Review of 2024: Keeping Steady to Impact More Lives
When I look back at 2024, steady is the word that comes to mind.
In the business world, steady can sometimes be seen as evidence the market is saturated and the trajectory of that product has stagnated. It is very different in the charity world, and specifically for Acts 435.
When we filed our third consecutive set of accounts with turnover at just over one million pounds it did feel frustrating because we want to help more people every year and therefore see that income increase. Not, it's worth saying, because we want to see more people in need - quite the opposite! Rather, because we know there is so much need in the UK and that if more churches and local charities knew about us, they could partner with us to get more support to people in their community struggling financially.
However, we are acutely aware of the challenges many in the charity sector are facing in terms of donation income and managing costs. We are in a privileged position due to having a charity model which means we cover our administration costs with our current income levels and having the four members of the staff team working from home also keeps costs to a minimum. Against a backdrop of squeezed donors, we have much to be thankful for that we are still hitting that £1,000,000 turnover each year and helping over 6,000 people a year.
2024 got off to a cracking start after Songs of Praise featured us in their 2023 Christmas series - and that kept requests moving so quickly from our website. By May the average was still under a week, and only creeping up to 8 days in June, July and August. That compares to 14, 11 and 11 days the previous summer. We ran another successful fresh starts campaign in Easter (helping 92 individuals with £14,925), school uniform appeal in the summer (helping 72 families with £11,075) and topped the year off with an incredible Christmas campaign, receiving nearly £130,000 in donations through the month and clearing our website of all live requests just before the end of the year.
When we look at the details we can see that donations are continuing to flow, new donors are continuing to find us every single week, and most importantly people are receiving fast, financial help. In a turbulent world full of challenges I am so grateful to our donors for choosing to sacrificially give to Acts 435.
I also want to say a huge thank you to our small staff team - I am under no doubt that the fact we keep an even keel is in large part due to a fantastic team who know the charity inside and out, love working for Acts 435 and blend well as a team. A shout out to our great web developer too who is a calm and steady support for this all important part of our charity - our website.
In April the Debt Relief Order fee of £90 was scrapped - over the years we have funded around 5,800 DRO fees - we were such a perfect fit for funding them and lifting the burden of debt for so many who wanted to take that route but couldn't raise the £90. However, we are delighted that we are no longer needed to step in for that particular need - it simply means we can focus on other gaps where people find themselves unable to fund a particular item.
Do we want to help more people? Yes. Do we want every local church in the UK to know about us and choose to partner with us to help people in their community? Yes. It is free to partner with us so we are not seeking more partners in order to increase our income - we simply want to be a resource for those who are right in the midst of connecting with those in UK poverty and want to do more to help them.
Steady as she goes - as we head into 2025, we will continue to bang that drum of being a free resource for local churches and charities - come join us so that together we can make an impact in even more lives.