The Great Notts Christmas Toy Appeal Trustees’ Annual Report for the year ending 1[st] June 2025
Organisation Type Charitable Incorporated Organisation
Registered Charity number 1210339
Principal address
43 Willow Road Carlton Nottingham NG4 3BH
Trustees
Nicholas Ashley Clark Hazel Pamela Clark Beverley Jayne Lockyer Emma Machin
Governance and management
The charity is operated by the rules of its constitution adopted 1[st] July 2024. The voting members are the charity trustees. Each Trustee performs a particular role according to their skills and experience.
Objectives and activities
The object of the charity is the relief of financial hardship among families living or working in the City of Nottingham or the County of Nottinghamshire by providing toys, toiletries and other items to children, young people and their carers at Christmas time, which they could not otherwise afford through lack of means.
The main activity is the annual toy appeal when donated toys and other gifts are collected by agencies for their clients and service users so that they have gifts to be opened on Christmas Day.
Public benefit statement
The trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit, ‘Charities and Public Benefit’.
Brief History
The Great Notts Christmas Toy Appeal started life attached to the charity Family Care. When that charity closed in 2018, the volunteers who had previously helped with the appeal, decided to continue to collect gifts for disadvantaged children. For three days in December the collection centre is housed at St John’s Church Hall in Bilborough. The Great Notts Christmas Toy Appeal gained charity status in Oct 2024.
Achievements and Performance
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An account was opened with Lloyds Bank in June 2024 and this led to some donations by bank transfer. These gifts enabled us to buy additional toys, toiletries, and other gifts when stocks in certain age categories were being depleted.
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An application to register for Gift Aid was successful.
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A PayPal account was set up in May 2024.
We worked towards our main event held in December. In September 2024 requests were sent out to our regular supporters asking them to donate new toys and toiletries.
Along with donations from churches, community groups and individuals we had fantastic donations from Rolls Royce, ITP Aero, the Unite Union, Derry’s Building Services and Emma Ball Ltd.
In November, our partner agencies were asked to confirm that they wanted to access our service for 2024. Our collection centre was open 3[rd] – 5[th] December.
The Trustees put clear health and safety guidelines in place for the collection of gifts by our partner agencies. This meant that access to the hall was staggered, and each agency staff member was assisted by a volunteer as they went around the hall and selected gifts. We sought out new agencies to benefit from our service and this led to an increase in the amount of baby gifts required, especially by the Family Nurse Partnership.
The 2024 collection served the largest number of agencies with sixty agencies collecting gifts for their clients. A total of approximately 1500 children received gifts to open on Christmas Day.
Volunteers
Without our team of volunteers, we would be unable to continue our appeal. In 2024 we had the largest number of volunteers we have ever had. They came along to help unpack deliveries, sort gifts into the relevant age ranges and assist agency staff with selecting gifts and loading their cars.
The Future
Demand for our service increases each year, demonstrating the need for the appeal. We received the following “Thank You” from Nottingham City Homes – “ The Gifts made such a visible difference to so many that are currently facing the most challenging time of their lives.”
In the year ahead we will look at other opportunities to increase donations from organisations, charities, and businesses.
The Trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the Trustees of the Great Notts Christmas Toy Appeal.
| The Great Notts Christmas Toy Appeal | The Great Notts Christmas Toy Appeal | The Great Notts Christmas Toy Appeal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Statementyear ending 01 June 2025 | |||||
| Receipts & Payments Accounts | |||||
| Unrestricted Funds |
Restricted Funds |
Total Funds |
|||
| Receipts | |||||
| Donations | 2781 | 0 | 2781 | ||
| Total Receipts | 2781 | 0 | 2781 | ||
| Payments | |||||
| Giftspurchased | 1813 | 0 | 1813 | ||
| Total Payments | 1813 | 0 | 1813 | ||
| Statement of Assets and Liabilities | |||||
| Monetary Assets | |||||
| Bank balance Current Account - Lloyds | 968 | 0 | 968 | ||
| PayPal Account | 3 | 0 | 3 | ||
| Total Monetary Assets | 971 | 0 | 971 | ||
| Liabilities - None |
Financial Statement for the year ending 31st May 2025 has been prepared by B Lockyer
The Financial Statement is accepted on behalf of the charity by