Tina Cook, Guild Care’s newly appointed patron, arrived at the charity’s AGM on Tuesday, 29 September, just hours after being awarded 2 gold medals at the European 3-Day Eventing Championship.
The charity’s chairman Peter Robinson said ‘2008/9 was a year of both significant achievement for Guild Care but also one that gave us a number of serious challenges to meet.’
This year the financial outcome for Guild Care was a deficit of £557k. Whilst this situation does not immediately impact our operations, the Chairman said that the trustees and senior management had decided not to cut back on core activities in the homes and the Healthy Living Centre but bring about actions to return finances to break even for 2010/11.
Paul Knott, Finance Director explained that the deficit was made up of an operating loss and a reduction in equity investments as stock market values fell. Whilst income increased by 4% to over £10million as demand for services grew, the cost of the services provided increased by 9%.
Sales from the charity shops held up well and the introduction of Gift Aid on donated goods offset the loss of income from GreenHouse Lottery funding which finished in 2008. There was also a considerable fall in legacy income over the year.
Suzanne Millard, acting Chief Executive spoke about the Annual Review and the huge achievements the organisation accomplished during their 75th Anniversary year. Mrs Millard said “ The £75,000 raised during the year is now being spent on innovative ideas and services that will help to enhance the lives of our service users such as physiotherapy, music therapy (for people with dementia and children with special needs) and falls and weight management workshops.”
The chairman also thanked the Duke of Richmond for his contribution to the charity during his time as Patron.’
The meeting was concluded with a very enlightening talk by Tina Cook on representing GB at the Olympics.