Bath Pride
Reference and administrative details
For Year ended 31st March 2025
Charity Number 1206748
Trustees:
Kathryn Skinner Siobhàn O’Hara Tracey Hancock
Bankers: Co-Operative Bank 1 Balloon Street, Manchester M4 4BE
Bath Pride
Report of Trustees
Reference and administrative information set out on page 1 forms part of this report.
Structure, governance and management
The charity is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales under registration number 1206748 and governed by its constitution dated 20th November 2023
Trustees are appointed by election at formal meetings of existing trustees as laid out in the constitution. Its three current trustees were appointed at creation of the charity.
The Trustees are responsible for the strategic direction and charity oversight with the day to day management delegated to the directors. Major financial and strategic decisions will be made in consultation with the trustees.
This year there was a committee that were responsible for organising the celebrations on Pride day. Volunteers for the planning committee were initially selected by the founder. This needs rectifying and for 2025 we plan to have open applications to join the committee and volunteer group.
The trustee team is currently too small, and we plan to recruit more trustees.
The board intends to install a clearer structure for the 2025 committee, and to implement clearer policies to resolve internal issues.
Objectives and Activities
Bath Pride is a charity which campaigns to promote equality and diversity for the public benefit and in particular the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, including in particular but not exclusively by:
Organising and promoting events throughout the year to celebrate the LGBT+ community and raise awareness of discrimination and other issues affecting the LGBT+ community and the advancement of LGBT+ rights;
Organising an annual festival celebrating the LGBT+ community and providing a space for discussion and advancement of LGBT+ rights;
Raising awareness with the public of the LGBT+ experience, in particular the aspects of discrimination and the difficulties faced by LGBT+ people;
Associating with other organisations, including but not limited to government, charities, public and private organisations, and volunteering organisations, as appropriate for the advancement of LGBT+ equality;
Creating and publishing documents, publicity material, media, lectures, and other activities in line with these objects.
Bath Pride is run by a small team of volunteers to further these aims, particularly in the Bath Area.
Achievements and Performance
Bath Pride took place on the 18th of August 2025. It comprised of a march through the streets of Bath, a daytime event at the Holbourne and an evening event at Komedia.
The day was very well attended, and we received lots of positive feedback.
Bath Pride has been nominated for two awards by Shoutout Radio, namely Best Newcomer and Best Festival.
Public Benefit
The trustees confirm their due regard for the Charity Commission Guidance on Public Benefit in reviewing Bath Pride’s aims, objectives and activities undertaken, planning future strategy and setting policy
Financial Review
As a new charity, we have been operating on very little money. We received public donations, a donation from a local business, and took a private loan from a committee member, which was repaid.
We now have £690.43 in reserves from this fundraising, and plan to continue raising funds for the implementation of Pride Days and events in the future.
We need to implement a reserves policy as we learn about the costs involved in hosting an annual event.
Fundraising
All fundraising is raised by Bath Pride directly. No commercial fundraising services are used and no complaints have been raised.
Risk Management
The key risk for Bath Pride is volunteering levels. We had a difficult situation with committee members this year, which led to the trustees dissolving the committee. We have about 30 applications to be involved with Bath Pride in some capacity. Whilst there will undoubtedly be some people who have expressed interest who are no longer interested in helping, there is interest in the community and we feel confident that we will be able to form a strong committee to take us through 2025 and beyond.
Another risk is to our reputation. A former committee member has made an internal accusation of racism within last year’s committee. The trustees performed a thorough investigation into this, with support from an outside advisor, and found that the accusations were unfounded and potentially malicious. Nevertheless, the individual has posted about Pride on social media, and on advice received we did not engage publicly with this. Going forward we need to put more structures in place to protect committee members from reputational harm, and to protect Bath Pride as a charity.
Legal risks which primarily are covered by our public and employer liability insurance.
Cyber Security is a risk; we use secure companies for our email and file storage (Porkbun and Google) and will be changing our email provider in the near future to enable the use of mailing lists. This is being overseen by a committee member who is an IT expert.
Bad weather conditions would impact the day of the festival greatly, and this would impact our ability to fundraise for the coming year. We will put a bad weather plan into effect to mitigate this damage.
Fundraising is a risk, but we have found a lot of goodwill in the community and anticipate that we can raise the funds needed for this year’s festival. In the future as Bath Pride grows it will be necessary to create a reserve to ensure the longevity of the charity, but currently we are operating on an ad hoc basis as it is very early days for the charity. We have been advised by a local counsellor that there may be council funds
available to us if we apply through certain schemes. We also need to look to local businesses and groups, such as Bath Rugby, for sponsorship. We have received advice that the fact that we do not sell alcohol at our event may lead to opportunities for sponsorship, but need to pursue this.
Future Plans
Over the next year we plan to establish a new committee that can operate in a sustainable and responsible way. The trustees have started making plans for the 2025 festival as there are time concerns, but hope to hand this over to the committee in the next few weeks.
We plan to create HR policies to protect committee members and Bath Pride as a charity from a situation such as the one we faced last year.
We plan to continue our work fighting for and celebrating the lives of LGBTQ+ people in our city and beyond, and plan to grow as a charity.
Statement of responsibilities of the trustees
The trustees are responsible for preparing the trustees' report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
The law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and the incoming resources and application of resources, including the net income or expenditure, of the charity for the year. In preparing those financial statements the trustees are required to: select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP; make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable accounting standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.
The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and which enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the provisions of the constitution. The trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charity's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. Members of the charity have no liability to contribute to the assets of the charity in the event of winding up. The trustees are members of the charity, but this entitles them only to voting rights. The trustees have no beneficial interest in the charity.
Income Breakdown (to nearest £)
Individual Donations: 1206 Donations from business: 500 Personal Loan to pay for Insurance: 350 (repaid)
Total: 2056
Expenditure:
Insurance: 876 Repayment of loan: 350 Reimbursement for travel for performer on Pride Day - 30 Sundries - stickers, wristbands, etc: 15 Cost of banner - 49 Web hosting: 44
Total: 1364
Amount in reserve: 690