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2024-08-31-accounts

Olympias Music Foundation Trustees report and financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2024

Charity Registration Number 1194413 (Charitable Incorporated Organisation)

Olympias Music Foundation

Trustees report and financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2024

Contents

Trustees and advisors........................................................................................................................... 1 Trustees report ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Independent examiners report .............................................................................................................. 6 Statement of financial activities for the year ended 31 August 2024 .................................................... 7 Balance sheet as at 31 August 2024 .................................................................................................... 8 Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2024 ................................................. 9

Olympias Music Foundation

Trustees and advisors

Trustees

Rick Eling – Chair Yana Eskandari – resigned 26 April 2025 Aziz Ibrahim – resigned 26 April 2025 Helen Krizos Suki Pardesi – resigned 26 April 2025 Keisha Thompson Will Allen – appointed 26 April 2025 Paulette Bayley – appointed 26 April 2025 Helen Palmer – appointed 26 April 2025

Charity Registration Number

1194413

Registered office

Manchester Museum University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL

Bankers

Lloyds Bank plc Blackheath London Branch

Independent Examiners

Hilton Jones Ltd t/a Community Accountancy Service Hollinwood Business Centre Alvert Street Oldham OL8 3QL

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Olympias Music Foundation

Trustees report

The Trustees present their report and financial statements covering the year from 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024. Olympias Music Foundation (‘Olympias’) was established in 2015 to carry out various activities in the Manchester area, focusing on the provision of access to music and music education to groups experiencing financial and social disadvantage including, in particular, children and vulnerable adults.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Governing Document

Olympias was established as an unincorporated association, governed by its constitution dated 23 June 2017 (as amended on 10 January 2018). On 23 April 2021, Olympias resolved to dissolve itself for the purpose of incorporating as a charitable incorporated organisation (‘CIO’). The CIO was established on 23 April 2021 and is governed by its constitution of the same date. These accounts concern the CIO, which succeeded the association and operated from 23 April 2021. The charitable purposes of the CIO, its objectives and activities mirror those of its predecessor organisation.

Appointment of Trustees

The Trustees are appointed in accordance with the constitution and are listed on page 1. The minimum number of Trustees is three; there is no maximum number. The method for appointment of trustees and the duration over which they hold office is described in the constitution.

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

The objectives of the charity are to advance the education of the public in the subject of music by providing opportunities for active engagement and participation in music-making. This is done by providing choirs, music workshops, concerts, music lessons and other musical opportunities for children and adults – with a particular focus on reaching communities in the areas of Ardwick, Longsight, Rusholme and Moss Side.

The Trustees seek to achieve those objectives by establishing services in Manchester which provide access to music education for children, vulnerable adults (including refugees, asylum seekers and victims of domestic violence) and individuals with special educational needs, and to seek to advance community integration and social empowerment of those groups.

STATEMENT OF PUBLIC BENEFIT

The Trustees have referred to the information contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the aims and objectives and in planning future activities. The Trustees believe that the activities carried out benefit to the public by providing music education and access to music to members of the community in disadvantaged parts of Manchester that would not ordinarily enjoy that sort of education or access.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

As detailed in Olympias’ trustee report and financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2022, the decision was taken to change Olympias’ financial year end from 31 December to 31 August to better align Olympias’ financial records with its project year (which follows an academic school year). Following the preparation and submission of financial statements and a short set of accounts

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Olympias Music Foundation

from January to August 2023 in the previous year, this is the first 12-month financial statement that begins in September and consequently runs from 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024.

September 2023 marked the beginning of the delivery of our Strategy and Business Plan for 2023-26, ‘Forging Musical Futures’. In addition to welcoming a further 40 children to join our Learn to Play music programme at Dean Trust Ardwick School (125 children in 2023-24, up from 85 in 2022-23), the new project year saw the commencement of three new weekly initiatives: our Children’s Orchestra and Parent Orchestra at Manchester Museum, and Composers’ Club at Contact Theatre. In December 2023, we celebrated the end of the new term with our annual Christmas Concert, welcoming children from across Learn to Play to perform for an audience of their families and the charity’s supporters at Manchester Museum. Later that month, the work of the charity was covered in a news article written by the Manchester Mill entitled ‘Why Should Posh Kids Have All the Fun? On Making Music a Universal, Not a Luxury’ – raising over £2,500 in donations from The Mill’s readers as part of their 2023 Christmas Campaign.

Alongside day-to-day operations, the charity navigated a number of challenges over the course of Autumn 2023. Whilst we were able to respond to these difficulties and implemented a successful new structure as outlined below, they did have an impact on the income and running of the charity. Challenges included the unexpected departure of our Fundraising and Development Manager (maternity cover), exacerbating staff capacity issues caused by extended staff illness and our Development Director being on maternity leave. In January 2024, Dean Trust Ardwick School, where we had been delivering our Learn to Play music lessons since 2022-23, suffered a major fire resulting in the need to find and pay for alternative premises until the end of the academic year in July 2024. In February 2024, the charity’s Programmes Manager of four years also left Olympias, compounding staff capacity issues and increasing pressure on the two remaining members of typically four-person team – one of whom was undertaking multiple surgeries for degenerative sight-loss.

In response to these personnel challenges, the charity undertook a HR restructure in December 2023 followed by the recruitment of two new members of staff – a new Programmes Manager, and Programmes and Finance Coordinator. Olympias also contracted the services of an external HR company, Peninsula, resulting in new contracts and policies for all staff members, as well as additional HR and legal support for the charity’s Chief Executive. The aim of these processes was to improve the charity’s resilience and reduce person-related risk by ensuring at least two staff members were responsible for each department within the charity (Programmes; Development; and Finance). Consequently, the core team was expanded from a four-person team (Chief Executive @ 1.0FTE; Development Director @ 1.0FTE; Programmes Manager @ 1.0FTE; Programmes and Finance Administrator @ 0.8FTE) to a five-person team consisting of:

In February 2024, the charity was joined by Programmes and Finance Coordinator, Tamsin Sandford Smith; followed by Programmes Manager, Sam Parry in April 2024. This alleviated the pressure on the core team and brought new ideas and energy into the organisation.

The start of 2024 also saw a number of major achievements and successes for Olympias, including winning the ‘Outstanding Initiative Prize’ at the national Music and Drama Education Awards; and being shortlisted for the ‘Impact Prize’ at the Royal Philharmonic Awards. In March 2024, we were visited by internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who delivered a bespoke zoom workshop with four Olympias children. The online event was attended by our wider Olympias community of families and teachers, who spent an inspirational 90 minutes performing to and chatting with Yo-Yo Ma. In order to raise the visibility of this work and our achievements during this period, we engaged the services of PR consultancy, The Space inBetween, who supported with the creation of a short video about Yo-Yo Ma’s visit and a press release celebrating our shortlisting for RPS. This contract was later extended to include the creation of a Messaging Framework for Olympias. The purpose of this

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Olympias Music Foundation

work was to support the charity to communicate it’s vision consistently and clearly across different audiences, and ultimately to assist with raising the charity’s profile over the longer term.

In April 2024, Olympias took part in its first ever ‘Big Give Arts for Impact’ campaign, a match-funded fundraising campaign aimed at supporting charities to increase their base of supporters by incentivising match-funded donations. Building on the momentum and support generated by The Mill’s Christmas Campaign and a successful Spring Concert at Manchester Museum (delivered in collaboration with musicians from Manchester Collective), we were able to raise £5,000 over the course of seven days. More importantly, the two fundraising campaigns established a solid foundation for the charity to develop its work around individual giving and begin to diversify income away from solely grant funding – as per the aims of our Strategy and Business Plan for 2023-26.

In June 2024, the charity’s Development Director returned from maternity leave as part of a phased return to work over three months. In August 2024, it became clear that the charity was facing financial challenges due to being unable to access up-to-date financial information whilst our Finance Coordinator was on extended sick leave and reduced fundraising capacity earlier in the year. Consequently, the charity undertook a crisis fundraising campaign with a focus on major donors (many of which had been cultivated through The Mill’s Christmas Campaign and The Big Give earlier in the year), enabling the charity to raise £120K in just over 2 weeks. This injection of cash helped to buy time for the charity to stabilise its cashflow and enact medium-term plans to safeguard the charity’s financial sustainability over the coming months. To support these efforts and reduce our organisational risk during this period of financial uncertainty, the decision was taken to reduce the number of children joining Learn to Play in September 2024 from 180 children (the target originally set as part of our Strategy for 2023-26) to 150 – with a view to recruiting 30 children to join the programme in January 2025, depending on the charity’s finances at that point.

The academic year ended with our termly Summer Concert at the Klondyke in Levenshulme in July 2024, and included performances from our Children’s and Parent Orchestras, Children’s Voices Choir and a number of brave soloists. This was followed by pizzas in the sunshine and a bouncy castle for the children. At the end of August 2024, we held our annual residential music course in Snowdonia, Music and Mountains, which was hosted by musicians Richard Ormrod and Mary Hofman and greatly enjoyed by the eight children chosen to attend. As in the previous year, children on the course camped outside, received daily music lessons in the morning and spent their afternoons exploring the mountains and wilderness around Richard and Mary’s home in Betws y Coed. The course culminated in a small concert by the children in the kitchen, which was filmed and shared with the children’s families.

As Olympias prepares to celebrate its 10[th] birthday in 2025, we continue to work towards creating a financially sustainable and secure future for the charity, and to safeguard the opportunities the charity provides to the many families which access its projects.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Total income for the period was £352,811 consisting of £253,191 of grant income from funders including the Oglesby Charitable Trust and the Foyle Foundation; £80,928 from contributed income including corporate giving and donations; £17,559 from earned income including events, and £1,133 from other income such as Gift Aid and forfeited project deposits. Current assets sat at £175,342 and in fixed tangible assets were £12,215. We are grateful to all funders and supporters for their kindness and generosity.

Expenditure for the period was £277,736 and included teaching costs, instruments, venue hire and salaries for Olympias’ Chief Executive; Development Director; Programmes Manager; Programmes and Finance Administrator; and Fundraising and Development Manager (maternity cover).

By 31 August 2024, the balance of our unrestricted funds was £117,642, and the balance of our restricted funds was £21,568.

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Olympias Music Foundation

RISK REVIEW, FUNDS AND RESERVES POLICY

The Trustees regularly review Olympias’ risk management systems, risk register and policies developed to mitigate the key risks identified by the Trustees. The key risks are considered to be:

The Trustees believe that these risks are minimised by holding regular meetings, the level of expertise on the board, monitoring of staff and development of policies. Key staff are child safeguarding trained. The Trustees are satisfied that there are sufficient procedures in place to mitigate these risks to an acceptable level.

The Trustees recognise the need for the association to establish and maintain reserves to enable it to continue to carry out its objectives. The Trustees aim to maintain unrestricted free reserves equivalent to three months running costs. Actual reserves as 31 August 2024 were £117,642.

TRUSTEES RESPONSIBILITIES

Charity law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial period, which give a true and fair view of the state of the charity and of its surplus or deficit for that period. In preparing those financial statements the Trustees have:

The Trustees are responsible for keeping records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the requirements of the Charity Commission. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Approved by the Trustees on 23 June 2024 and signed on their behalf by:

Rick Eling Chair of Trustees

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Olympias Music Foundation

Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Olympias Music Foundation

I report on the accounts of the company for the year ended 31 August 2024, which are set out on pages 7 to 13.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The trustees (who are also the directors of the company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) and that an independent examination is needed. The charity is required by company law to prepare accrued accounts and I am qualified to undertake the examination by being a qualified member of The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Having satisfied myself that the charity is not subject to audit under company law and is eligible for independent examination, it is my responsibility to:

(a) Basis of independent examiner’s report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

(b) Independent examiner’s statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

(1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements

• to keep accounting records in accordance with section 386 of the Companies Act 2006; and

• to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records, comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the Companies Act 2006; and

• with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities have not been met; or

(2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

J Hilton-Jones Hilton Jones Limited t/as Community Accountancy Service Hollinwood Business Centre Albert Street Oldham OL8 3QL Date: 23[rd] June 2025

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Olympias Music Foundation

Statement of financial activities for the period ended 31 August 2024

8 months
Year to to
Notes Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted
funds		 31.08.24 31.08.23
£ £ Total
funds		 Total
funds
£ £
Income from
Grant income 2 66,056 187,135 253,191
108,788
Corporate income 2 1,750 7,500 9,250
-
Major Donor income 56,100 - 56,100
2,000
Individual Giving income 15,578 - 15,578
8,753
Event & Community Fundraising income 4,670 - 4,670
318
Earned income 12,889 - 12,889
13,498
Other income 1,133 - 1,133
-
Total 158,175 194,635 352,811
133,607
Expenditure on
Freelance teaching costs 59,864 47,410 107,274
47,266
Salaries & overhead costs 21,769 129,626 151,394
98,869
Instruments/maintenance costs 1,522 2,764 4,286
2,152
One-off events/projects 7,573 2,805 10,378
22,253
Development, fundraising & promotional
costs		 92 2,900 2,992
2,126
Other costs 670 742 1,412
761
Total expenditure 91,489 186,247 277,736
173,427
Net income/(expenditure) 66,687 8,388 75,075
(39,820)
Fund balances brought forward 50,955 13,180 64,135
103,954
Fund balances carried forward 117,642 21,568 139,210
64,135

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Olympias Music Foundation

Balance sheet as at 31 August 2024

Notes Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted
funds		 31.08.24 31.08.23
£ £ Total
funds		 Total
funds
£ £
Fixed assets
Tangible assets 5 4,965 7,250 12,215 8,537
Current assets
Accrued income - - - 500
Cash at bank 123,539 51,803 175,342 113,211
Total current assets 123,539 51,803 175,342 113,711
Creditors
Tax & social security costs (1,940) - (1,940) (6,774)
Deferred income - (37,274) (37,274) (49,285)
Other creditors (8,923) (210) (9,133) (2,053)
Total creditors (10,863) (37,484) (48,347) (58,113)
Net current assets 112,676 14,319 126,995 55,598
Total assets less current
liabilities		 117,642 21,568 139,210 64,135
Net assets 117,642 21,568 139,210 64,135
Total funds 117,642 21,568 139,210 64,135

All amounts are derived from continuing operations and Olympias has no recognised gains and losses other than those passing through the statement of financial activities.

The financial statements on pages 7 to 13 were approved by the Trustees via email and signed on 23 June 2024 on their behalf by:

Rick Eling Chair of Trustees

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Olympias Music Foundation

Notes to the financial statements for the period ended 31 August 2024

1 Accounting policies

The principal accounting policies adopted in the preparation of the financial statements are set out below.

Basis of accounting

The accounts have been prepared on a going concern basis in accordance with the historical cost convention and comply with the Statement of Recommended Practice “Accounting and Reporting by Charities (FRS102)” (issued in 2015), the Charities Act 2011 and applicable accounting standards in the UK.

Going concern

The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charity's ability to continue as a going concern, having regard to funding secured for the year to 31 August 2025 and budget monitoring in place.

Fund accounting

General unrestricted funds are available at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of Olympias. Designated funds are those set aside by the Trustees for specific purposes and may be released to general funds at their discretion.

Restricted funds are funds subject to specific restrictions and conditions imposed by funders or by the purpose of the grant. Details of the balances on restricted funds are given in the notes to the financial statements.

Donations, Grants and other income

Income, including donations, capital grants and revenue grants, is recognised in the accounting period in which it is receivable, except in the following circumstances, when the income is deferred and included in creditors:

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Olympias Music Foundation

Expenditure

Costs are defined as follows:

Freelance teaching costs – The costs associated with the teaching time associated with any of Olympias’ charitable activities.

Salaries and overheads – The costs associated with employment of Olympias staff and other administrative activity associated with performing Olympias’ charitable activities.

Instruments/maintenance – The costs involved in purchasing and maintaining instruments required for the purpose of Olympias’ charitable activities.

One off events/projects – The costs involved in staging or executing one off performances or projects as part of any of Olympias’ charitable activities.

Development, fundraising & promotional costs – The costs involved in promoting the charity’s profile, raising voluntary income and expanding Olympias’ supporter base.

Other – Other costs not covered by any other category of expenditure, and including depreciation.

Tangible fixed assets

Olympias records equipment and musical instruments initially valued at £100 or more as tangible fixed assets. Olympias records depreciation of tangible fixed assets in the form of equipment and musical instruments over a 10period timeframe, resulting in an annual rate of depreciation of 10 per cent.

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Olympias Music Foundation

2 Reconciliation of movements in funds

Reconciliation of movement in funds

For the period ended 31 August
2024
Restricted grant income
The Martyn Bracegirdle Charitable
Foundation
We Love MCR Charity
The Matthew Nicholls Foundation
The Oglesby Charitable Trust
The Foyle Foundation
Garfield Weston Charitable Trust
The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust
KFC Foundation
The Casey Trust
The Eric & Margaret Kinder
Charitable Trust
The Golsoncott Foundation
The Granada Foundation
The Allan and Nesta Ferguson
Charitable Trust
TalkTalk Telecom Group Limited
(Future Fibre Fund)
The Gisela Graham Foundation
The Linder Foundation
CRH Charitable Trust
The Black Hill Charitable Trust
The National Lottery Community
Fund (Awards for All)
The Scops Arts Trust
The Noel Coward Foundation
Restricted corporate income
The Quilter Foundation		 Balance at
01.09.23
Incoming
resources
Resources
expended
Balance at
31.08.24
£
£
£
£
-
250
250
-
921
3,000
3,296
626
4,682
25,000
26,515
3,167
6,111
44,641
46,763
3,989
-
30,000
27,433
2,567
-
30,000
25,758
4,242
-
4,000
3,793
207
-
1,875
360
1,515
-
1,000
1,000
-
-
10,000
9,531
469
-
1,000
1,000
-
-
3,000
3,000
-
-
5,000
5,000
-
-
2,400
2,400
-
-
1,500
1,500
-
-
2,000
2,000
-
-
5,000
5,000
-
-
2,000
1,990
10
835
9,864
6,278
4,419
-
3,900
3,900
-
-
1,705
1,705
-
631
7,500
7,775
356
,
12,549
187,135
186,247
21,567

3 Controlling and related parties

Olympias Music Foundation is controlled by six trustees, each of whom were appointed in accordance with the constitution.

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Olympias Music Foundation

4 Related party disclosures

There are no donations from related parties which are outside the normal course of business and no restricted donations from related parties.

Nadia Eskandari, who is the daughter of Yana Eskandari, a Trustee of Olympias, provided services to Olympias in the role of Violin and Viola Tutor and received income of £11,462 from Olympias. At the end of the financial year, nothing was owed to Nadia Eskandari.

5 Tangible fixed assets

Equipment & Instruments
£
Cost
At 1 September 2023 10,636
Additions 5,089
At 31 August 2024 15,726
Depreciation
At 1 September 2023 2,099
Charge for period 1,412
At 31 August 2024 3,511
Net book value
At 31 August 2024 12,215
At 31 August 2023 8,537

No tangible fixed assets were donated in the current or previous financial period.

6 Total staff costs and employee benefits

Within the reporting year, Olympias employed an average of five staff (2023: four), consisting of five part-time members of staff from September 2023 to August 2024. Total staff costs and employee benefits were as follows:

No employee received total employee benefits of more than £60,000.

No trustee received any remuneration or expenses during the year (2023: £nil)

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Olympias Music Foundation

7 Deferred Income

Deferred Income comprises grants in advance.

Grant Income
The National Lottery Community
Fund (Awards for All)
The Boris Karloff Charitable Grant
The Martyn Bracegirdle Charitable
Foundation
Albert & Eugenie Frost Music Trust
The Victoria Wood Foundation
The Oglesby Charitable Trust
The Matthew Nicholls Foundation
The Black Hill Charitable Trust
We Love MCR Charity
KFC Foundation
The Casey Trust
Corporate Income
John Pass Ltd
The Quilter Foundation		 31.08.24
31.08.23
£
£
9,864
-
1,000
-
250
250
6,300
-
5,000
-
11,860
9,660
-
25,000
-
1,000
-
3,000
-
1,875
-
1,000
3,000
-
-
7,500
37,274
49,285

8 Events after the Reporting Date

The trustees confirm that no significant events occurred after 31 August 2024 that require disclosure in these financial statements.

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