Connect Exminster CIO
(registered charity number 1199203)
Financial Statements and Chairs Report
for the year ending 31[st] December 2024
| Page | Contents |
|---|---|
| 2-3 | Trustees’ annual report |
| 4-5 | Independent examiner’s report |
| 6 | Financial report showing receipts and payments, |
| assets and liabilities with notes to the account. |
Chair’s Re ort 2024 – Connect Exminster CIO p
Background
Connect Exminster was set up at the beginning of 2022, previously running as a Christian community group since 2018, carrying out its activities with the oversight of Exminster Parish Church. It now runs with a small group of trustees and a large volunteer team.
Vision
As per our constitution our objects are:
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To advance the Christian faith for the public benefit, in accordance with the values and tenets of the Anglican Communion, in Exminster and the surrounding area, in particular but not exclusively by raising awareness of Christian beliefs, values and practices, through holding meetings, outreach and pastoral care in the community.
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To relieve poverty by the making of grants and the provision of items within the community of Exminster.
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To advance education, through the provision of workshops and courses in the community to help people enhance their life skills including within family related areas led by local professionals.
Chairperson’s report
I am delighted to be able to present this Chair’s report, detailing the highlights that Connect Exminster has been able to accomplish in 2024. We continue to be overseen by Exeter Diocese for our Safeguarding practices and work closely with the local churches and school. 2024 saw some significant donations to Connect which we have budgeted to spend in 2025. £3000 of our funds have been allocated to support a new Children and Families support role within the village. This role will work across the community in line with our objects and in partnership with St. Martin’s Parish Church. A further £2000 has been donated in order to resource family activities in partnership with the parish church.
We have continued to serve the community providing community connecting events, workshops and small grants and in this report I would like to highlight three main areas that we have been able to use our resources to make a difference. We have also been able to share our space with other community groups including music groups, a drumming workshop and the Exminster Preschool.
Faith Based & Community Events/Workshops
Throughout the year we have run a range of community activities open to anyone from Exminster to join. Fortnightly on Sundays we continue to host an informal discussion-based space to explore themes of faith and spirituality. These events often food together. Our largest event was Love Exminster, with hundreds of people attending for a funday at the Deepway Green. All activities and BBQ were free to access to ensure no-one was
excluded and it was a wonderful
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event connecting the community together. Local businesses, community groups and even a local Dog Show all joined in. We looked at the central Christian
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value of Love and how we can love God, ourselves and one another better. Children from the preschool led us in some songs on this theme.
We have continued to run workshops and coffee mornings for the community. These help people learn new skills while connecting with new people to alleviate loneliness.
Refugee Support & Hardship Fund
Many Ukrainian families have chosen to se4le in our village having come over at the start of the war. Ini:ally we priori:sed providing significant support to help with learning the language and accessing vital services, as well as providing opportuni:es to meet with other Ukrainians for support. Now all our families are living independently (not in the homes of
hosts) and we have iden:fied the greatest need is for connec:on with the wider community - where they can develop their English and form friendships outside of their Ukrainian friendships. To that end we have facilitated CraF workshops as a non threatening point of connec:on. We have also run Coffee Mornings, where our Ukrainian community have hosted with their own homemade treats, sharing with the wider community.
In addi:onal to this pastoral support we have continued to award small grants through our small pastoral
support fund, to be able to help those in Exminster who find themselves in financial difficulties. This is for anyone within the community not only our refugees. With thanks to the generosity of Exminster parish Council awarding us a further £1000 we have been able to increase the support we can offer. The local schools, GP and community groups will often signpost people in need of support to us for this.
We have continued to be able to open our Exminster’s Eco Refill every Saturday morning. Our vision for this was to be another place of community connection, run by volunteers, that also would help the community make environmentally friendly choices. We highlighted that for many in our community, eco products were unaffordable so buying these products in bulk for wholesale prices and selling them on at costs (no profit) we hoped to encourage more people to make these choices. We now have a wonderful community of volunteers where friendships have also grown and often regulars come in and enjoy a cuppa and a chat as well as getting their products. This year we have also hosted other community groups through Coffee Mornings in the chapel, so they can share their work with the wider community. These community coffee mornings have been another free space for connection.
This year our income was significantly higher at £11530, compared to our outgoings of £6570, largely due to monies given specifically to help Connect with our new partnership with Exminster Parish Church who we are working closely with to better support children and young families in the community. £3000 has already been pledged for a new part time role to help us meet our objectives and a further £2000 is ringfenced for the additional resources that will be needed to resource activities for children and families. We continue to have sufficient reserves to cover our expenses in to 2025 if needed. With this financial security we can expand our activities for 2025.
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Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees Connect Exminster CIO On accounts for the year 31 December 2024 Charity no 1199203 ended (if any) Set out on pages 4 6 (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 31/12/2024. Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report 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 all 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 in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
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the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
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the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
| Signed: Name: Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: |
22ndApril 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Jo Wilkey | ||
| Employee of St Christopher’s CofE (Primary) Multi Academy Trust | ||
| 15, Quarry Park Road | ||
| Exeter, Devon EX2 5PH |
1
Oct 2018
IER
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Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of Administrator should be provided with supplier invoices / credits at the time of any items that the the payment request. Payments should not be made from supplier statement examiner wishes to information only. disclose .
Where possible remittance information should be filed with accounts. Records of donations and Eco purchases should be downloaded on a monthly basis and filed with bank statements for best practice.
Charitable transfers should always have a paper trail of request eg email acknowledgment or advice of payment.
2
Oct 2018
IER
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Connect Exminster End of year accounts December 2024
Notes:
| Receipts/Income | Note | Payments/Expenditure | Note | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connect main fund | 1 | Connect main fund | |||||
| CIO Transfer from St. | Kids & Youth activities - | ||||||
| Martins | 2 | 1000 | CIO | 455.73 | |||
| CIO One off donations - | |||||||
| Connect main | 251.4 | Connect activities - CIO | 380.34 | ||||
| CIO Gift Aid | |||||||
| Donations/Gift Aid | 1990.3 | Maintenance - CIO | 50 | ||||
| CIO Grants | 3 | 1000 | Utilities inc Wifi - CIO | 494.61 | |||
| CIO Chapel Usage | |||||||
| Donations | 210.75 | Hardship fund CIO | 6 | 636.6 | |||
| CIO Supporting | Supporting interchurch | ||||||
| Interchurch donations | 4 | 4168.8 | expense | 7 | 983.36 | ||
| Total | 8621.2 | ||||||
| Starting balance | |||||||
| Jan 24 | 3720.5 | Total | 3000.64 | ||||
| Closing balance Dec 2 | 9341.09 | ||||||
| Eco refill | Eco refill | ||||||
| Sales from Eco Refill | 5 | 2845.7 | Bulk buying for Ecorefill | 2863.24 | |||
| Total | 2845.7 | Total | 2863.24 | ||||
| Starting balance | Closing balance Dec | ||||||
| Jan 24 | 425.15 | 24 | 407.58 | ||||
| Refugees | Refugees | ||||||
| No income for refugee support | 0 | Refugee Support Group c | 8 | 450.63 | |||
| Facilities reimbursement | 192 | ||||||
| Total | 0 | Total | 642.63 | ||||
| Starting balance | Closing balance Dec | ||||||
| Jan 24 | 1193.3 | 24 | 550.63 | ||||
| Starting balance | 5338.9 | ||||||
| Total income | 11467 | ||||||
| Total expenditure | 6506.5 | ||||||
| Closing balance | 10299 |
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Receipts and payments accounts contain a summary of money received and money spent during the period and a list of assets and liabilities at the end of the period. All transactions are through two bank accounts with three ‘pots of monies’ our general pot, our Eco refill pot so we can ensure this breaks even but is non profit making and our Refugee fund to track grant monies given for refugee support.
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£1000 was donated from St. Martin's church from the designated fund that had been used by Connect when it operated within the PCC of St. Martins, prior to registering as a CIO.
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Connect was awarded £1000 to be allocated to the Hardship Fund it operates.
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Connect has been given ring fenced monies to specifically support interchurch aims linked to our charitable objectives. £1000 of this is specifically for a new children and families lead that, in partnership with St. Martin’s Church, we are currently advertising for.
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We continue to offer the Eco refill, led by volunteers, as a resource for the village which just breaks even.
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See note 3. This fund has already been in high demand
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See note 4. Some of these monies have already been spent supporting Little Treasures a weekly Under 5s group.
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While we have had no additional designated income for refugee support the remaining funds have focused on community increasing community connections running craft clubs and coffee mornings.
Statement of Assets and Liabilities: Cash assets - Bank Account = £10299.30
At the end of 2024 there were no liabilities/creditors.
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