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Worthing Animal ClinicRegistered charity no. 211467Worthing's only
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Charity mattersCelebrating in 2010 both the 80th anniversary of our foundation and the 50th anniversary of purchasing our clinic premises in Newland Road, we are an independent local charity registered with the Charity Commission, No. 211467. You can see our entry on the Register of Charities here and our constitution here. Our charitable, financial and legal affairs are overseen by a committee, who are also the charity's trustees. The committee of currently four has four vacancies. We seek to collaborate with other animal welfare charities wherever possible. Although as a committee our primary duties are of trusteeship, we strive also to be active in fund-raising and publicity. Our energies here are applied to encoraging legacies, running stalls, store collections and other flag days, this website, entries in local and national directories, and contacts with solicitors, charitable trusts, funeral directors, local businesses and other animal welfare organisations. Volunteers help at collections but we need help to keep up the pace in other areas - to maintain the charity's profile and increase our range of skills and manpower, both essential to keeping funds coming in and the clinic running and able to continue providing a full range of veterinary care to the pets of owners who may otherwise be unable to afford treatment. Recent years have included significant and memorable ones, with many important events and achievements. In 2005/06, celebrating the 75th anniversary of our foundation gave us welcome additional publicity and further opportunities to attract new members and supporters. We were one of our current Patron Nick John's Mayoral Charities for his year of office as Mayor of Worthing, gaining us further publicity and culminating in his presenting us with a cheque for £4,400 towards new equipment. In 2010 we reach our 80th anniversary, and the 50th of acquiring our Newland Road premises, so we are planning a number of events to celebrate these later in the year. Numerous
ways in which you could help are posted on our 'Help Us'
page. Anyone interested in helping this vital work please contact the
clinic. Worthing Animal Clinic is a veterinary charity dedicated to the welfare of animals, including those of unknown ownership. We are apolitical and, although we oppose animal cruelty or abuse in any form, non-campaigning - our policy is to devote as much as possible of our funds and energies directly to helping the animals under our care. |
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Finances Our net assets stood at around £568,000 at 31 December 2009. Our main assets are the clinic premises and our investments. The investments are held to generate investment income to help subsidise treatment costs. The committee welcomes the progress made since 2001 from net assets of £440,000, despite last year’s stock market gloom, in boosting reserves, and aims to establish and maintain them at a level sufficient for the charity’s investment and fund-raising income to subsidise treatments at the current subsidy level of about 35% below the lower range of local private practice fees. Ideally we would aim for a small annual surplus to enable the purchase of new and replacement fixed assets (such as new kennels, X-ray processor and theatre lighting, which have in recent years been purchased from funds raised from donations). In practice we run at a deficit in most years. Out total treatment costs in 2009 were £196,000, of which the main items were staff salaries and related costs of £101,000, drugs, tests and consumables of £47,000 and out of hours emergency treatment costs of £8,000. Our fund-raising and non-clinic administration costs totalled only £4,600, meaning that 97.7% of our spending was on animal treatments – a commendably high proportion compared to many other charities, large and small. Our clinic costs were partly covered by fee income of £142,000, the shortfall of £53,000 representing our subsidy to clients. This is the amount we need to recover as far as possible from charitable income - donations, fund-raising, legacies and investment income. After charitable income including recent better than average legacies, we recorded a surplus of some £26,600 in 2009 (2008: deficit £17,300). Under our present fee structure and before any irregular items such as legacies and major repairs, the trustees anticipate underlying deficits of some £26,000 annually. We aim to encourage sufficient legacies over time to cover these and leave a small residual surplus to fund new veterinary equipment and animal health schemes. With an average annual legacy income of £32,000 over the last ten years, we are achieving that financial objective. There are three designated funds to provide additional subsidies in certain circumstances. The trustees are maintaining their efforts to increase the charity's profile and membership, encourage legacies and further improve fund-raising income. Key to all these remain encouraging members and clients actively to support the charity, which in turn require able and industrious committee members to organise and motivate our support base. The above includes a brief outline of the charity's finances. Further details are contained in the Treasurer’s report within the 2009/10 Annual review, which is available from the clinic. The charity's statutory accounts for 2009, giving comprehensive information about our financial results and position, are contained in the 2009/10 Annual report, also available from the clinic. The 2008/09 report and accounts can be accessed by clicking here. Other years' versions can be accessed here. You can see further financial, statistical and governance information about us from our Guidestar entry here. The trustees record their thanks to the clinic staff for their conscientious hard work and to the charity's collectors, supporters and other volunteers, without which groups the above improvements in our finances and profile would not have been possible.
Patron Honorary Alderman Nick John, a former Mayor of Worthing
Honorary life members for service and support above and beyond the call of duty, over many years Guy
Freeland
TrusteesChairman Stephen
Christian (from 7.7.10) Joe
Kirk (to 6.7.10)
Present committee members and trustees Diane Beechcroft Stephen Christian Joe Kirk (to 6.7.10) Jen Lowe Geoff Parrish (from 7.7.10) Advisers to the charity
Committee**/volunteer vacancies There are present vacancies for volunteers to act as webmaster, fund-raiser, and for a veterinary surgeon to act as a trustee. We also need volunteers to seek grants from charitable trusts, community organisations etc. and to develop links with local businesses. (**If preferred, volunteers can take on some roles without becoming committee members.) Please contact the clinic if interested. |
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