Charity Proposal – SIGMA

SIGMA is considering applying for Charity Status.  Committee members Kevin and Jackie have been working on the ins and outs of applying.

Please read the following proposal prepared by Kevin.  An EGM will be held during the November meeting for the Membership to decide if SIGMA should proceed with the application.  If you are unable to attend the November meeting, please complete the proxy form at the foot of the page.

The form also gives the opportunity to officially vote Jackie onto the Committee.

Any proxy votes must be submitted by 5pm on 31 October.

If you have any questions, please use the CONTACT US form.

You can find any answered questions here.

 

Current Situation

This is a broad synopsis of our income and costs. It is not intended to be a detailed financial analysis. Our costs can be divided into 3 broad headings:

  1. Software (Google workspace, Flickr, Zoom, Website)
  2. Meeting Costs (Hall Hire, Speakers)
  3. Fixed Costs (Insurance)

Our income predominantly comes from subscriptions, workshop fees and donations for refreshments.

The hall hire and refreshment donations/ workshop fees broadly balance. This means our subscriptions need to cover software costs, speakers costs and fixed costs.

Capital costs (e.g. observatory spending, laptop or projector replacement sit outwith these costs.

  1. Software Costs

For many aspects of these costs there are potential benefits to having ‘not for profit’ status, additionally some capital grants are available to community or not for profit organisations. The notable exception to this is Google which in the UK specifically requires charitable status to make its product free of charge.

Currently our Google workspace costs run to between £27.60 and £36.00/month. I took an example of £32/month which over a 12 month period equates to an annual cost of £384. We currently have (at time of writing) 54 paying memberships generating an income of £1512. Therefore 25% of our current membership fees go on Google Workspace with the remaining 75% to cover other software costs, speakers (including gifts) and fixed costs.

Flickr offers a cost free option for not for profit organisations but with some quite stringent boundaries which currently exclude SIGMA.

Zoom offer a discount of 50% on an annual subscription via the website charitydigitalexchange.org (there is an annual £15 fee) but this would need to be checked by someone familiar with the product we have previously used. However, as a group we have tried to move away from Zoom based meetings.

  1. Meeting & Fixed costs

There is no known benefit in being a charity to these costs, in fact most grants tend to exclude running costs as otherwise once the charitable/grant support ends the club or organisation has a tendency to cease operations.

  1. Capital Costs

Opportunities are relatively difficult to find due to a huge domination by those in need / the young. We would have to stress how we support vulnerable groups to open up many sources. I don’t think that is a core aim of SIGMA’s.

Opportunities relate to both charities and community groups so charitable status is less of a requirement; rather just a supporting factor.

After a great deal of exploration, hardly any current opportunities identified but Jackie has signed up to receive news and notifications. She will keep digging for more obscure trusts on other society websites.

Potential sources of funding

Funding Scotland:
Currently nothing available in our subject, either for societies or charities but signed up for updates. Potentially a wide source. Funding – SCVO

National Lottery Community Fund:
Moray Field Club have received £4000; West Yorkshire received over £3000 – Astronomy For All – Project | The National Lottery Community Fund (tnlcommunityfund.org.uk)

Royal Astronomical Society:
up to £5000 for outreach projects (rather challenging criteria but may be worth it) – Education & Outreach Small Grants Scheme | The Royal Astronomical Society (ras.ac.uk)

British Astronomical Association:
Astroboost has information useful to us, with info on such trusts as Ogden Trust if we wished to partner up with a school – Funding & Marketing — AstroBoost

Get Grants:
have subscribed as interesting potential leads liked The Tudor Trust which helps ‘to build stronger communities’ The Tudor Trust – Get Grants

TSI Third Sector Interface:
Nothing local at present but they have started a new map that I think we should put ourselves on to improve our profile. Will subscribe when they get the link working.

Example of the importance of helping the vulnerable: Programmes | Bank of Scotland Foundation

  1. Other costs

As a charity you can register with HMRC and claim gift aid on donations and VAT back on certain goods/services(HAS seem to do this according to their income & expenditure account). However, the benefits and costs of this have not been fully explored. 

Process

Becoming a Charity and Charitable Obligations

  • Once you apply to become a charity the whole process is normally completed in 90 days from application.
  • There is an obligation to lodge your accounts with OSCR within 9 months of your year end
  • A report is now expected covering your activities.
  • Trustees names, (there should be a minimum of 3 – chair, secretary and treasurer are the normal ones) are also required in this report. There is no maximum but it is recommended not to have too many.
  • The report is published unredacted on the OSCR website and is available to all.
  • The constitution would also need to be part of the submission and we would need to abide by it. This would mean making sure we can and do what it says. One notable point would be to avoid the use of the word audit in our constitution as we would need to submit an income and expenditure account that has been independently checked. Audit has a very specific meaning. As a result, I would recommend a thorough review of our constitution.
  • It may be worth considering what would happen to any club funds should the club cease to operate in the future. Having been involved in winding up a charitable group it is something that makes life a lot easier should this happen.

Other factors

  • Some organisations (e.g. UHI Moray) offer charitable rates for venue hire. This will not apply to standard village hall hires.
  • In the past access to Lossiemouth Friends & Families days has only been for charitable organisations. This is not currently the case, and it may not reoccur.
  • We may need to consider giving a degree of public access to some of our proposed telescope livestreams in the future to strengthen our case for charitable status (just remember – if we say it we will have to do it).

Summary

The most immediate tangible benefit would revolve around reduced software costs, although there are others as outlined above. If we didn’t want to go down this route in order to cover our Google Workspace costs we would need £7.11 from each member and likely an annual rise in subscriptions as most organisations raise prices each year.

Charity Status Vote
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