2011 AGM Treasurer’s Report
The link R2R accounts 10-11 final in this report is the unaudited Receipts and Payments Account and Statement of Assets and Liabilities for Routes to Roots for the year ended 31 March 2011, showing a £3,747 excess of receipts over payments. I hope these will again be audited for us by Mike Bilson. The accounts will be lodged with the Charities Commission as part of our Annual Return by January 2012.
I am pleased to report that our general donations income has continued to increase with significant donations from schools, churches and individuals. Many churches, schools and individuals have also raised funds for us. Thank you to everyone involved.
Individual membership subscription has disappointingly decreased, and I’d like to encourage all members to renew their subscription and see if they can sign a friend up.
Other important sources of funding were grants of Seedbed funding from Bridging Communities and £10,000 from Awards4All; payment from Bournemouth University for providing placements for social work students, and of course the joint POST contract with BCHA from the Borough of Poole.
The increase in operating costs compared with last year is mainly due to having 2 full-time staff for the whole year as well as the part-time administrator. Food costs have of course increased, and costs of renting the hall and the office have also increased to cover increased costs of electricity and heating. We also started to provide a cooked breakfast for rough sleepers in association with the Fisherman’s Café during the cold winter weather, which proved very welcome.
We start the 2011/12 financial year in an uncertain position. The POST contract potentially ends this September, though it could be extended for a further year. I estimate that it will cost about £65,000 to continue all our current work, and without the POST contract and additional sources of funding we will start eating into our reserves.
However we continue to step out in faith that God will provide and have allocated £17,560 of our reserves towards finding a permanent home for Routes to Roots. Routes to Roots needs to continue to draw on local support for its work. If you are aware of any potential new sources of funding, please let me or one of the other members of the Executive Committee have details.
I would like to put on record my appreciation for all of the hard work undertaken by Lynn Foster in maintaining the books for Routes to Roots this year and wish her the best in her ‘retirement’.
Sarah Percy
Treasurer
Routes to Roots
May 2011