A Summary of the Annual Report and Audited Accounts for 2009/2010

Annual Report

The Foundation provides grants under a number of specific headings. The amounts paid under each heading can be summarised as follows:

Grants were paid to thirty-four individual churches to help them meet the cost of essential repairs and improvements. The largest grant of £8,000 was paid to Hope Welsh Congregational Church, Pontarddulais. Grants of £5,000 each were paid to three churches in Aberdare, Barry and Colwyn Bay. Trustees continue to give priority to those projects which involve the sharing of resources between denominations, and where there is a clear focus on community outreach.

Grants from the Special Projects Fund were paid to three projects involving the employment of a youth worker to work with local churches – in Llandudno, Snowdonia and Carmarthenshire.

Grants were paid to twenty-five postgraduate students to meet the cost of tuition fees up to a maximum of £7,000 in each case.

Audited Accounts

The total incoming resources of the Foundation for 2009/10 were £424,085 (2008/2009 - £484,764). Direct charitable expenditure amounted to £412,142 (2008/09 - £436,680) and the administration costs were £4,124 (2008/09 - £3,701).

The income of the Foundation is derived from an actively managed endowment fund which is made up of a mixture of equity, bond, property and cash holdings. This is permanent endowment and is not available for allocation to grant recipients. The value of the endowment fund at the end of 2009/10 was £9,544,500 (2008/09 - £7,533,428) reflecting some improvements in global equity and property markets.

The ability of the Foundation to continue to provide grants and to make such grants meaningful in terms of matching inflation depends very much on growth in the value of the underlying investments. Accordingly the investment strategy is one which seeks to secure growth in the level of annual income. From time to time this strategy has been assisted by the receipt of bequests and gifts, some of which have come from former grant recipients. The Foundation continues to welcome such gifts. All such bequests and gifts are duly recorded and invested to provide a growing stream of income to benefit individuals and organisations in Wales.

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If you would like to receive a copy of the Foundation’s Annual Report and/or Audited Accounts please contact the Foundation office. The contact details can be found on the website’s home page.