## **Chair Report – September 2022 Lisa Maidment** ## **Introduction** I have been in the role of leading this from conception. The last year as Chair of Trustees and CEO operationally. This has been a year of huge change for the charity. Our first year as a charity. But the second year as a charitable concern. Producing hand made items for our community. ## **Our Aims and Objectives** **** What were the charities objectives in the year under review ## **Our Achievements:** This year we set ourselves up as a registered charity. Found premises for us to operate from. To refurbish them, all whilst still operating the charity. And growing. From doing it at home or from my business premises, to the Archery and now our forever home. All the while supporting more and more settings, and numbers of those making growing week on week. We have almost doubled the numbers in our facebook group to over 2,000 makers and supporters. The quantity of items the charity produces is on average 4,000 items a month. And that number is growing week on week. Whilst at the archery, we averaged 500 items a week. Since being at our new home, that figures has pretty much doubled, and still growing. We had to develop a whole suite of processes and procedures. To ensure we could run as efficiently and smoothly as possible. And to safeguard the volunteers, with health and safety assessments. We have made moves to give more responsibilities to other volunteers, to enable us to create more manageable volunteer roles operationally. ## **Trustees:** Each of the trustees has worked tirelessly, above and beyond of that of a role of an unpaid volunteer. And for that, I am truly grateful. **** name and the role of each Trustee who were responsible for the management of the charity in this period. Where they only served part of the year under review put the start or end date. You may want to add here that there are vacancies for trustees and applications are welcome. ## **Governance** ****The charity is managed and governed by a constitution which has been agreed and is subject to review by the trustees. ## **Volunteers** Our volunteers are the backbone of this charity. And without all of the makers, drivers, hub managers, operational leads and supporters, we couldn’t help all those we help. Our volunteers are so very passionate about helping our community. Not only do what we make, make a difference to our community. But we have created a community. Which has made a huge positive impact to everyone involved mental health. And I am proud to have received the freedom of the borough on behalf of us all. Being recognised for the great work we do, is truly wonderful. ## **Financing** **** Charity Bank Details: …… We have worked very hard to get the charity to a solid and stable position financially. To ensure we have an adequate safety net, with at least 6 months service charge in the pot at all times. We are getting more and more places who are proactively supporting us financially. Without us having to work as hard. As we get more known, people are becoming more willing to support us. Or understand what we do. And that we are a stable and credible charity to support. **** More details of the charities income and expenditure, its reserves and assets will be provided by the treasurer. ## **The next 12 months** The next 12 months will be focussed on evolving. By bringing in more volunteers to manage aspects of the operational side of the charity. As there are currently not enough hours in the day. Not everyone can make, but we have members with such wonderful skills, and a desire to help us do more and more for our community. We will also be looking to recruit more Trustees. To ensure that our charity is as robust as possible. At the moment we are all unpaid volunteers, I want to ensure that this charity remains fun and manageable for all involved. And if necessary, we may change our constitution to allow for paid roles if we need to. We will continue to encourage members to get more involved. To enable the sharing of the load. I envisage that we will continue to produce and donate around the same amount monthly going forwards. We will also be organising more workshops to encourage more members of the community to learn more crafting skills. But essentially to keep doing the good work that we do. It’s been a rollercoaster. But I couldn’t be any more proud of what we have achieved. Something truly wonderful has come out of a very difficult time. ## **Financial Report for 19th April 2021 – 31[st] March 2022** We originally registered as a Limited Company to trade as Crafting for Communities Ltd, with our bank account in that name. The balance in the Bank at the start was £0.01 plus a donation from Dudley for the Love of Scrubs of £4,650.00. Crafting for Communities Ltd was wound up and ceased trading on 15[th] February 2022 with a bank balance of £0.00 after transferring £10,100.00 to the bank account for Crafting For Communities on 15[th] February 2022. At the Charity year end on 31[st] March 2022 Crafting For Communities had £16,252.07 in it’s bank account. Our income comes mainly from Auctions and Raffles which you all so kindly participate in . The Auctions raised £7,617.00 over this period. The raffles raised £876.00. We have successfully applied for grants and have obtained £17,668.78 over the year. Grants and Donations have come from Arnold Clark, Fisher Trust, Wylde Charity, Tesco, Asda, Co-op, West Bromwich Building Society, National Lottery, Saleem Foundation, Aspire Business Partnership, Blackmore Foundation, Griffin & King, Rotary, Eclestastical Insurance, AA Walters and various anonymous donations. A thank you also goes to Pedmore Sporting Club who kindly provided us with the beautiful flooring in the Meeting Room and Foyer, they helped to transform our working space. Expenditure has gone on fabric, haberdashery, wool, equipment, stationery, plastic packing bags and marketing. We are all volunteers and no salaries have been paid. ## **Summary Crafting for Communities Ltd** Total income £19,132.85 Total expenditure £19,132.85 Balance £0.00 ## **Crafting for Communities** Total income £10,852.38 Total Expenditure £ 1,241.17 Total balances at Bank £ 9,611.21 Out of the balance we had ring fenced amounts (we call them pots) for special purposes. Service Charge for the premises (This would cover what we owed the Council and an extra 6 months). The 5 bank accounts are named as follows: ||| |---|---| |Service Charge (pot)|£ 5000.00| |Safety Net (pot)|£ 3,000.00| |Accountant Services (pot)|£ 300.00| |Current Account|£ 1,311.21| |Total|£ 9,611.21| ||| This gives us a strong position for the next year April 2022 to April 2023. ## **The current position is as follows:** We entered the new financial year in a strong position and as of 1[st] September 2022 we have received a total of £5,425.00 in grants, £4,516.00 from auctions and raffles. In the bank we have £17,088.29 with a £1,000 grant due to come in this month. The Service Charge pot now stands at £8,652.00 will only be spent on the service charge to Dudley MBC. 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