.

Table 1: Summary of Progressive Impact from 2021 to 2022

PROJECTS	2021 IMPACT	IMPACT BY THE END OF 2022
Going to University Project	120	685
Entrepreneurial Mindset Project	470	525
Mental Health Awareness Project	8	2939
Capacity-Building Project (Faith)	77	206
Mother at Birth Project	212	518
Back to School Project	450	1012

VOLUNTEERS IMPACT

In LBI, our goal is to empower our volunteers to develop themselves as they also support other young people. To ensure that our volunteers are effectively empowered, we evaluate the impact LBI makes on them quarterly. Having mentioned this, we are pleased to see that in 2022, 4 of our long-term volunteers pursuing PhDs passed and are now Doctors (PhD). Also, we had several of our volunteers graduating with their master’s and undergraduate degrees and getting good jobs in various industries, for which Life Beacon provided references and recommendations.

ORGANISATIONAL PROFILE

MISSION

Our mission is to support, educate, and empower young people and volunteers, while promoting a sustainable future for all. We prioritise key areas of education, wellbeing, and faith, working at the individual, group, and community levels to foster positive change and resilience as we strive to create a more sustainable, equitable, and thriving society.

VISION

Provide sustainable education, well-being, and overall living for young people around the world, now and for the future.

CORE VALUES

Integrity
Continuous personal development
Inclusion
Empathy
Creativity

MODEL

LBI’s model is centred around young people: our goal is to transform young people’s lives through young people. We believe that young people are in the best position to lead our projects and achieve our vision and mission because they know and understand the issues that young people face and can relate more with other young people on a personal level. This also provides the opportunity for those leading to develop themselves in the process of delivering on the organisation’s goals.

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Young People
led approach.
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All projects are
led by young
people which
helps them to
grow.
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LEADERSHIP TEAM

Chairperson: Dr Ruby Appiah-Campbell (PhD)

Finance Department Coordinator: Dr Gloria Wie-Addo (PhD)

Administration Department Coordinator: Ms. Essivi Kossi

Public Engagement Department Coordinator: Ms. Flany Koulibaly

Research and Development Department Coordinator: Dr Wolé Adaramoye (PhD) Faith-Based Department Coordinator: Rev Nana Yaa Nsiah Appiah Mum and Child Department Coordinator: Ms. Dinah Naa Aryeh Well-being Department Coordinator: Ms. Kemi Ojo-Osagie Training Department Coordinator: Dr Bridget Ogharanduku (PhD) Enterprise Department Coordinator: Mr. Olubunmi Akintola Mentoring Department Coordinator: Ms. Richlove Frimpong Supporting Coordinator: Dr Innocent Kamara Tumwebaze (PhD)

West Africa Regional Coordinator: Ms. Nancy Sweety Manful

VOLUNTEERS

LBI started in October 2020 with a small group of 10 volunteers and has grown exponentially to house 32 short- and 48 long-term volunteers as of December 2022. Our long-term volunteers are the volunteers who work directly with the coordinators in running the activities of the departments in Life Beacon. The short-term volunteers mostly take part in the implementation of our projects. Our volunteers are mostly students and some non-students, including working professionals and parents. The growth and effectiveness of Life Beacon are hugely dependent on our volunteers; therefore, they are also our beneficiaries as we provide them with the needed support in advancing their education, careers, and overall well-being.

Figure 1

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VOLUNTEERS
40%
Short term
Long term
60%
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Figure 2

2022 PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES

GOING TO UNIVERSITY PROJECT

The Going to University (GTU) project was developed and started in 2021. The GTU project allows college and sixth-form students to hear university students’ experiences, receive advice and ask questions to further aid their decision to go to university and prepare for the transition. Many students go to university without all the information and advice they need to transition from secondary education to higher education. This may lead to stress and other mental health difficulties, which could be avoided by presenting students with the needed information about the university experience.

In 2022, we planned to visit 10 different schools with the GTU project. However, due to the complex process of contacting the schools and arranging a slot on their timetables, we visited 4 schools within the midlands of the UK.

The project content covers the university application process, independent living, participating in social activities, gaining transferable skills, examinations, coursework, and managing one’s finances.

On the 1st of March 2022, LBI conducted a workshop for 15 Year 10 students at Woodbrook Vale School. The Entrepreneurial Mindset project was also incorporated into this session which involved LBI discussing youth Entrepreneurship (please see page 12 for more info about the Entrepreneurial Mindset project).
On the 9[th] of May 2022, LBI held a virtual workshop for over 385 Limehurst Academy students from diverse backgrounds.
On the 19th of May 2022, another workshop was held at Rawlins Academy for over 130 year 12 students (Sixth form students).
Finally, on the 28th of October, another workshop was held at Iveshead school for 35 year 12 students (Sixth form students).

In total, LBI volunteers interacted with and impacted 565 students in 2022.

WORKSHOP FEEDBACK

During our GTU workshops, we ask students questions and collect feedback so we can cover the most beneficial topics and improve engagements with them. The responses and feedback from students are good examples of what college or sixth-form students think of university and the workshops.

We asked the students what makes them the most anxious about going to university so we could address some of those concerns and help them become more confident about going to university:

MeetTrng new people making new friends becguse the 50ciBI ski115 gre not there 11 Soclallslng wlth new 0p1@ havlng to soclallse wlth new people and the mount dlfficulty of work. Talklng and meoting new poople lfferent erwlronmeni and people Llvlng away from home wlth strangev5 maklng new fYl•nd$ Noi belng smart enough tho chang Meetln9 new people Talklng to new people and new cla55eS People Belng alone. belng overwhelmed by the workload. belng responslble for my own health, ptitting effort Into socl8llslng A long time of my Ilfe whereas I coultJ Just go stralght Into work or a d•gr•e apprentieoshlp and get pald The money. leavlng horne and the workload Gettlng lost In the unl lots of people Talklng to new people Keeplng on top of the work load. Independence Meeting new people and making new friends because the social skills are not theiè IM* Socialising wtth nÈw people

We also collected feedback on the session which was very positive:

The Going to University project is organised and run by the Mentoring department within LBI and is assisted by other departments when necessary.

ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET PROJECT

The Entrepreneurial Mindset project focuses on supporting young people to develop an entrepreneurial mindset through workshops, mentorship, advice, and events .

ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET WORKSHOP

LBI planned to visit 5 schools to conduct the Entrepreneurial Mindset workshop; however, due to the complex process of contacting the schools and arranging a slot on their timetables, we visited 1 school to conduct the workshop, with 15 pupils in the session. LBI plans to visit 5 schools with this project in 2023 as we make progress with partnering with the schools.

SETTING YOURSELF UP FINANCIALLY FOR YOUR FUTURE

On the 9[th] of April 2022 and the 10[th] of September 2022, the organisation hosted an informative event to help young people understand various financial concerns. Both sessions had over 15 participants. We provided information and advice concerning investments, saving, setting up a business and having a good relationship with money.

FIRST ENTERPRISE SEED FUND AWARD

The organisation awarded LBI’s first seed fund in June 2022 to an LBI volunteer. The seed fund was established in October 2021 to support young people undergoing the LBI enterprise mentoring scheme and have great ideas. The winner for 2022 was selected based on

his application documents submitted, potential of idea presented and excellent performance throughout the selection process. The volunteer received an award for his business called ‘Elements’. He stated, ‘I would be dealing in merchandise and e- commerce precisely; phone accessories and clothing’. The Enterprise department oversees the Entrepreneurial Mindset project and supports young people to start their own businesses through mentorship, advice and the LBI Seed Fund.

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS PROJECT

The Mental Health Awareness project (MHA) began as a partnership between LBI and the Rotary Club of Hendon in October 2021. Due to LBI’s experience supporting young people, the Rotary Club of Hendon approached LBI with the desire to embark on an annual project surrounding Youth Mental Health in honour of the Queen’s Jubilee.

The partnership between LBI and Rotary has been extremely successful and has impacted over 450 lives worldwide (including LBI and Rotary volunteers) through videos, tracts, outreach, and training.

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS VIDEOS

Short and engaging videos about mental health were developed and created to share on all our social media platforms. The purpose of the MHA videos was to help young people understand the importance of mental health, help them to identify the symptoms and encourage them to get help from various groups and organisations.

These videos included an introductory video by the LBI Chairperson and Rotary Club of Hendon President explaining the Mental Health Awareness project. We also created an informative video about the symptoms of deteriorating mental health (sponsored by the Rotary Club of Hendon) to help viewers identify early signs of mental health difficulties so they can seek the right kind of help at an early stage.

To reach our young audience, we hosted several round-table discussions to make young people aware of how mental health can affect their daily life. In total, we created over 14.95 minutes of content with over 2607 views.

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS TRAINING

LBI collaborated with the Rotary Club of Hendon to organise and host a virtual MHA Training on the 9th of May 2022. We had experts explain to LBI and Rotary volunteers and other young people the types of mental health challenges, signs of poor mental health and ways of dealing with poor mental health. Participants were also given the opportunity to ask questions to the experts. The training was done so beneficiaries could gain more knowledge and successfully participate in the Mental Health Awareness Outreach project. There were over 74 participants who were awarded certificates of participation.

Figure 2: MHA Training Feedback

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Is there anything you know now about Mental
Health Awareness that you did not know before?
Answer Number of participants who answered
Yes 49
No 8
Grand Total 57
Conclusion: Majority of participants felt this LBI training event tought them something they
did not know before.
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Figure 2 shows that most participants (86%) who filled in the feedback form learned something new from the training.

Figures 3 and 4: MHA Training Feedback

70% of participants who filled in the feedback form rated the training 4/5 for how much it benefited them, and 98% had their expectations met.

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS OUTREACH

On the 2nd of April 2022, LBI and the Rotary Club of Hendon embarked on an MHA outreach at the University of Ghana’s Volta and Commonwealth Halls. 25 volunteers participated in the outreach, with 10 being from LBI and 15 from the University of Ghana Rotaract club.

During the outreach, volunteers educated students on the symptoms of poor mental health and the importance of good mental health. The students were also advised on where to seek help and which professionals to speak to if they faced signs of mental health challenges. The volunteers spoke to over 250 students at the university and gave out 250 MHA tracts which were developed and created by LBI.

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS TRACTS

LBI developed and created MHA tracts with essential information. The tract contains detailed information about the signs of poor mental health and steps to take when those signs are apparent. It also directs readers to groups and organisations which provide help to those with mental health difficulties. In keeping the information relevant to the socio-economic background of the beneficiaries, we created a UK version and a Ghana version. The figure below is a screenshot of the tracks produced.

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Front Back
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The Well-being department managed the MHA project within LBI, and as part of their role, the department focuses on the overall well-being of young people, including LBI Volunteers, by offering therapy sessions and advice.

CAPACITY BUILDING PROJECT

LBI aimed to help volunteers build spiritual capacity through the Capacity-Building project, which involved spiritual activities like prayer, reading and studying the Bible and teaching the word to one another. We hosted various events to which guest speakers were invited.

SEASON OF ADVANCEMENT

LBI organised its first in-person impartation service, themed Season of Advancement, with Prophet Isaac Anto of Conqueror’s Chapel International, Ghana, on the 27[th ] of March, 2022. The event was held at Loughborough University’s Faith and Spirituality Chapel and was attended by over 30 young people.

AWARENESS AND MAN’S DREAM STATE, SESSION 1-3

LBI also organised 3 teaching sessions on Awareness and Man’s Dream State on Zoom with Bishop Dr Osei Tweneboah-Koduah from Victory Bible Church International, USA. The sessions were held on the 3rd of September 2022 (titled ‘Lord I Want to Dream’), the 1st of October 2022 (titled ‘The Art of Dreaming’) and the 22nd of October 2022 (titled ‘Dream Artefacts’). The sessions were attended by people from the UK, US, Ghana, and Nigeria. Bishop Tweneboah-Koduah shared literary resources with

attendees: The Dream Giver, MP4 audio recordings of the sessions and other teachings in the series available for attendees. 46 people participated in the event.

Padlet links shared for feedback from attendees were filled with positive testimonials of the events’ impact. These feedback comments were shared with the Speaker. Below are some of the comments made by the attendants of the sessions.

FASTING AND ALL NIGHT PRAYERS

LBI had a 3-day fast with all-night prayers from 17-19[th] of August 2022 under the theme ‘Light Me Up Lord’ (Psalm 18:28). Coordinators, volunteers, and invitees mediated on daily scripture outlines in a 6 am-6 pm fast and personal prayers. LBI hosted Prophet Kingsley Benaiah Asante-Brown for a virtual all-night prayer and prophetic service from 11:30 pm on the 19th of August 2022 to 5 am on the 20[th] of August 2022. 12 people participated in the All Night Prayer.

RELATIONSHIP WEBINAR

The organisation also organised a virtual Relationship Webinar on the 17[th] of December 2022 with Reverend Counselor Samuel Appiah-Campbell, who discussed building foundational blocks and navigating common relationship challenges. We had about 31 participants in attendance.

LBI PRAYER MEETING

LBI Coordinators have continued 1-hour prayer sessions from Mondays to Fridays to invoke graces for the smooth conduct of the operations and projects of the organisations, over the lives, destinies and pursuits of its volunteers and coordinators, and emergent interests aligned with LBI’s vision and mandate. Following a review, the time for the sessions has recently been amended to 10 pm-11 pm.

LEADERSHIP TRAINING

Faith-Based Advisors were given topics to prepare to teach their peers and answer questions. 5 volunteers participated in this exercise and benefited from it. The topics that were covered include The Man Jesus; Redemption; Grace; The Mandate of Prayer; The Believer’s Identity; The Gifts of the Spirit, and Faith. The exercise proved very insightful, and volunteers were encouraged to turn their submissions into blog articles for the LBI website. The submitted write-ups are currently undergoing editorial review.

BIBLE – IN – A -YEAR

Volunteers with the faith-based department were encouraged to read the whole Bible in a Year. The daily readings were beneficial and prompted engagement on varied topics, reflections, and questions from volunteers on the group WhatsApp page.

LBI is built on Christian values; we believe young people need faith and an extraordinary spiritual life to build a sustainable future. The faith department led the Building Capacity project. Also, the department supports young people to grow in faith and develop their spiritual life through teaching events, prayer meetings, mentorship, and advice. The faith-based advisors are also trained and mentored through departmental meetings, bible reading and other faith-based activities. The department planned to have counselling training for the department volunteers, but most were not eligible for the free training, so it could not go forward. They plan to do the training in 2023 and create weekly inspirational posts, which they could not finish in 2022.

MOTHER AT BIRTH PROJECT

This project, launched in 2021, entails visiting health service facilities in underprivileged communities to support mothers and their newborn babies with baby and postpartum essentials as well as to educate pregnant and new mums on healthcare issues. So far, LBI has visited 5 hospitals, 2 clinics, and 2 health centres in Ghana. In 2022, the project was enhanced to include extra items to support the mothers and newborns.

On the 12th of January 2022, we visited 1 hospital and 2 health centres at Ada in the Eastern Region of Ghana. In the first health centre, there were 32 women present and 19 women present in the second health centre; the General hospital, had 102 women. We interacted with the expecting and new mothers and supported them with baby essentials such as diapers, wipes, buckets, sponges, bathing gel and much more to the women. The project was broadcasted by Radio Universe (105.7 FM) in Accra on two different occasions, and a blog post was also published on Asaase Radio’s website.

This project was managed by our Mum and Child department, and they also managed the Back-to-School project (see details below)

BACK TO SCHOOL PROJECT

LBI conducted the Back-to-School project at the Primary School of Central Assahoun in Togo on the 16th of November 2022. As part of the project, LBI sponsored the school building renovations to create a better environment for the children to learn and develop. In their appreciation, the school dedicated a building to LBI. 162 bags of stationery were donated to the year 1 pupils who were our target beneficiaries; over 100 pens were given to the teachers, and we gave the rest of the children (over 400 who were not in year 1) biscuits and toffees so they could also leave with something. As part of the project, volunteers gave school pupils some words of encouragement and wisdom on the importance of their education.

INTERNAL ACTIVITIES FOR VOLUNTEERS

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

LBI volunteers have been learning to regularly create and develop informative, engaging internal content and perform administrative duties. The volunteers improve their skillset and knowledge and enhance their creativity through practice, one-onone training, support, and constructive feedback. Below are some of the content and administrative duties:

Planning, creating, and sharing LBI Monthly Newsletters: In 2022, 12 Newsletters were created and sent out. The newsletter went through multiple changes and developments to make it more engaging.
Creating Birthday posts and scheduling Birthday emails: 28 birthday posts were made and sent in 2022.
Organising virtual events: This involved creating flyers, sending invitations and reminder emails, collecting feedback from participants, and sending appreciation cards to guest speakers.
Creating formal documents such as policies and reports: 3 policy documents and 1 report were created in 2022, which can be read on our website.
Organising and hosting Internal Family Social events for volunteers to bond and learn together; for example, for one of the Family Social’s we hosted ‘setting yourself up financially for your future’ (look at the Entrepreneurial Mindset Project). In total, we hosted 2 Family Socials in 2022.

The Administration department manages these processes. The department had plans to have Admin volunteers provide administrative support to each department. However, this was not sustainable and was too early in the organisation's growth to implement. This will be implemented in the near future when the time is right.

STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH

In 2022, the leadership team of LBI had a strategy session to develop our new strategy, which will be implemented in 2023. We also conducted research to improve existing processes and operations. One of the ways this was done was by reviewing feedback from beneficiaries after conducting our projects and providing a service. We also took periodic reviews and feedback from volunteers to keep track of the departments' performance regarding their activities. This enabled the organisation to keep up to date with all departments' activities. The feedback received assisted us with continuous improvements in delivering our activities, the capacities of volunteers, and engagement with beneficiaries. The Research and Development department led these activities.

INVESTMENT IN SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE

In 2022, we invested in systems such as Typeform, Airtable, Connecteams, Zoom, Microsoft 365 and email accounts for all our coordinators to help with the smooth running of the organisation. These systems enable us to measure and evaluate our impact, which informs the improvement of our process and implementation of our projects.

FINANCE

A summary of our 2022 crowdfunding, donations, income, and expenditure are as follows.

CROWDFUNDING AND DONATIONS

Through various methods, LBI engages with the public and builds strategic relationships with stakeholders to support all projects.

CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL PROJECT

The organisation launched our Back to School Crowdfunding campaign on the 16[th] of July 2022 to raise funds for the back to school project on our social media platforms. We were able to raise a total of £674.35 for the project.

DONATIONS FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL PROJECT

We received £ 2,000 from Hesley Group towards refurbishing the school building for the project. The Action section of the Loughborough Student Union also raised and donated £500 towards the project and collected some back-to-school essentials for the project. Spreading Love Foundation USA also donated $200 and some school essentials. We also received school essentials from the Loughborough University PhD SSN Book Club. A team of LBI volunteers also went to the Leicester market to sell some jewelry and other products from two volunteer businesses to support the project. Aside from the school items received for the project, a total of £3,889.30, including individual donations, was raised.

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE HIGHLIGHTS

LBI’s total gross income in 2022 was £10546.81 , and our total expenditure was £10457.59.

Where our Income came from in 2022:

LBI income came from our fundraising, sponsors, and individual donations. Majority of our income in 2022 came from other organisations (49%) and Fundraising (36%).

Where our expenses went in 2022:

All LBI expenditures in 2022 were operational expenses and majority of LBI finances went towards our project costs (78%) and operational costs (15%).

Figures 5 and 4: Summary of our Income and Expenditure

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INCOME
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Donations from organisations Fundraising Donations from individuals Refunds/Compensation Bank Interest

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EXPENSES
Project Cost
LBI Operations
Coordinators Appreciation
Employment Cost
Marketing
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THANK YOU!

We thank all our volunteers, donors, partners, social media followers and beneficiaries for making 2022 achievements possible. With your support, we have impacted the lives of more than 8000 since the birth of LBI. We look forward to your support in 2023 as we keep growing and impacting many more lives.

To keep updated with the activities of Life Beacon, please visit our website, and follow us on our social media pages below:

Website: https://www.lifebeacon.org/

Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn: @life.beacon.international

Twitter: @life_beacon

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