## **Trustee Annual Report for 2024-5** **27 March 2024 - 31 March 2025** **Charity registration number: 1207635** 1 ## **Contents** - 3 – Summary ## 4 – Administration ## 5 – Reference Information ## 6 – Communications ## 7 – Fundraising and Finances ## 8 – Events - 9 – Looking ahead to 2025-6 ## 10 – Declarations 2 ## **Summary** In the past year, The 1876 Trust has established itself formally and made strides in the areas of fundraising and alumni relations. Following the appointment of trustees, the Trust successfully registered with the Charity Commission, demonstrating its seriousness of intent. In subsequent months, the Trust helped to deliver a variety of events, most notably the Bannister 70[th] Anniversary Garden Party, which drew over 200 attendees from across 70 years of OUCCC and OUAC alumni. This event served as a springboard for the launch of the Anniversary Campaign. This landmark campaign celebrates 50 years of women’s Varsity competition and 150 years since OUCCC’s establishment. It has been used to coordinate the Trust’s communications, events, and fundraising strategy. To date, the Trust has grown its alumni mailing list to over 800 people, held multiple alumni-friendly events, and raised almost £11,000 in donations, from a very small base. But there remains much room for further growth to achieve the Anniversary Campaign’s objectives. 3 ## **Administration** Since its inaugural meeting on 28 February 2024, the trustees have met virtually on six occasions, in addition to smaller break-out meetings and an insightful fundraising workshop with Brittany Wellner-James, Head of Development at Jesus College, Oxford. Minutes for each meeting were recorded and saved. Since 27 March 2024, the Trust has been registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The Trust’s purpose, stated on the Charity Commission website, is: “To support and promote community participation in healthy recreation through the sport of cross country running at all levels of ability for students at the University of Oxford.” The Trustees are aware of and have considered the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance. We have followed this guidance throughout the year when making decisions to further the Trust’s purpose, as stated above. This annual report covers some of the events, fundraising activities and projects that we have organised throughout the year and which together have helped us achieve our purpose. Trustees are appointed for a five-year term that may be renewed. However, the inaugural trustees were appointed for varying terms of office to ensure that their terms would not end simultaneously. The length of these initial appointments can be found in the constitution. The Club Captain of Oxford University Cross-Country Club shall automatically (“exofficio”) be a charity trustee, for as long as he or she holds that office and, subject to the approval of the charity trustees, for the period of 12 months immediately following their relinquishing of that role. The Senior Member of Oxford University Cross-Country Club for as long as he or she holds that office shall automatically (“ex-officio”) be a charity trustee. Both these roles are subject to the office holder accepting the ex-officio appointment. Should they not accept the role shall remain unfilled. Since its inauguration, Anika Schwarze-Chintapatla – the OUCCC Club Captain for 2024-5 – joined the Trust as an ex-officio trustee, while Jared Martin, Colin Phillips, and Thomas Renshaw were re-appointed for five-year terms. Benjy McCartney (OUCCC Club Captain for 2025-6) will join this coming year as an exofficio trustee. The past year has involved much work on the mundane but crucial tasks associated with setting up a charity. These included the creation of a website, a trust email address, a bank account to receive donations, and an online platform through which the Trust can accept donations and process Gift Aid. The trust website in particular requires regular updates and maintenance, which remain important tasks for the trustees. 4 ## **Reference Information** The 1876 Trust is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and is governed by a constitution that is published on our website. ## **Trustees** : - Jamie Darling - Bethan Hopewell - Emma Huepfl - Jared Martin (ex officio) (chair) - Simon Molden - Colin Phillips - Thomas Renshaw - Anika Schwarze-Chintapatla (ex officio) – appointed 28 May 2024 ## **Charity registration number:** 1207635 ## **Company number:** CE035706 ## **Registered address:** 12 Broomfield Road Surbiton Surrey KT5 9AZ United Kingdom 5 ## **Communications** The Trust has worked to regularise and professionalise OUCCC’s communications with its alumni and potential donors. Since the last AGM, the Trust has produced 14 alumni newsletters via the Hubspot mailing list platform. These have reached increasing numbers of alumni, from 560 in March 2024 to over 800 at present. According to our analytics, open rates (the % of recipients opening and reading the emails) have ranged from 14% to 39%, and click-through rates (the % clicking on links in the newsletter) from 1.5% to 13%. The content of the newsletters has deliberately been broad, ranging from reports about current member activities, to event invitations, club history features, and fundraising updates. Since January 2025, each monthly newsletter has profiled a female alumna as part of the build-up to our women’s Varsity 50[th] anniversary celebration in December. Much positive feedback about the newsletters has been received. Other forms of communication have also been used. Personalised letters were sent to alumni in advance of the launch of the Anniversary Campaign. Thank you cards were sent to those alumni who donated to the Trust in the last year. As for social media, the ‘Old Gits’ Facebook group was re-branded as ‘Oxford University CrossCountry Old Members,’ and has been used more regularly. In the coming year, the Trust should aim to further improve alumni communications in the following ways: - Expanding the size of our mailing list, engaging with existing contacts to fill in gaps. - Updating corporate email addresses for alumni that have changed employment. - Using other forms of social media – e.g. Strava, LinkedIn – to reach alumni and keep them up to date. - Creating sub-mail lists for particular demographics (e.g. young alumni) to tailor particular communications – e.g. fundraising. - Increasing the number of alumni contributions to newsletters. 6 ## **Fundraising and Finances** The past year has seen a large increase in the scale of donations. Previously, OUCCC received around £1,000-£1,500 annually in alumni donations. Contrastingly, between May 2024 and March 2024, the Trust raised over £10,000, placing us in a strong position to begin making grants to OUCCC over the coming year. These donations included regular and one-off donations. Some summary statistics are provided below: - The Trust received 15 one-off donations, amounting to £7,922. The mean one-off donation was £528, ranging from £1 to £3,950. - The Trust received at least 17 regular donations from alumni, amounting to £2,700. - The Trust received regular donations from 12 final-year students, amounting to £400. The mean donation amounted to £16.60. As detailed in our CC16a form the Trust holds £10,435; £207 in unrestricted funds and £10,228 in endowment funds. Although both funds are currently held together in a current account the endowment funds should be separated from the unrestricted funds as soon as reasonably possible and either invested or placed into a high interest savings account. The Trust overall is in a healthy financial position and has a successful first year in raising initial funds. The Trust should look to begin making grants available over the coming year. Progress has also been made on better understanding our alumni, including profiling. The final-year student donation scheme – in which students committed to quarterly donations upon leaving university in return for discounted membership this year – was a successful innovation, and should result in an accumulation of funds and regular supporters among recent alumni. Although unrelated to donations, Teddy Hall Relays also achieved the highest number of entries for several years this March, with almost 800 individual entries. This raised several thousand pounds for OUCCC, and will hopefully continue to grow in future years. While 2024-5 saw major progress in fundraising, there is room for improvement in 2025-6. The coming year should see more detailed communication about our fundraising objectives and the impact of donating, as well as personalised outreach to potential major donors. More specifically, in 2025-6, the Trust should aim to: - Provide alumni with a deep-dive into our fundraising objectives in a newsletter. - Initiate contact with potential major prospects and build rapport. - Share impact stories about funds received in 2024-5. - Clarify, with clear examples, the purpose and impact of various sizes of donation. - Look into setting up a direct debit payment system. 7 ## **Events** The 1876 Trust helped deliver several alumni-friendly events in 2024-5. As well as being enjoyable occasions for those involved, these events allowed the trustees to expand their list of contacts, re-acquaint with large numbers of alumni, and often resulted in alumni donations further down the line. Our biggest event in 2024-5 was a garden party held in Merton College, Oxford on Sunday 5 May. The garden party commemorated 70 years since Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile and was open to OUCCC and OUAC alumni. Invitations were sent to past captains and presidents before the event was opened to our wider alumni mailing list. OUCCC was responsible for contacting its excaptains, and OUAC its ex-presidents and captains. The response was immediate and enthusiastic. Around 100 alumni signed up within a week. By the time signups closed, the number of tickets sold exceeded 250. Sending personal invitation letters to alumni was very effective at increasing engagement and sign-ups. In the end, around 200 alumni attended, alongside a variety of special guests. These included the University of Oxford’s Chancellor, Chris Patten, and ViceChancellor, Irene Tracey; the Warden of Merton College, Jennifer Payne, and the Rector of Exeter College, Rick Trainor; Roger Bannister’s son, Thurstan; and former mile world record holders, Filbert Bayi and Noureddine Morceli. The event was a great success. Alumni from the past 70 years were represented. Speeches from the likes of Irene Tracey affirmed the university’s commitment to sporting participation and excellence. And many alumni stayed the night to attend the fantastic Bannister Miles celebration on Bank Holiday Monday. Other alumni events have been more modest, but nevertheless beneficial. On 26 October, 15 alumni joined a group of current students for Cross Country Cuppers then lunch at Vincent’s Club, where we launched the Anniversary Campaign. Later in Michaelmas, it was great to see younger and older alumni in attendance at both Shotover and Wimbledon Common, where their support helped OUCCC to an emphatic 7-0 victory against Cambridge across the different Varsity races. In Trinity term, our main alumni-friendly event took place on Wednesday 12 March. We had two ‘Old Gits’ teams take part in Teddy Hall Relays, while other alumni volunteered as marshals, for which the club was very grateful. That evening, 20 alumni joined OUCCC committee members for drinks at the King’s Arms. This was followed by OUCCC’s annual dinner at St Edmund Hall. This was an opportunity to build connections among alumni, as well as between alumni and current students. We were also delighted to have Julian Goater deliver an address. 8 ## **Looking ahead to 2025-6** The next twelve months will embrace the decisive phase of the Anniversary Campaign. With this in mind, the Trust’s priorities include: - Delivering a successful, well-attended event in London in December 2025 to celebrate 50 years of women’s Varsity participation. - Thresh out and publicise plans for a large, inclusive celebration of OUCCC’s 150[th] birthday in summer 2026. - Through communications and invitations, ensuring that both events generate alumni engagement and neither overshadows the other. - Increasing the breadth of alumni support, with an army of regular supporters (at least 50 by the end of 2025). - Deepening relationships with major prospects and securing multiple large donations (>£10,000). - Agreeing with the OUCCC committee a means of balancing targeted, immediate financial support for the club with the imperative of growing the club’s long-term development funds. 9 ## **Declarations** The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees. |Signature(s)
Full names(s)
Position
Date||| |---|---|---| ||Thomas David Renshaw|Jared Alexander Cavan
Martin| ||Trustee|Trustee (Chair)| ||29 May 2025|29 May 2025| 10 **The 1876 Trust 1207635 Receipts and payments accounts For the period** 27-Mar-24 31-Mar-25 **To from** **CC16a** ## **Section A Receipts and payments** |**to the nearest £**
**A1 Receipts**
Students Regular GivingProgramme Donations **400**
The AnniversaryCampaign Donations
**-**
GiftAid from donations
**-**
Other donations
**23**
**-**
**423**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total receipts_ 423**
**A3 Payments**
Donationplatform software(£17.99/month)
**144**
Bank account fees
**0**
Card fees on donations
**72**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ 216**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total payments_ 216**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ 207**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**-**
**_Cash funds this year end_ 207**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**_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 £**
**-**
**8,576**
**1,652**
**-**
**-**
**10,228**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**10,228**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**10,228**
**-**
**-**
**10,228**
**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**400**
**8,576**
**1,652**
**23**
**-**
**10,651**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**10,651**
**144**
**0**
**72**
**-**
**-**
**216**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**216**
**10,435**
**-**
**-**
**10,435**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| |---|---|---|---|---| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||| |||||| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||| |||||**-**| |||||| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||**-**| |||||| |||||**-**| |||||| ||**-**|**10,228**|**10,435**|**-**| ||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**-**|**10,228**|**10,435**|**-**| ## **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**
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of
all the trustees|**Details**
Held together in a single current account
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Signature
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**207**
**-**
**-**
**207**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**| |---|---|---| |||THOMAS DAVID RENSHAW| |||JARED ALEXANDER CAVAN MARTIN|