Trustees’ annual report 2024
The year of the eastern-roof project. Detailed account of the buildings reserve and the winter appeal. Independent examiner’s opinion: unqualified.
Annual reports & accounts
Eight years of independently examined accounts.
Our accounts are prepared by the treasurer, John Travers, and independently examined by Mr Geoffrey Allbright FCA of Petworth. We file with the Charity Commission within the statutory window. Each report is between 12 and 24 pages and is published here as a PDF.
Trustees’ annual report 2023
A surplus year. The Wassail Fund made 102 grants. Sunday Doors made 408 visits.
Trustees’ annual report 2022
The year the Wassail Fund crossed £10,000 in grants for the first time.
Trustees’ annual report 2021
The year of the lime-mortar repointing of the western elevation. A deficit met from reserves.
Trustees’ annual report 2020
The pandemic year. Sunday Doors moved to telephone calls; the supper, the open day and the quiz were cancelled. A surplus that was held over for buildings work.
Trustees’ annual report 2019
A surplus year. The Wassail Fund was beginning to find its rhythm after the 2017 merger.
Trustees’ annual report 2018
The first full year after the merger with the Educational Foundation. A surplus carried to the Wassail Fund.
Trustees’ annual report 2017
The merger year. The deficit reflects the one-off costs of receiving and incorporating the Educational Foundation endowment.
Notes on reading our accounts
A small charity reads differently to a large one.
We are below the Charity Commission’s audit threshold (currently £1m of income) by a margin of more than thirty to one. We do not commission a full audit. We commission an independent examination, by a chartered accountant, which is the lighter-touch process appropriate to a charity of our size.
Our income is mostly “unrestricted” (you give to the charity in general, and the trustees direct the gift to where it is needed). The Wassail Fund is partly “restricted” (gifts given specifically to that fund can only be spent on Wassail Fund grants). We separate the two in the notes to the accounts each year.
Our reserves are held in line with our reserves policy: roughly twelve months’ running costs, plus a designated buildings reserve sufficient to cover the next anticipated capital project. The buildings reserve sat at £18,400 at year-end 2024, after the eastern-roof draw-down.