On Sunday 15th March 2020, it was brought to our attention that our fundraising Facebook group which offers raffles to raise essential funds for our Centre was brought into question as to the legitimacy of what happens with our funds that are raised from this group. We would like to reassure any of the users who use our fundraising page that 100% of the profits made from each of the fundraising activities are donated to Building Blocks Family Centre via our fundraising committee. Every penny of what is made is accounted for and is sent via our PayPal account which can be accessed by the Management and Trustees at any time to audit the information provided by the Fundraising Committee, as well as an overview of the funds raised being sent to both our Local Authority Licensing Section and our Accountant to ensure that all funds raised are accounted for and true.
The Fundraising Committee are a group of volunteers who use their spare time to raise much needed funds to be able to maintain the essential services that Building Blocks provide to the Community. As a charity, these funds are essential in ensuring that bills are paid, staff are kept in their jobs and we are able to provide the resources that we need to ensure we are providing the best quality of care possible to all users of our Centre. This is an opportunity to clarify that as a setting we are part of the raffle group that has been established and support Caitlin Gnojek and the other members of the Fundraising Committee in the running of the group. This group was established on the 22nd of November 2019 and so as with all new things, it has come with some learning curves. From this we will be booking in to how we run our page, including updating members on whre their donations are going, and the over all amount donated to Building Blocks. To do this, we will be consulting with the Management, Trustees and Fundraising Committee to ensure we continue to adhere to legislation, our licensing terms and respecting the players. To date, this page has raised £861 since November 2019 and has allowed us to continue supporting members of the community through keeping their employment or continuing to keep the building open.
On Monday 16th March 2020, we have been in touch with our Local Authority Licensing Section who are happy that we have been complying with the rules of our license in the running and creation of our group. In order to comply with our license terms and conditions, we complete forms after each raffle that is run, outlining the cost of the raffle, the cost of the prize and the overall amount that has been donated to our Centre. These forms are then sent off to the Location Authority who are able to audit this information at any time. The Trustees are then asked to sign these forms and so the information is confirmed by them and checked by the appointed Treasurer to ensure that all funds are accounted for. Through contacting the Local Authority we have been advised to revise the platform in which we are running our group due to the harassment that can come from this platform and so this is something we plan to look into in the coming days.
As accusation was also made regardign our charity where we were asked whether we have a Registered Charity Number as well as a Licensing Registration Number. We ensure that in everything we do we follow the relevant legislation and so members of the public who wish to check this information are able to. Our Registered Charity Number is 1101314 and our Licensing Registration Number is Lo-029. As a learning curve from this experience, we will now be adding this information to our raffle group so that anyone who wishes to see this information before deciding to buy a number on our raffles has that opportunity.