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2021-11-30-accounts

Greek Animal Rescue Trustees Report

The trustees of Greek Animal Rescue UK present their annual report for year ended 30 November 2021. The charity is organised in such a way that the trustees discuss regularly how best to manage its affairs. As there are no paid employees, the organisation relies on the continued support of a small number of volunteers to manage its activities

Charitable objectives

  1. The relief of suffering of animals in Greece in need of care and attention by the provision of funds, materials and equipment for the care, accommodation and treatment of such animals

  2. The prevention of cruelty to animals in Greece.

  3. The advancement of public education in all aspects of care and protection of animals

Activities

In practical terms this means

Sterilising campaigns are the most effective way to reduce stray animal overpopulation in Greece. Greek Animal Rescue manage many different size campaigns throughout Greece from intensive programmes sterilising hundreds of animals to small local campaigns for just a few local animals. Grants for this work are paid direct to the vets only to ensure funds are spent correctly.

Assisting local organisations with their own rescue work improves the welfare of animals living on the streets. This assistance is generally in the form of medication particularly tick treatments. We also provide a winter food payment to the food supplier of the groups we support. These groups are mainly the local animal welfare volunteers that we assist with our TNR Trap, Neuter and Release sterilisation programmes.

Lobbying the Greek Government is primarily at a local level. Animal welfare legislation in Greece is reasonably good with each municipality being responsible for

the health and care of all street animals within its geography. However, at a local level this legislation is rarely implemented effectively.

Achieving our goals

Sterilising campaigns and support for local animal welfare volunteers and rescue work. Through these grants for sterilising projects, we have maintained our network of contacts in Greece which enables us to respond to calls for help more effectively too.

We work with a wide variety of local charities and animal welfare organisations and individuals in Greece that we know and trust. We provide medication and food for street animals that is distributed by animal welfare groups. In order to ensure that funds are used for the intended purpose, all grants for neutering or payments for veterinary work are paid direct to the vets nominated bank account only. All animal transport costs and food are paid direct to the transporter company and food suppliers too. We strictly never pay the welfare groups direct.

We have historically supported 2 animal welfare groups on a monthly basis on Kos and Salamina and will continue to support these trusted partners for the foreseeable future. We actually increased the support for Salamina being an area exempt from benefits of tourism and notorious for animal dumping. However, we do not intend to extend this activity for regular payments to other organisations as we do not want a reliability on our support and our priority is to address the source of the problem by focusing on funding neutering nationwide. We do not fund capital projects as this has proved unreliable in the past.

We continually encourage the reporting of animal abuse to the Greek government both at local and national level.

In addition to our charitable objectives

Greek Animal Rescue offers a limited rehoming service with full back up service for any animal we bring to the UK to ensure that none of them ever knowingly enter the UK charity rescue system. Rehoming is limited to a few lucky animals as we have limited resource and facilities in the UK to provide backup service for failed homes. The cost of preparing and transporting an animal from Greece has increased and has never been fully covered by the suggested adoption donation.

The help we provide to tourists to bring home animals they have met on holiday has understandably reduced due to the lockdowns. Greek Animal Rescue has facilitated the rehoming of 80 dogs and cats this year a decrease of 22 from 2020. We are

fortunate to have an experienced behaviourist trustee who is overseeing this process more effectively and devised a detailed preadoption request check and works closely with the Greek rescuers. We have increased the suggested adoption donation and reduced the adoption failure rate by improving the matching of pets to adopters with the help of our behaviourist and this will enable us to continue this service in the future.

Financial Review

The financial statements indicate our financial results for the year.

Total income increased from £321k to £806k in 2021. This is entirely due to another exceptional and unexpected legacy.

Donations and subscriptions have increased by 22% from £250k to £306k in 2022. This is our core income. There was a positive response to the newsletter that featured our Wildfires appeal which was our most successful appeal ever raising around £30k and we are fortunate that this was also covered in UK national press. Also, our sponsored walk to help a new area of Amfissa titled ‘£9k for Canines.’ We must acknowledge our volunteer who manages Facebook and creates very engaging fundraising appeals across all our social media platforms which has driven the bulk of this increase even attracting donations from USA and Canada and a London based Greek restaurant. Also promoting online shopping platforms Amazon Smile, Give as you Live, Easyfundraising. This year we also implemented a new revenue stream for requesting £100 donation for our services to assist tourists looking to rehome a dog or cat.

Legacies, we are very grateful to those people who remember GAR in their wills as this enables us to increase the amount of work we do. Indeed, it is only due to legacies that we have been able to increase our vital neutering and rescue work.

Fundraising has increased by 45% to £32k in 2021. The 2020 lockdowns prevented us from taking our stalls to events, but we managed to do a few of these end of 2021. We are very grateful to some long-term supporters who do boot sales for us and managed this in between lockdowns and we also acknowledge our 2 volunteers who manage Ebay sales for which there has been an increase.

We must also mention our long-term supporter who organises an annual event at a London jazz club.

Other Income represents merchandise sales which have declined. Also income from sales of medicines to Greek welfare groups where they have fundraised locally which has also decreased.

Greek Rescue Expenses

Following the previous good years for income, the trustees planned to continue with the sterilisation campaigns and 2021 is the second-best annual result. We always approach the families of the legacies and confirm that this is often the wish to primarily use the funds. This year we sterilised 3708 dogs and cats which cost £177k. This is a decrease of 734 animals from 2020. We experienced a decline in neutering grant requests which we believe is a result of the pandemic recovery.

We are continuing to support local schemes for assisted sterilisation of owned dogs. The reason behind this is that many Greeks do not sterilise their own dogs and when they inevitably fall pregnant, the resulting pups may be dumped at a shelter or in boxes and roadside bins impacting the stray overpopulation. We are very keen to sterilise owned Greek Shephard dogs and have particularly supported this in Kozani Northern Greece.

Neutering prices vary greatly all over Greece mainland and islands – a female dog being from €50 to €120. In many areas vets have set high prices and the use of foreign vets is rarely permitted anymore. We have 2 volunteers based in Athens who are a great help in contacting the Greek vets and help to negotiate the best prices. In many areas neutering was a permitted activity during Greek lockdowns. We have always received more requests to neuter cats than dogs.

Neutering Greek Geography Report for the year 2021:

Area Sum of Dog Sum of Cat Area Sum of Dog Sum of Cat
Almyros 5 Koropi 15
Amfipolis 25 Kos 50 20
Amfissa 105 Kozani 136 36
Athens 146 505 Kyparissa 40 185
Corfu 71 73 Lesvos 5 44
Crete 90 173 Malia 50
Deskati 25 Messini 35 3
East Pilio 50 50 Orepos 28
Evia 38 25 Patras 11 9
Grevana 50 Paxos 30
Halkida 170 100 Preveza 15 55
Kalambaka 14 Ptolemaida 20
Kallithea 50 Salamina 17 125
Kalymnos 55 Samos 40 179
Karditsa 30 10 Serres 75 30
Kastoria 35 Thessaloniki 152 40
Kavala 15 25 Volos 16 194
Kefalonia 68 Total 1622 2086
Kivotos 50 3708

Equipment cost has increased by £7k to £14k as this was a lot of our spend from the Wildfires Appeal.

Food costs has decreased by £6k to £21k. Brexit has had a huge impact on this.

Board and Kalyvia kennels which care for GAR sponsored dogs and tourist rescue dogs has increased by £3k to £35k. We continue to typically sponsor a maximum of 10-15 dogs at any time.

Medical costs have decreased by £5k to £98k. This is a combination of medical purchases and payments to Greek vets. We continue to receive requests to provide tick treatments thus preventing fatal Mediterranean diseases transmitted by ticks.

Transport cost has increased by £13k to £107k. Costs associated with this are ever increasing and this includes necessary Covid tests and support for Skiathos dog shelter rehoming. Where directly involved with rehoming this is recouped as much as possible with suggested adoption donation.

Designated Donations are £19k. We have decided to account for these separately. These form part of a donation that benefits GAR and are requested to specific animal welfare groups.

UK rescue costs have remained static at £21k. This is back up for rehomed dogs in UK. Rehoming whether GAR sponsored, or tourist assisted has always been the main source of generating supporters.

Our other costs for administration postage, regulatory and notary fees have decreased by £4k

We produced 2 newsletters this year. It can be difficult to obtain the right quality material for this from the groups we support and there is a decline in people wanting a hardcopy edition. We understand that online fundraising will be of more significance going forward so we may produce just 1 newsletter per year going forward.

We had another successful year creating and selling our own calendar which sold out and we appreciate our volunteer who managed all this.

Financial Reserves Policy

Based on our working capital requirements and the obvious risks and uncertainty associated with our income the trustees believe that £250k is currently an appropriate unrestricted reserve to maintain. This typically represents what was our annual expected income pre these large legacies and approximately 8 months of current operational expenditure.

Restricted Funds

We received a designated £38k for the purposes of neutering for the Island of Samos which now stands at £14k. We supported 3 groups on Samos in 2020 - 2 for helping dogs and 1 for helping cats.

Investment Policy

As noted in the last accounts the trustees had decided to invest £300k in fixed term deposit account as effectively and efficiently as possible with no risk to benefit Greek animals over the next three years by increasing our normal activities in such a way that they can be scaled back again once the funds have been used. However, interest rates for these deposits have plummeted this year.

Trustee’s Response to the Independent Examiners Report

The trustees recognise the comments of the independent examiner in that we have been extremely fortunate to have come through the pandemic in a stronger position thanks to legacies and this delays the need for stricter budgets. We are concerned re post pandemic impact on fundraising and donations although we are aware of an expected £100k legacy in 2022. Indeed, if we had not received legacies this year then we would have decreased our funds by around £200k which was our predicted position. Next year we plan to increase medical assistance and neutering projects. We will continue to focus on online fundraising and are still looking to find an experienced fundraising individual or team in Greece to assist with this. We will also consider advertisement opportunities.

Greek Animal Rescue

Income & Expenditure account for the year ended 30[th] November 2021.

2021 2020
Donations & Subscriptions 306,815 250,419
Legacies 458,950 33,782
Fund Raising 32,280 22,318
Investment Income 2,401 2,356
Other Income 6,125 13,037
Total Income 806,571 321,912
Expenses
Greek Rescue Expenses 503,822 470,951
UK Rescue Expenses 21,329 21,102
Office Services 2,865 4,119
PPS & Journals 6,434 7,458
Advertising & Publicity 340 1,015
Merchandising 2,435 3,002
Miscellaneous 78
Total Expenses 537,303 507,647
Profit/ ( Loss) for the year 269,268 (185,735)
Balance Brought Forward 634.309 820,044
Balance Carried Forward 903,577 634,309
Represented By
Treasurers Account 11,487 10,141
Treasurers Account (2) 338 1,044
30 Day Account 608,383 285,525
COIF Account 15,000 15,000
Lloyds Term Deposits 201,252 300,000
Paypal/Cash in Hand 14,366 5,868
Nochex account 52,751 16,731
903,577 634.309

Approved by the board of Trustees on 12[th] September 2022 and signed on its behalf.

Laura Tregent

Diane Chapman Trustee

Trustee

Notes to the accounts:

Greek Rescue Expenses

escue Expenses UK Rescue Expenses
Board 8,373 6, 515
Equipment 14,270 100
Food 21,718 1,684
Grant 30,150
Kennels 26,909
Neutering 177,394
Transport 107,756 512
Vet/Medical 98,171 12,512
Designated Donations 19,081
Total 503,822 21,329

Independent Examiner’s Report

To the Trustees of Greek Animal Rescue

I report on the accounts of the above for the year ended 30th November 2021

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the charities act 2012 (the charities act) and that an Independent Examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

Examine the accounts under section 145 of the charities act.

To follow the procedures laid down in the general directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act and to state whether any particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of Independent Examiner’s report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the general directions given by the Charity Commissioners. My examination included a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from the Trustees concerning such matters. The procedures do not cover all evidence that would be required of an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a true and fair reflection, and the report is limited on this basis.

Independent Examiners Report

The charity has made a significant profit this year, largely thanks to a number of generous legacies/donations. Expenses in the UK continue to reduce. The charity has come through the Covid 19 pandemic in a stronger financial position than in 2019, which is a remarkable achievement.

Kelvin Speirs

A.C.Tax Services

Fyndings

Station Road Plumpton Green

Lewes BN7 3BX

22/8/22

Additional Notes to Accounts

2019 2020 2021 2020 v 2021
Donations 291,850 250,419 306,815 56,396
Legacies 157,975 33,782 458,950 425,168
Fundraising Events 25,396 22,318 32,280 9,962
Investment Income 277 2,356 2,401 45
Other Income 11,733 13,037 6,125 -6,912
Total 487,230 321,911 806,571 484,659
Expenditure 2019 2020 2021 2020 v 2021
Animal Rescue(Greece) 424,064 470,951 503,822 32,871
Animal Rescue(UK) 26,479 21,102 21,329 226
Office & services 6,750 4,119 2,865 -1,254
PPS &journals 8,377 7,458 6,435 -1,024
Advertising&publicity 2,094 1,015 340 -675
Merchandising 9,375 3,002 2,435 -567
Other 6,950 0 78 78
Total 484,089 507,647 537,303 29,656
Animal Rescue(Greece) 2019 2020 2021 2020 v 2021
Board 5,842 7,405 8,373 967
Equipment 6,579 6,840 14,270 7,430
Food 35,742 27,979 21,718 -6,260
Grant 23,200 17,800 30,150 12,350
Medical 80,034 103,192 98,171 -5,021
Kalyvia Kennels 22,158 24,582 26,909 2,326
Neutering 149,373 188,487 177,394 -11,093
Transport 101,136 94,665 107,756 13,091
Designated Donations 19,081 19,081
Total 424,064 470,951 503,822 32,871
Animal Rescue(UK) 2019 2020 2021 2020 v 2021
Board 11,973 6,014 6,515 501
Equipment 249 546 100 -446
Food 1,182 1,164 1,684 520
Medical 10,398 12,688 12,512 -176
Transport 2,677 691 518 -172
Total 26,479 21,102 21,329 226
Neutering 2019 2020 2021 2020 v 2021
Cats 1726 2771 2086 -685
Dogs 1557 1671 1622 -49
Total 3283 4442 3708 -734
Rehoming 2019 2020 2021 2020 v 2021
GAR sponsored and assisted tourist
rescues		 128 102 80 -22