How Your Money is Spent
The charity is now raising money to cover its annual operating costs. It has set an operating budget of a little over £10,000 comprising the elements shown in the diagram below.
Over half the budget is for on-site management work at Abbey Fields, nearly all of which is for necessary tree and hedge work. Much of the site work is done by volunteers, but some work needs the employment of specialist 3rd party contractors.
Although we have achieved our initial fundraising target, we still need to build up our operating capital. The fundraising for this and ongoing maintenance amounts to 15% exclusive of our income-generating merchandising (calendars and cards). Running our website and other communications takes 10% of the budget.
We anticipate spending 10% of the budget on administration and financial aspects, of which 40% is on insurance and 30% covering the IT costs of managing our supporter records and administration.
There are relatively minor amounts for Education & Learning Opportunities (6%), an aspect we anticipate developing further in the future, and Research, Monitoring & Advice (2%). In both cases our main focus will be on Abbey Fields but we may also have some activity elsewhere within Histon & Impington where this is in line with our Vision.
HIGS may spend more but only if it is able to secure extra project related grant funding. It has already secured specific funding to enable improvements to the Croft Close Set-aside entrance to take place.