Annual Report

For the year ended 31^st March 2012

1.     The Trustees have pleasure in presenting their report with the financial statements of the Charity for the year ended 31 March 2012.  The Trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) Accounting and Reporting by Charities issued March 2005. 

2.     Structure, Governance and Management

The organisation is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 8 April 2003, and registered as a Charity on 6 June 2003.  The company was established under a Memorandum of Association which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its Articles of Association.

The Trustees, who are also directors of the Charity for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006, have the power to appoint new or additional trustees and to remove any trustee provided the number of Trustees does not fall below a minimum of three.

 

Trustees are selected to have a wide range of business and charity experience and are required to gain an understanding of all aspects of the charities work.  New trustees are invited to attend a Trustee Education Day with the Chief Executive Officer and other key members of staff to learn more about the Charity and its overseas projects.

Trustee meetings are held quarterly and trustees are provided with a variety of reports to update them on all key activities of the Charity and to provide up to date financial information.

The daily running of the Charity is undertaken by the Chief Executive Officer together with a team of staff and volunteers who provide a range of skills and experience.  Future strategy is developed in agreement between the Chief Executive Officer and the Chair of Trustees.  Strategy is reviewed and signed off by the Board of Trustees to ensure the Charity continues to work towards its stated objectives and there is appropriate mitigation of all major risks identified.

 

3.     Objectives and Activities

People Against Poverty’s objects, as per the Charity’s memorandum and articles of association are: 

The relief of poverty, deprivation and distress of all people throughout the world with particular reference to third world countries, by providing practical expertise, equipment, tools, machinery, transport, appliances, building and other materials, medical supplies, seeds, fertilisers, water supply and drainage equipment, clothing, shelter, money and other necessities.

 

To advance the Christian religion in any part of the world.

 

For such other charitable objects as the trustees shall from time to time in their absolute discretion determine.

The staff and trustees of the Charity continue to be motivated by the words of Isaiah 58:7

“Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –

When you see the naked, to clothe him,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

 

Under these objects the Charity has three main aims:

·           To help break the cycle of poverty for the deprived world, by empowering them to become self sufficient

·           To partner with UK businesses so that they can support poverty reduction and improve their own organisation at the same time

·           To raise awareness of poverty so that individuals and businesses in the UK understand better the situation of the world’s poor.  

Through these activities People Against Poverty wants to see lives being changed.  In the overseas projects, the Charity wants to see individual testimonies of people who through the support from People Against Poverty’s project partners, are able to support themselves and their families, who are able to seek employment, have a family, run a home and live life with dignity and hope. Things that are so often taken for granted in the UK. 

4.     Strategy

In the UK, the Charity aims to engage with the donor in new ways, showing them directly how their support can positively impact the lives of those living in poverty. With this in mind the trustee board together with the CEO reviewed its current strategy.

 

In 2010-2011 we decided to consolidate our resources and limit future project expansion to the overseas projects in Romania, Haiti and, Nepal. Support of the Child Sponsorship projects in India, Tanzania and Malawi would continue for those already sponsored but new sponsorship would not be sought. In 2011-12 that policy was successfully implemented.

In July 2011 the charity implemented a rebrand. The rebrand was a complete transformation of our corporate identity, both in name and brand identity. The costs of rebranding were met from the membership funds of Business against Poverty. The new website was implemented and was funded by donation from UBM. The rebranding was well received  by the market place and has proved to be a great success for the charity overall.

 

Our aim is to release Communities from poverty.  Therefore the charity defined its core work to focus on communities. When a Community is bound together by common values and skill-sets, with the need for growth or even survival, then a powerful entity is formed.  Such a community can punch above its weight and gain self-momentum becoming a driving force for change on a larger scale.

People against Poverty are an organisation that does just that. We have formed a number of strategic and influential Communities in Business, Education, Arts and Music that can use their energy and resources to impact on the lives of the poor within our international projects.

Working primarily in Romania, Nepal and Haiti with established projects. These include Child Sponsorship, meeting medical needs, providing legal assistance, running canteens and providing the means to access school and education for the children and their families. The children we help are either abandoned, orphaned or are simply living in extreme poverty with their families, residing in abandoned ghetto blocks with no heating, lighting, and sanitation or running water.

With this in mind our Mission statement is:

We are an independent Christian charity working internationally with projects that we can personally engage with, to help change lives, by releasing communities from poverty. 

Our primary aims are:

·         Feed the hungry, provide shelter, clothe and educate the poor, take care of the sick and bring communities together to help break the cycle of poverty.

•   To form communities in the UK to engage with People against Poverty.

·         To be a gateway directly enabling our communities here in the UK, to engage with our International communities bringing them both life changing experiences

Who We Are:

 

We are a global community of the like-minded, an independent charity whose shared intention is to alleviate poverty and suffering around the world.  We channel our resources into projects that directly connect communities, donor to recipient, person to person. We deliver help on the ground through our local partnerships and networks.  We are THE local international charity.

We change lives by meeting basic needs: food, housing, education, shelter, giving people legitimacy and legal status.  Our projects are designed to empower greater self-sufficiency, new hope and a more sustainable future - a handshake, not a hand out.

5.     Achievements and Performance

In the year, People Against Poverty aimed to strengthen its offer to the business community through the further establishment and growth of Business against Poverty and to continue to take groups of individuals out to visit the projects in Romania to witness directly the needs of the people and the impact that People Against Poverty’s project partners are achieving. 

People against Poverty support overseas projects by partnering with local organisations in locations across the world. 

5.1 Romania

The main area of focus continued to be the city of Iasi in Romania where funds are used to work with local families living in extreme poverty.  Families are supported through a child sponsorship scheme, canteen, medical centre, legal aid programme and a project centre providing clean water and washing facilities.  In addition a respite centre is being built in the rural area of Dobrovat, called Dobrovat House, to provide breaks for children and families living in impoverished areas of the city.

In the year £41.4k was distributed to the project in Romania (excluding child sponsorship), primarily to support the core services. £3.8k of the funds was invested into the building of Dobrovat House, and with additional donations in the New Year we aim to complete Dobrovat in June 2012.

 

The canteen programme is feeding over 55 children, 3 times a week with a hot meal. The scheme provides employment for 3 local people.  The medical centre ran all year providing a first point of contact and helping people gain referrals into hospital.  In addition the medical centre provided health education, for example in family planning, dental hygiene and healthy living.  The Legal Aid programme continued to help families gain their registration documents so they can access state services, including healthcare, housing and welfare benefits.

5.2 Haiti

In 2010 we purchased a piece of land for use as a small holding for farm stock and the building of new dormitories. The land is now being utilised with dormitories being built by an American Agency. In March 2012 we were able to send £1,300 for the repair to the Septic Tank. We currently support 14 children through the child sponsorship programme.

5.3 Nepal

The older children on the child sponsorship programme have now completed their education graduating after passing their exams. There are currently 24 children on the currently in full time education under the education sponsorship programme (formerly Child Sponsorship programme). In the coming year 2012/13 we intend to develop our strategy in Nepal further.

5.4 The Child Sponsorship Programme

In this financial year the child sponsorship scheme distributed £58k to impoverished families in Romania, Nepal, India, Malawi, Tanzania and Haiti.  The funds have been used to provide food, clothing, help with education and medical needs and opportunities for the children to integrate back into society of which they are rejected.

5.5 Business against Poverty

A number of small companies left the scheme in 2011 as a reflection of the current economic climate, but we are pleased that they were replaced with members paying a higher rate of membership. Therefore the income for membership rose from £9K to £11.6K. Related activities to Business against Poverty, e.g The Entrepreneur raised £22k. We intend to maintain a keen focus on Business against Poverty with a target to increase the number of sponsors and the number of SME members. 

5.6 Education Against Poverty

Sanctuary Homes

This year we have been able to build a further 4 Sanctuary Homes bringing the total to 9, under the leadership of our volunteer Director of Education against Poverty. A further 4 homes are intended for 2012/13. This is an exciting and challenging opportunity for School/college/university students, Businesses, Churches and / or individuals to support our work and giving the opportunity to achieve something of true significance was launched.  This is a truly “hands on” project providing a vital service to the people we are there to help.  Great for team building, a Sanctuary home can be built in as little as 5 days.

OVERALL AIM: To provide eco-friendly, cheap, sustainable housing for people presently living in homes constructed of mud and waste materials as well as those living in ex-communist blocks without heating, lighting, running water or sanitation.

OBJECTIVE: To build affordable, safe houses, to provide employment; to secure legal rights over building land; to involve families in building process; to provide clean water; to help build relationships in the community; to help build relationships with the Mayor of the City and with Social Services; to improve sanitation, lighting, heating; to educate local people in basic building skills; to help families become sustainable and able to care for themselves.

5.7 Arts against Poverty

This is still in the development stage. We were able to recruit a new volunteer Director of Arts, Michele Whiting. Michele is an artist /researcher, part time lecturer and Director of her own company.   

She has a PHD, first degree and MA (Bath Spa University). Michele is now undertaking research for the development of Arts against Poverty.

5.8 Music against Poverty

Launched in 2011 with a major concert in Victoria Park, Bath.  Raising a sum of £7.8K. However after the set up costs, the project made a small loss. The strategy for Music against Poverty is being reconsidered.

5.8 Events

In March we attended a national charity business exhibition promoting CSR. Other major fundraising events raised £32.8k 

Marathons	£1,894
Entrepreneur + B&W Ball	£22,061
Other Fundraising Events	£8,874	Parachute jump, quiz n curry etc.

6.0 Financial Review

This financial year has been a turbulent year for People against Poverty with donations falling to low levels as donors pulled back on their giving in light of the UK economic downturn. Added to this was the 3% reduction in Gift Aid.  In September 2011 the revenue levels were at critical and the charity implemented a restructuring programme that targeted staff costs and overhead. In December we relocated to new serviced offices reducing our accommodation costs by nearly 50%. The Trustees were pleased for the year-end financial performance where the shortfalls were made up with the savings from restructuring and focussed fundraising. 

Resources expended to our projects in charitable giving were £143.4k of income including gift aid compared to £171.5k in the previous year. This is accounted by an adjustment of 13k one-off campaign in previous year for Haiti Earthquake and £3.8k to the Way of Joy Project Dobrovat House and the Tanzania project of £1.2k.

 

Voluntary income at year end was £139k compared to £160k in the previous year.  Fundraising increased by £11k to £52k. Increased activity in our school trips saw this area of income raise by £3k to £43k. The gross income for the year end was £234.6k compared to the previous year £241.3k with a minor decrease of 6.7k on the previous year

 

Business against Poverty as a source of income continues to achieve momentum with membership revenues of £11.6k compared to £9k last year and associated revenues through business fund raising at £22k combined revenue of £33.6k inc the Entrepreneur income. This is a critical source of income as 100% is unrestricted and therefore able to distribute some to projects, some to overhead as we saw appropriate

Other principal funding sources for the year were donations from individuals and associated gift aid, forming 59% , school trips to Romania (18.2%), and Bath ½ Marathon (1%).

 

The costs associated with generating voluntary income formed (18%) of income compared to (11%) in the previous year.  Staffing levels were maintained in line with the previous trading year. Salaries were (18%) of income compared to the previous (18%).

The charity incurred a one off cost of £4,214 for the rebranding exercise.

The charity implemented a trial incentive programme for Business against Poverty to generate income from membership and related activities. Lingua Communications (Karen Ramirez trustee) was authorised by the Trustees to trial run the programme which resulted in a commission payment of £3.2K to Lingua Communications. At the end of the trial period it was concluded that the commission was not a viable scheme and was withdrawn. 

Other trustee payments were £19.00

Plans for Future Period

The outlook for 2012-13 looks to be extremely difficult as the economic recession hits even deeper in the UK.  Charitable giving from voluntary donations continues to drop.    Our donor offering continually has to re-invent itself and offer new initiatives.  

In the next financial year, the Charity aims to continue to strengthen its offering to the Business Community by continuing to establish Business against Poverty, giving businesses a way to support poverty reduction whilst strengthening their own business through networking, PR and CSR.   Increased focus as we said before on developing more £’s per member and identifying further sponsors.

New donor revenue channels will be produced in the form of Arts against Poverty and consideration being given to the adoption of Fitness against Poverty to replace Music against Poverty.

In the project areas People against Poverty will be focusing on the geographical areas of Iasi, Romania in particular the development of a social programme and use of a completed Dobrovat House in order that some key outcomes will be achieved in order to break the cycle of poverty for individuals participating in the social programmes. In Nepal, we intend to visit the project to determine a development strategy for either withdrawing or expanding. In Haiti we do not see at this stage any further development other than through growing the child sponsorship scheme. Our focus remains on changing from individual support to community support encouraging the community to break out of poverty through the joint efforts of themselves, our project partners and the Charity.

ate of Report: 31^st July 2012

 

 

Signed: W L Huxley, Chair of Trustees, People against Poverty

People against Poverty

Year Ended 31st March 2012

Statement of Financial Activities

The Statement of Financial Activities includes all gains and losses in the year.

All incoming resources and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
People against Poverty

Balance Sheet at 31st March 2012

Directors’ statements required by Section 475 for the period ended 31^st March 2012

In approving these financial statements as Directors of the Company, we hereby confirm:

(a)   that for the period stated above, the Company was entitled to the exemption conferred by Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006;

(b)   that no notice has been deposited at the registered office of the Company pursuant to Section 476 requesting that an audit be conducted for the period ended 31^st March 2012; and

(c)   that we acknowledge our responsibilities for:

(1)   ensuring that the Company keeps accounting records which comply with Section 386, and

(2)   preparing financial statements which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company as at the end of the financial period and of its profit and loss for the period then ended in accordance with the requirements of Sections 394 and 395 and which otherwise comply with the provisions of the Companies Act 2006 relating to the financial statements, so far as applicable to the charitable company.

These financial statements are prepared in accordance with the special provisions of Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies and in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (effective April 2008). These financial statements were approved by the board of directors on 6^th September 2012 and signed on behalf of the board by                                                                                  

Signed   W L Huxley              Director

People Against Poverty

Year Ended 31^st March 2012

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements

Accounting Policies

The principal accounting policies are summarised below. The accounting policies have been applied consistently throughout the year and in the preceding year.

Basis of accountingThe financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with applicable accounting standards. They follow the recommendations in the Statement of Recommended Practice, Accounting and Reporting by Charities (issued in March 2005) and the Companies Act 2006.

Incoming resources

These are included in the Statement of Financial Activities when the Charity becomes entitled to the resources, the trustees are virtually certain they will receive the resources and the monetary value can be measured with sufficient reliability.

Incoming resources are all reported gross and the Statement of Financial Activities recognises all incoming resources becoming available to the Charity during the year. The value of services provided by volunteers has not been included in the financial statements.

Donated services and facilities are included at the value to the Charity where this can be quantified.

Incoming resources from charitable activities are accounted for when earned.

Legacy income is accounted for on a receivable basis. A legacy is considered receivable for the period only once the amount is known with certainty.

Grants receivable are normally accounted for when received, except where they relate to a specified future period, in which case they are treated as deferred income.

Grants where entitlement is not conditional on the delivery of a specific performance by the Charity are recognised when the Charity becomes unconditionally entitled to the grant.

Fund accounting

Restricted funds are funds subject to specific conditions imposed by the funders and relate to specific projects. Expenditure which meets these criteria is charged to the funds.

Unrestricted funds comprise accumulated surpluses and deficits on general funds and are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the object of the charitable company.

Unrestricted funds include a capital reserve representing the fixed assets.

Interest earned on restricted income is not applied to the restricted fund unless specifically requested by the donor. Such interest will be treated as unrestricted income.

Resources expended

Liabilities are recognised as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the Charity to pay out resources.

Resources expended are shown gross and accruals are included in creditors for all known liabilities relating to the year.

Cost of generating funds costs relate to the costs incurred by the charitable company in inducing others to make voluntary contributions to it and the costs for fund raising.

Governance costs of the charitable company comprise of costs of the management of its assets and compliance with constitutional and statutory requirements and include fees and costs linked to the strategic management of the Charity.

Fixed assets

Depreciation is provided on all tangible fixed assets bought in the UK costing more than £100 at rates calculated to write off the cost of each asset over its expected useful life. The depreciation rates in use are as follows:

Computer Equipment           -     33% straight line

Fixtures and fittings             -     25% reducing balance

Office equipment                -     25% reducing balance

Independent Examiner’s Report to People against Poverty for financial year 2011-12

Independent Examiner’s Report to People against Poverty for financial year 2011-12

 

This report on the financial statements of People Against Poverty for the year ended 31st March 2012, which are set out on pages 1 to 14, is in respect of an examination carried out in accordance with section 43 of the Charities Act 1993 (“the Act”)

 

Respective responsibilities of the Trustees and the examiner

 

As trustees of the People Against Poverty Charity, you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements.  You consider that the audit requirements of the Regulations and section 43(2) of the Act do not apply.  It is my responsibility to issue this report on those financial statements in accordance with the terms of the Regulations.

 

Basis of this report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the Statement of Standards for Reporting Accountants.  That examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the Charity and a comparison of the accounts with those records.  It also includes considering any unusual items or disclosures in the financial statements and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning such matters.  The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.

 

Independent examiner’s statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

1.    Which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements

·           to keep accounting records in accordance with section 41 of the Act; and

·           to prepare financial statements, which accord with the accounting records and comply with the requirements of the Act and the Regulations have not been met: or

2.    To which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached

 

In my opinion

3.    The financial statements are in agreement with the accounting records kept by the charitable company under section 221 of the Companies Act 1985

4.    Having regard only to and on the basis of the information contained in those accounting records, the financial statements have been drawn up in a manner consistent with the accounting requirements specified in Section 249C(6) of the Act and the charitable company satisfied the conditions for exemption from an audit of the financial statements for the year specified in Section 249A(4) of the Act and did not, at any time within that year, fall within any of the categories of companies not entitled to the exemption specified in section 249B(1).

 

Richard HW Beath BSc FCCA

Foxhill Lodge

Perrymead

Bath BA2 5AT