**DHARMACHAKRA** 4 Warminster Road Registered Charity 294143 St Werburghs BRISTOL BS2 9UH UK info@freebuddhistaudio.com ## **DHARMACHAKRA ANNUAL REPORT 2021** ## **FINANCIAL REVIEW** Income for the period amounted to **£202,868** . This represents an increase of £36,254 against 2020 results, an increase of 22%. This is due to greatly increased performance (see ‘Achievements and Performance’ section below). ## **PRINCIPLE FUNDING SOURCES** Income includes **£98,877** in the form of grants over 12 months. During the previous year the figure was £86,000, so this represents a 15% increase in grant income. As well as grants the principal funding for the charity was in the form of donations totaling **£90,529** . The equivalent figure for 2020 was £67,228. This represents a significant increase in donation income of around 35%, primarily due to increased online event dana. We also derived income from client work, including web hosting. In 2021 this was worth **£13,462** . The equivalent figure for 2020 was £13,386, representing a slight increase of 0.5%. While we had no gift aid tax revenue in 2021 (for 2020 receipts), we expect to receive gift aid tax benefit in 2023 for both 2020 and 2021 receipts. *** Overall we were able to achieve a £ 22,000 positive cashflow in 2021 (compared to a £28,000 profit in the previous period). This is despite having to pay more grant to the USA side of the charity (which is where we incur a lot of our costs - chiefly payroll, consulting and also our Google Cloud Server), compared to 2020 levels, due to some increased general costs. The US grants increased by 14%. Our USA side of the charity did perform well. We had a turnover there of £18,000, mainly in donations. This income total is £5,000 less than in 2020, mainly due to a large one-off donation of £6,000 that was unique to that year. In 2021, recurring donations increased by 11%, event dana by 48%, and domain management by 11%. ## **INVESTMENT POLICY** We will be exploring a new investment strategy over the next year in regard to our significantly increased reserve (see below). ## **RESERVES POLICY** The trustees have not previously held reserves for any lengthy period. However, in light of our strong financial performance with significantly increased net cash flow ( **£22,000** ) and bank balances ( **£72,434** ), the trustees have consolidated their intention to hold in future the recommended level of reserve for a charitable organization (there months’ worth of expenditure). The amount held at the end of the year allows this intention to move towards implementation as policy going forward. Reserves, and the investment of portions of the reserve, will be regularly reviewed by the trustees, together with a general review of the financial position of the charity. ## **LOANS** There are no outstanding loans. ## **OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES** The overall objective of Dharmachakra is the advancement of the Buddhist religion. In particular, its aims are: `•` To encourage members and others to live in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha. - To publish literature and other material in furtherance of these aims. - To support members of the Triratna Buddhist Order and other duly ordained - Buddhists at the discretion of the council of the charity. `•` In furtherance of the above purpose, but no further or otherwise, the charity shall maintain close communication with, and work under the guidance of, the Triratna Buddhist Order in cooperation with other groups with the same objects. To achieve these aims the charity archives, and makes available for free download, both text and audio files of Buddhist teachings. It also runs a web publishing platform and social media spaces to further support connections within our community. ## **ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE 2021** This year, Dharmachakra’s project The Buddhist Centre online (www.thebuddhistcentre.com) was the main focus of new work. Like all businesses and charities, 2021 was a year of extraordinary challenge for Dharmachakra, at all levels. Our team and our online platform rose to these challenges in wonderful ways, as evidenced by very strong financial performance under pressure. Leveraging work done over years, we were able to quickly respond to the needs of our worldwide community during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic by developing several key new sites and services. The public response to these was very positive, and we were able to fundraise effectively against a raft of live events and online facilities designed to support 2 people practicing Buddhism and meditation in their daily lives at a time of continued difficulty. Specifically, the creation of the Dharma Toolkit platform – for live events, communityfocused media, and shared web spaces – was a major achievement. Developed in just one month in March 2020, this has become a major focal point for a rich array of web services. We continued and expanded our efforts with the Dharma Toolkit and our live events program. We also hope it has helped exemplify for our wider community how online connection can substantively complement in-person contexts for learning and offering guidance to those looking to explore the Buddhist path. The needs of the situation and of the new platform meant we also urgently needed to grow our team. Fortunately, the generosity of our donors in response to our work meant this became possible in ways we had not predicted. We were able to take on several new team members on a part-time basis and sustain their employment throughout the year. As a charity that places a lot of emphasis on the ethical principles of Buddhist ‘Right Livelihood’ we are immensely grateful for the opportunity to offer meaningful work to others who feel connected to these same values. ## **PLANS FOR THE FUTURE (2022)** Since the pandemic will be ongoing, and the landscape of our community’s presence online has changed in so many unforeseen ways, we envisage continuing and expanding our efforts with the Dharma Toolkit and our live events program. There will be challenges to this as the world gradually returns to ‘normal’ post-pandemic, but we feel there will also be strong opportunities to uphold the value of our online spaces as focal points for shared positive connection within our own community and beyond. We will also be beginning design and background implementation work on a complete overhaul of our sister site at Free Buddhist Audio. This site has long been a cornerstone of our fundraising strategy, and we’re excited to explore the possibilities for redeveloping it as a major part of what we offer online in future. The Buddhist Centre Online will continue its mobile redesign process, taking in a completely new menu system, further integration of all our sites and services within the platform (including everything new from 2020), and a new home page with deeper curation of content from around our community. Our server project will continue to support more experienced webmasters in developing their own websites and social web spaces – and help less experienced situations maintain a secure, virus-free online environment when it comes to their presence online. Financially, we will push on with our successful efforts to make Dharmachakra more financially independent in ways that would allows us to grow the team further and offer more value to our community and our funding partners. We look forward to another year of challenge and of _dana_ ( _Sanskrit: ‘generosity’)_ as the most effective response. ## **TRUSTEES IN 2021** David Creighton (Chair), Madeleine Cadwallender (Secretary), Bettye Pruitt, Tim Holden, Sean Boland. 3 _Dharmachakra (UK) annual accounts to 31st December 2021_ ## _Receipts and Payments Accounts_ ## _January to December 2021_ |?
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?
?|_Donations_
_PayPal_
_Standing Orders (Recurring)_
_Events hosted_
_Institutional donations during covid-19_
_Other Donations_
_Gift Aid Tax_|_£_
_2021 Restricted_|_£_
_2021 Unestricted_
_34,126_
_14,041_
_38,969_
_1,570_
_0_
_1,822_
_0_|_£_
_£_
_£_
_2021 Total_
_2020_
_change_
_NOTES_
_34,126_
_32,182_
1,945
1
_14,041_
_13,026_
1,015
1
_38,969_
_8,045_
30,924
2
_1,570_
_4,328_
-2,758
3
_0_
_0_
0
_1,822_
_2,445_
-623
4
_0_
_7,202_
-7,202
5
_90,529_
_67,228_
23,301
_6,780_
_7,705_
-925
_503_
_0_
503
_7,283_
_7,705_
-423
_3,127_
_0_
0
_80,000_
_61,000_
19,000
_15,000_
_15,000_
0
_0_
_10,000_
-10,000
_750_
_0_
750
_98,877_
_86,000_
9,750
_1,650_
_1,800_
-150
_2,250_
_3,380_
-1,130
_2,280_
_500_
1,780
_6,180_
_5,680_
499
_202,868_
_166,614_
33,127
_4,050_
_3,150_
900
_2,635_
_1,991_
644
6
_782_
_0_
782
_133_
_193_
-60
_7,600_
_5,335_
2,266
_-34_
_734_
-768
7
_1,169_
_0_
1,169
7
_1,570_
_1,831_
-262
_21,981_
_20,218_
1,562
_11,571_
_14,328_
-5,157
8
_0_
_89_
-89
_0_
_30_
-30
8
_0_
_370_
-370
8
_0_
_0_
0
8
_36,256_
_37,601_
-3,944
_8,512_
_1,734_
6,628
_19,114_
_9,233_
9,482
_56,517_
_38,304_
18,213
_84,143_
_49,271_
34,323
_128,000_
_92,206_
32,644
9
_74,868_
_74,408_
483
_-52,613_
_-46,016_
-6,597
9
_22,256_
_28,393_
-6,114| |---|---|---|---|---| ||_Other Income_
_Domain Names_
_Other(Publishing Services)_|_0_|_90,529_
_6,780_
_503_|| ||_Grants Received_
_ECA_
_Future Dharma Fund_
_Order Office_
_Uddiyana_
_Triratna Trust_|_0_
_3,127_|_7,283_
_0_
_80,000_
_15,000_
_0_
_750_|| ||_Client Work_
_LBC Development_
_Order Office_
_Other(Festival Day)_|_3,127_|_95,750_
_1,650_
_2,250_
_2,280_|| |||_0_|_6,180_|| ||_Total Income_|_3,127_|_199,741_|| ||_Administration_
_Accounting_
_Bank fees etc_
_Insurance_
_Office & Postage_||_4,050_
_2,635_
_782_
_133_|| ||_General Costs_
_Computer & Software_
_Depreciation_
_Domain Names (centre sites)_
_Social Media Manager_
_Consultancy - contractors to help with events etc_
_Miscellaneous event costs_
_Travel & subsistance (ECA Meetings)_
_Travel (Other external Meetings)_
_Travel to TBCO meetings_|_0_
_200_
_2,400_|_7,600_
_-34_
_1,169_
_1,570_
_21,781_
_9,171_
_0_
_0_
_0_
_0_|| ||_Website Costs_
_Order Office and Administrative support_
_Website Management & Content Promotion_
_Web Development(primary coding)_|_2,600_
_150_
_400_|_33,656_
_8,362_
_18,714_
_56,517_|| |||_550_|_83,593_|| ||_Total Expenditure_|_3,150_|_124,850_|| |||||| ||_Cash Flow_|_-23_|_74,891_|| ||_Grant Transfer_
_Paid to US_||_-52,613_|| ||_Adjusted Cash Flow_|_-23_|_22,279_|| _Dharmachakra (UK) annual accounts to 31st December 2021_ ## _**NOTES:**_ ## Note 1: increase in general donations to The Buddhist Centre Online In general, The Buddhist Centre Online received a moderate upturn in donations, as people made much more use of our services, either via events and retreats (see note 2 below), or in other ways, due largely to continued Covid-19 health safety measures, effecting the closure of buddhist centres and retreat centres around the world. ## Note 2: Events income: In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to the ongoing closure of Triratna buddhist centres and retreat centres through much of 2021, Dharmachakra responded by hosting a number of events and retreats, via zoom, for the Triratna Community. These were by donation, facilitated by the platform Eventbrite. In some cases a proportion of the proceedings was gifted to the teacher of the event, for the work they had put in to the event. ## Note 3: In 2021, Institutional donations (furloughs) was lower, as furlough payments were discontinued and the economy began to recover from lock-downs and pandemic measures. ## Note 4: In 2021, 'Other Donations' were lower, although it included two donations from Triratna Berlin for The Buddhist Centre Online's help with the European convention. ## Note 5: Gift Aid receipt The Gift Aid receipt for 2021 (relating to 2020 donations) is expected to be received in 2023, along with the Gift Aid receipt for 2022. So there is a nil Gift Aid receipt in 2020 and will be a double receipt in 2023 (relating to 2020 and 2021 donations). Note 6: Bank fees etc are made up of International transfers (via Wise) / Paypal fees / Stripe fees/Eventbrite fees. Note 7: Computer costs are now evaluated for a capitalization threshold of £1,000, below which, the cost is expensed as Computers; above which, the cost is depreciated over the life of the asset. When comparing computer & software costs from year to year, depreciation expense can be included. ## Note 8: Expenses: Due to covid-19, as mentioned in 'income' notes above, we hosted many online events, which had associated costs eg the hiring of contractors to facilitate the events etc. Candradasa's travel costs were paid by Dharmachakra, Inc. (US), so the 2021 cost is less than in 2020. ## Note 9: increase in USA grant compared to 2020: Grants passed through to Dharmachakra U.S. increased by 14%, and were used to cover increased operating expenses, primarily Google Cloud service and software costs. ## _Statement of Assets and Liabilities_ |_Fixed Assets_
_Fixtures, Fittings, Equipment_
_Accumulated Depreciation_||_12/31/2020_
_NOTES_
_NOTES_
_5,376_
_0_
_5,376_
_558_
_59_
_42,143_
_5,641_
_48,400_
_0_
_53,776_
_0_
_0_
_53,776_
5,376
48,400
53,776| |---|---|---| |_Current Assets_
_Cash at Bank & In Hand_
_Santander No1 & No2 Accounts_
_CCLA Account_
_Co-operative Bank Account_
_PayPal Accounts_||| |_Uncleared receipts_||| |_Total Assets_||| |_Liabilities_
_Payroll Liabilities_||| |||| |_Net Assets_||| |_Represented by:_
approximate value of fixed assets
Unrestricted funds||| |||| _Dharmachakra (UK) annual accounts to 31st December 2021_ ## _Bank Statement Reconciliations_ |_Santander No1 Account_||_check_|| |---|---|---|---| |_Balance as per Quickbooks_|_70.00_||| |_Plus uncleared deposits_|||| |_Less unclearedpayments_|||| |_Balance as per Statement_|_70.00_||_0.00_| |_Santander No2 Account_|||| |_Balance as per Quickbooks_|_458.50_||| |_Plus uncleared deposits_|||| |_Less unclearedpayments_|||| |_Balance as per Statement_|_458.50_||_0.00_| |_Co-op Dharmachakra Account_|||| |_Balance as per Quickbooks_|_66,433.99_||| |_Plus uncleared deposits_|||| |_Less unclearedpayments_|||| |_Balance as per Statement_|_66,433.99_||_0.00_| |_CCLA Investment Account_|||| |_Balance as per Quickbooks_|_0.00_||| |_Plus uncleared deposits_|||| |_Less unclearedpayments_|||| |_Balance as per Statement_|_0.00_||_0.00 Account clo_| |_PayPal (FBA) Account_|||| |_Balance as per Quickbooks_|_1,326.04_||| |_Plus uncleared deposits_|||| |_Less unclearedpayments_|||| |_Balance as per Statement_|_1,326.04_||_0.00_| |_PayPal (TBC) Account_|||| |_Balance as per Quickbooks_|_1,036.52_||| |_Plus uncleared deposits_|||| |_Less unclearedpayments_|||| |_Balance as per Statement_|_1,036.52_||_0.00_| |TOTAL CASH|69,325.05||| |_UNCLEARED DEPOSITS_|_3,108.87_||| |_UNCLEARED PAYMENTS_|_0.00_||| |**balance of cash & deposits:**|**72,433.92**||| ?sed in 2021 _Dharmachakra (UK) annual accounts to 31st December 2021_ ## _Statement of Assets and Liabilities_ |_Fixed Assets_
_Fixtures, Fittings, Equipment_
_Accumulated Depreciation_||_12/31/2021_
_6,786_
_-1,169_|_12/31/2020_
_NOTES_
_5,376_
_0_
_5,376_
_558_
_59_
_42,143_
_5,641_
_48,400_
_0_
_53,776_
_0_
_0_
_53,776_
5,376
20,007
28,393
53,776| |---|---|---|---| |_Current Assets_
_Cash at Bank & In Hand_
_Santander No1 & No2 Accounts_
_CCLA Account_
_Co-operative Bank Account_
_PayPal Accounts_||_5,617_
_529_
_0_
_66,434_
_2,363_|| |_Uncleared receipts_||_69,325_
_3,109_|| |_Total Assets_||_78,051_|| |_Liabilities_
_Payroll Liabilities_||_2,019_|| |||_2,019_|| |_Net Assets_||_76,032_|| |_Represented by:_
Book value of fixed assets
Unrestricted net assets (Retained Earnings)
Net Revenue||5,617
48,159
22,256|| |||76,032|| CHARITY COMMISSION FOR E￿lAND AND WAIES Independent examinerfs report on the Section A Independent Examiner s Report R•port to th• tru•t• Ohannachakra On accoun18 for th• y￿r 31112r2021 Charfty no 111 •ny} 204143 I rep￿1 lo ts tru8te88 on my examination of the accounts of the above tharity Trusf) for thè year ended 31j12r2￿2l. R•8ponslbllllS•• and bas1• of rnport As the tharitys tru8te88, you arn r•8pon8ibl8 for th• prnparation of the accounts in accordance the requirements of the Charitie8 Act 2011 I report in re8F*Ct of my examination of tho Tru8t'• accounts corrlod out urxler 8e(Xion 145 of the 2011 Act and in carryiThJ (xrt my examination. I have followed all the apFlICab￿ Direction8 glven by the Charity Commi881on under sedion 1445Xb) ol the Ala. Indepondent I have completed my examination. I confimi that no material matter8 have examlnorf• statsnwnt come to my attention in connection with the exam¥M￿n ￿•ch gNe8 me cause to believe that in, any material respect: the accountir¥J records There not kgpl in accordance wilh secti¢)n 130 of Chafthe8 Act. or the accounts did not compty *ith the appli￿ble requirements conceming the fom7 and content of account8 88t out in the Charit￿6 (Accounts arKI Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a and fairf view which Is not a matter considered a8 part of an inde[w￿nI examination. with tho examinab"LM to ￿}ch attenlion should bo drawn in this report in order to enable a Fyoper understarKliThJ of ac¢ount8 to be r•ached. S*n•d: 06102r2023 Nam•: Fay Piitchard R•lovaTrt prof••sloMI quallficatlon(•) or body (If any): Addrn88: 8 DaNin Street shreWst￿ry 8Y3 8QE IER Oct 2018