SUA FINANCIAL MODEL
General Context of the SUA
1. The general context is that the SUA exists to respond to properly composed applications for grants by disbursing its annual income. It should not consider itself a savings fund, though it should have contingency against failures in its own administration (the public liability insurance is also against that risk).
2. The SUA does not have to give out all its income (of approx £12,000) in any year, and year on year the amount sent out in grants can vary quite a bit. If it is clear that over a number of years cash is being accrued because few grant applications are submitted, income gets invested, but only in such a way that the extra can be converted back into cash quickly if necessary. Hence the use of a deposit account (see below). The unit trusts were taken up when that seemed the best use of money, but there is little appetite for that now. There are policies for investments and for reserves as published on the website https://southernunitarianassociation.blogspot.com/
3. The accounts of the SUA do not have to be submitted to the Charity Commission as the income does not exceed the stipulated £25,000 threshold. Accounts are purely for internal purposes. The stance taken has always been:
- to pay grants to the maximum extent possible, noting that the grant profile over the years can go down and up, and should average out at the level of the annual income; but
- to cap the profile to ensure that grants do not exceed £25,000 in any one year.
The SUA could indeed pay out more than £25,000 in a year, by converting cash assets to grants. But to do so would breach the £25,000 threshold; would be treating capital as income; and therefore would be more complex in terms of accounting.
4. In relation to the grants given to congregations and unattached Unitarians in the district, the following points are relevant:
(1) The value to the SUA of being involved in there finances of congregational projects goes further than being able to properly dispose of its grant money : it ties local congregations closely into the district network, providing a degree of local oversight of what is going on there, that cannot so easily be carried out by the London-based (Essex Hall) custodian trustees at the BFUA.
(2) The SUA vision includes connecting communities and lonely individuals together; and nothing says "we're connected" quite so much as financial support being offered and accepted.
SUA Accounts to Sep 2022
5. At date the latest accounts are awaiting independent examination, but at draft status are the source of the data that follow.
The annual income is interest deriving from three capital funds managed by the national custodian trustee for UK Unitarian movement, which is the British and Foreign Unitarian Association (BFUA). There are three legacies held for us by BFUA — the Bournemouth legacy, the Ringwood legacy, and the Wareham legacy — and they each supply an element of interest.
Income — bulk of which is sent down by BFUA
Bournemouth legacy £10,848
Ringwood legacy £ 759
Wareham legacy £ 819
Interest £ 413
Subs and donations £ 58
TOTAL £12,897
Expenditure
Grants £14,965
Fee for Delegate to General Assembly £ 350
Admin and insurance £ 750
TOTAL £16,065
Assets
Unit trusts (accumulation units, so income is reinvested) £ 5,765
Cash on deposit account £ 70,000
Interest on deposit account £ 98
Cash in current account £ 27,277
TOTAL £103,140
SUA Hon Sec
31 August 2023
