2010/2011 Message

We would like to record that during 2010/11 we were very generously supported by a number of local organisations including various church groups and Tadworth Athletics Club.

We would also like to thank all the local businesses that were able to support our Auction of Promises despite the difficult economic environment.  These included

We have enjoyed excellent fund raising this year despite the fact that three of our normal events have not been run.  These were Sing Carols (bad weather in December 2010), our Bottle Stall at the Walton May Fayre (unfortunately no members of the committee were available that weekend) and the annual TWOAT BBQ/Spit Roast (the previous venue is being built upon).  The exceptional results achieved at the Auction of Promises and the Sponsored Walks and a successful Barbershop singing Evening enabled us to raise the level of financial support we give to a number of our projects and take on two new ones that have local links (see project reports).

In our Christmas Newsletter we told you that we intended to use a web facility provided to charities by VirginMoney to make it possible for some of our supporters to donate money to us via the Internet.  This is now available at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/giving/ .  Those of you receiving this newsletter by email just need to click on the link to go to a web page where you will see a box to enter the name of a charity.  If you type in TWOAT then you will go to our page within VirginMoneyGiving (VMG) where it is possible to donate by credit card or other online methods.  VMG immediately reclaim any related Gift Aid from HMRC and pass the proceeds to us.  VMG operate this facility on a not for profit basis but they do have to recoup their costs so they make a small 2% deduction from all the donations that they process.  Your committee has thought very carefully about providing this mechanism as previously all donations sent to TWOAT were used exclusively to support Overseas Aid Projects with no monies deducted for costs of our own local administration.  Our conclusion was that supporters of TWOAT could, if they wish, still provide money directly to us by means of cheques or cash and all of that money will continue to go to projects, but the VMG facility will make it easier for other supporters to donate particularly those not living locally.  Donating online is often used for events such as sponsored walks. It is much easier for participants seeking sponsors to give friends and relatives an online donation option rather than having to collect relatively small sums from many people.  This year’s Sponsored Walks demonstrated the benefits of VMG. They raised a record sum of around £3,000 of which £1200 came via VMG.  If you have any concerns about our use of VMG please raise them with Chairman Mike Fox.

Many thanks to all those of you who have already set up a standing order for your donations and those that have given us an email address (see back page for our email).  It really does help reduce the administration activities for the committee. We have still included a donation/standing order form with every newsletter as this might be useful if you want to change the amount donated.

We would be very pleased to consider applications to join our committee particularly from residents of Kingswood or Walton. If you are not able to join at this time but are able to help in other ways, e.g. delivering our newsletter; providing food for an event; acting as a communications link to a project; helping to run a stall or suggesting other fund raising ideas,  please contact us.

Mike Fox

2010 Message

At our last Annual Social Meeting I mentioned in my address that the committee would be reviewing the general strategy for TWOAT in terms of the types of project we should support in the future.  The reason for the review was that the total number of current projects had risen to 28 and we were concerned that events, such as the fall in the value of the pound, might make it difficult for us to sustain meaningful levels of support to all of them.  I should clarify that a project is not always a specific activity with an end date but sometimes an organisation or a contact through which we have identified useful activities to support.

As a result of the review we have reaffirmed that our priority is to support projects that have some direct connection via a local contact from this area and where we can be assured of a good level of feedback on the impact of our support.  We have reviewed the list of current projects and identified two or three that no longer match that criteria and where we have not given any commitment to ongoing support.  This should enable a small but important reduction to the number of activities we actually support next year, which will probably be around 25, as it should help us to increase the average funds provided to each by about 10%. 

The importance of having direct contact was brought home to us by seeing newspaper reports of the trial of an unscrupulous conman who had set up 30 or so bogus projects in Africa and defrauded some of the best known UK charity fundraisers to the extent of over £15m.  The sums of money provided by TWOAT are of course tiny in comparison to the large charities but you can be sure that any money you donate to us will go to the overseas projects that we support with no deduction for any costs of administering TWOAT or soliciting donations and with a clear idea of how the money will be spent.  

Having said that we make no deductions from donations for administration there are of course costs that we do incur such as the production and distribution of this newsletter. These costs are typically covered by individual committee members so we would very much appreciate anything you can do to keep our costs as low as possible.  Two examples of this are by providing your donations to us by means of regular standing orders and giving us details of an email address that we can use to communicate with you e.g. sending you this newsletter electronically.  I include a standing order form with this newsletter and you can use my email address mike.fox3@ntlworld.com to give us details of your own email address. 

We would be very pleased to consider applications to join our committee particularly from residents of Kingswood or Walton. If you are not able to join at this time but are able to help in other ways, e.g. delivering our newsletter; providing food for an event; or acting as a communications link to a project, please contact us.

Mike Fox