Mila's Foundation 2023-24 Trustee Report
Achievements and Performance
For this period, Mila's Foundation focussed on sustainability after a period of rapid growth, ensuring maintenance of service levels, project completions and nurturing stakeholder relationships. During the period we evidenced improved visibility of Mila's Foundation and welcomed new beneficiaries, increasing the number of conditions represented, and delivered support activities to beneficiaries. Connecting beneficiaries with each other for mutual support is one of our key objectives.
Our direct communication with the community has seen consistent improvement. Communications and engagement staff developed their social media skills utilising training and consultancy opportunities, growing engagement across all social media channels over the year. Donation and fundraising income continued to grow to £37,909. Although the organisation saw a reduction in unrestricted reserves, this was expected due to our consolidation strategy for the year.
Charitable Objectives
Across the year Mila's Foundation staff:
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Welcomed new beneficiaries
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Supported beneficiaries across support activities including one to one conversations, home visits and advocacy, digital wellbeing sessions and face to face get togethers
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Delivered professional counselling sessions and wellbeing calls to beneficiaries
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Connected beneficiaries to build supportive, long-lasting relationships
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Were invited to present at events
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Attended stakeholder conferences and events
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Been involved in stakeholder meetings
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Encouraged engagements on our social media channels
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Attracted website visitors
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Were mentioned in the press
Challenges
We did not have capacity to progress our plans to cement our position as the umbrella organisation for Alexander's disease in the UK and experienced some challenges in attempts to collaborate with a minority of like-minded groups. Our communications strategy for 2024/25 has been adapted accordingly and we will seek to develop a collaborative relationship with one patient group and use learning from this experience to develop future plans.
It has been challenging to secure the honorary contracts required to allow support staff to attend clinics, largely due to slow moving bureaucratic obstacles within the host NHS Trusts. This has been partially resolved late in the period.
Future Impact
It was gratifying to see the organisation exceeding budget expectations during the period, we have set a break-even budget for the following year to further consolidate our position with a view to future growth.
We have recently recruited a Grants and Trusts Fundraiser and look forward to the results of increased capacity in this area for the next period.
Our contract to provide the distribution service for the Addison’s Disease Self Help Group ceased in August 2024, however this will give us additional capacity for small grant fundraising which should
mitigate against this income loss.
We will continue to work towards our mission of support and access to treatment for everyone with Alexander's disease.
Financial Review
At the balance sheet date, the charity had unrestricted funds and restricted funds.
It is the policy of the charity that unrestricted funds which have not been designated for a specific use should be maintained at a level the trustees feel are sufficient to cover the running costs of the charity for a period of approximately 3 months.
We expected a drop in unrestricted reserves for this period whilst we continued to invest in our charitable activities. We are looking towards a break-even budget for 2024/25, consolidating our position whilst continuing to increase our level of charitable activities.
Plans for Future Periods
Work areas for 2024/25 include:
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Confirmation of a data sharing agreement with NHS England in order to analyse Registry data and identify priorities for future projects.
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Regular attendance schedule for clinics.
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Commitment to annual Community Weekends.
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Translation of our children’s support book to German, French and Spanish.
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Confirm the topic for an additional children’s support book, for publication in 2025/26.
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Completion of succession planning and sustainability measures.
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Strategy to review operations and providers across the organisation.
Structure, Governance and Management
Governing document
The charity is controlled by its governing document, a deed of trust, and constitutes a limited company, limited by guarantee, as defined by the Companies Act 2006. Recruitment and appointment of new trustees
The Charity seeks to appoint trustees who have relevant and often specialist knowledge. This has always included ensuring that those directly affected by the condition are among the trustees. This is accompanied by appointing trustees with complementary skills, e.g. legal, finance, administration or relevant professional experience and knowledge.
None of the trustees have any beneficial interest in the company. All trustees are members of the company and guarantee to contribute £1 in the event of a winding up. Key management remuneration
Key personnel remuneration is reviewed annually alongside performance appraisals within an agreed pay structure and applied using the same approach to pay and reward as for all employees. Any significant increases are approved by the Board of Trustees and reviewed within the constraints of the budget.
Risk
The trustees have assessed the major risks to which the charity is exposed. Overall, the trustees are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to the major risks.
The charity maintains a Risk Register. This is managed by the Trustee Risk Sub-Committee who present priority risks and proposed mitigations at quarterly Board meetings for approval. Day to day operations
The trustees have delegated control of day to day operations to the Chief Executive Officer who provides a quarterly report and key performance indicators at Board Meetings.
| Charity Name Mila's Foundation 1 |
Charity Name Mila's Foundation 1 |
Charity Name Mila's Foundation 1 |
No (if any) 206079 |
CC16a | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For the period from |
Period start date 8/1/2023 |
To |
Period end date 7/31/2024 |
||
| Section A Receipts and payments | |||||
| A1 Receipts Donations - Gift Aid 30,332 Donations - Non-Gift Aid 7,577 - - - - - - 37,909 - - Sub total - Total receipts 37,909 A3 Payments Bank Charges 30 PayPal Fees 424 - - - - - - - Sub total 454 - - Sub total - Total payments 454 Net of receipts/(payments) 37,454 A5 Transfers between funds - A6 Cash funds last year end - Cash funds this year end 37,454 Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ Sub total(Gross income for AR) A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Restricted funds |
to the nearest £ Endowment funds |
Total funds to the nearest £ 30,332 7,577 - - - - - - 37,909 - - - 37,909 30 424 - - - - - - - 454 - - - 454 37,454 - - 37,454 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|
| - - - - - - - - - |
30,332 | - | |||
| 7,577 | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| 37,909 | - | ||||
| - - - |
- | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | 37,909 | - | |||
| - - - - - - - - - - |
30 | - | |||
| 424 | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| 454 | - | ||||
| - - - |
- | ||||
| - | |||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | 454 | - | |||
| - | - - - - |
37,454 | - | ||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | 37,454 | - |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets B5 Liabilities B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use |
Details HSBC Bank Account Paypal Bank Account Details Details Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
to nearest £ 36,410 1,044 - 37,454 OK to nearest £ - - - - - - Unrestricted funds Unrestricted funds Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which liability relates |
to nearest £ - - - - OK to nearest £ - - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Restricted funds Restricted funds Amount due (optional) |
to nearest £ Endowment funds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| OK | ||||
| to nearest £ Endowment funds |
||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| Current value (optional) |
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| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| Current value (optional) |
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| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| When due (optional) |
||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - |
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
| Signature | Print Name Nahed Sarig Nicholas Grant |
Date of approval |
|---|---|---|
| Nahed Sarig | 5/28/2025 | |
| Nicholas Grant | 5/28/2025 |
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examinerfs Report Report to the trusteesl members of Mila's Foundation On accounts for the year ended 31* July 2024 Charity no (If any} 1206079 Set out on pages 14 I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (Ihe Trusf) for the year ended 31107 12024. Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust. you are PonSible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance With the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Acr). I reF)Ort in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5){b) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confim that no material matters have come to my attention ( in connection ¥:'tth 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 Independent examiner's ststement I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to vthich attention should te drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please delete the words in the brackets rfthey do not apply. Slgned: Date: 2810512025 Name: Iraj Idafar FCCA Relevant professional qualification(s) or body {rf any): ACCA Addrnss: Blue Accountancy & Business Services 34 South Molton Street London W1 K 5RG IER October 2018
Section B Disclosure Only complete rf the examiner needs to highlight matters of conrn (see CC32, Independent examination of chartty accounts". directions and guidance for examiners). Glve here brief detsils of any items that the examinerwishes to disclose. IER October 2018