Chair COAT Report for 2022 Given at the AGM on 29th January 2023
Isn’t it nice to have our AGM with people actually in the same room instead being alone looking at a screen. It’s especially good to have with us our Patron Maddy Prior. I’m glad to say that Maddy has agreed to continue in her role and for that we are most grateful. Thank you Maddy.
Coming out of Covid has been a gradual process for COAT as for most organisations. While we were glad to start up fundraising activities in “real life” again in 2022, Trustees were happy to continue Trustee Board meetings on zoom. Our Trustees now come from various parts of Cumbria and cutting out the travel makes good sense…… personally and environmentally.
COAT Trustees have continued to give their time, ideas and enthusiasm to enable COAT to make small, but highly effective, grants. Hilary will tell us more about this year’s grants and the wonderful feedback we get from projects. The evening of zoom talks by grant recipients was much appreciated and enjoyed by Trustees and supporters. I hope we will continue to build and maintain relationships with recipients which sustain trust and effectiveness on all sides.
Trustees have continued to manage the legacy of Ms Falconer to Burkina Faso. Ian will give us an update on this as the project starts to look towards its end. This year will probably be the time for COAT to reflect and report on the results of Ms Falconer’s great gift.
To make our grants possible we ran a large number of very successful and enjoyable COAT Fundraising Events. Car boot sales; stalls at the Forgotten Lands Festival and the Maryport Catholic Church Open Garden; cake sales and the Isel Tea Party; the South Lakes BBQ; a Quiz; a Ceilidh; and I’m sure you will remind me of others. Plus of course the 100 Club.
In 2022 we also received a special donation of £5000 raised in memory of Steve Beinder. Steve was a great supporter of COAT frequently making donations from sales of his amazing photography. I know Trustees will want me to thank Steve’s wife Mandy, and his sisters Kate and Jenny, for all they did to raise this amazing amount of money from Steve’s friends and family, and for choosing and trusting COAT to use it well.
To help raise awareness of COAT Helen did a great, and amazingly speedy, job of replacing our old publicity leaflet with an attractive and informative Bookmark and we have already distributed these at various events. We also advertised our willingness to give talks to WI groups following a talk Helen and I gave to one WI group.
Sally and Helen have continued to get COAT news on our website and Facebook page. We know we want to attract more grant applications from Cumbria, as well as letting people know about the projects we have supported. We have written a few items for publications, but I dare to suggest that publicity in local press, magazines, radio etc is not our strongest point!
A few thank yous…
Keith Baty is the master of Quiz mastering and will be back in Blindcrake by popular demand in March. His continued support for COAT is hugely enjoyed and appreciated.
Thanks too to the COAT South Lakes Group for their continued support and fundraising. The ceilidh and the BBQ were both great successes.
And most of all to Connie and Mike who have resigned as Trustees after so many years with effect from this meeting. When I asked if Mike wished to continue to stand as Vice Chair, Connie replied:
Dear Sue
I have asked Mike and he thinks this would be a good opportunity for one of the new trustees. We have also discussed our involvement with COAT and both wish to step down as trustees. We very rarely manage to make even a Zoom meeting these days, as work at the theatre seems to escalate! However, it seems COAT is in good heart with several new members stepping up, so we can leave with a good conscience. We will of course continue to support COAT whenever we can get to any events, so would be pleased if you can keep us aware of any fundraisers such as quizzes etc. We will also of course continue our monthly donation.
COAT is an amazing organisation, and does so much good in the world, and we are thankful to have been a small part of it for some years.
Love and good health to you all!
Mike and Connie
As Connie and Mike were not able to attend this meeting I suggest we save our memories and thanks yous until we can all be together and give them a proper send off.
And of course a thank you to from me to all our Trustees, to Ian, Linda, Claire, Hilary, Helen, Carolyn and Sally. I’m so lucky to part of this group.
To end, a huge thank you to everyone who makes COAT’s efforts possible. We have a great band of supporters and helpers without whom our work would not be nearly so effective, and certainly not so much fun.
COAT Grant Secretary’s Report for the year 2022 presented at the AGM on January 29th 2023
Well, another year has passed – seemingly in the blink of an eye.
During 2022 we have considered 22 applications and given 18 donations totalling £7,417 – as listed in the projects list by Carolyn. Our grants go mostly to small organisations with a Cumbria link and have ranged from supporting pig farming in Tanzania to providing football strip for wildlife rangers to enable them to enjoy their free time in a stressful and demanding situation. This year we have also taken the decision to make donations to disaster relief in Afghanistan and Pakistan through Concern Worldwide.
The number of appropriate applications to COAT continues to be low but I feel that we are building good relationships with the projects that we support. The applicants understand that COAT Trustees prefer to support the purchase of materials and assets rather than fund salaries etc.
I still consider it a privilege to learn about some of the amazing projects undertaken by people and small organisations around the world. Because we benefit so much from this contact, I was really happy that we were able to put on an evening of talks, on zoom, by five of our partner organisations so that many of our supporters could share this experience. Many people really appreciated this opportunity.
We have returned to in-person fundraising events and I hope that these will increase this coming year enabling us to support more projects.
I do want to recognise the wonderful contribution to our funds made in memory of Steve Beinder which enabled us to make some of these donations despite our fundraising being limited.
I want to thank my fellow Trustees for their interest in the applications that we receive and the thorough discussions of the details of each one.
We look forward to being able to make a small difference to the lives of people living in some of the poorest regions of the world during 2023.