10 News from the Treasurer   It’s time for another look at GIN’s finances. In 2009    supporter income fell by 3%, probably a good performance in the recession.              Merchandise was also affected with sales down £2000. The good news came from the Bournemouth shop, where sales of donated goods rose by £7000. We opened a second shop in Brighton in August 2009, which made a good start, but produced a loss for the period to the end of 2009, to be expected as it takes time for a shop to become       established.   Sales are going well and we are confident of a successful future.  We benefited from two large legacies in 2009, totalling £95000. So, overall, income in 2009 stood up well.   Of course we cannot rely on future legacies and it is therefore            important that fund-raising efforts continue. We get many donations by cheques sent to Wraysbury and our sponsorship scheme    receives supporter assistance by standing orders. I would like to remind supporters of our two online facilities, Just Giving and Charity Choice. Just Giving is a large operation, whose online systems enable supporters to credit a donation to GIN’s account and charge it to the supporter’s credit card. It is widely used for sponsorship-for example someone running in a Marathon could set up a special account to benefit GIN and tell all their friends to   sponsor them via this Just Giving account. Any supporter who would like to help GIN in this way, please contact Wraysbury and we will help them set up an     account for GIN. Just Giving is a commercial organisation and charges GIN a small fee and commission, while the Charity Choice system is free to registered charities. Donations and also payments for merchandise can be made via Charity Choice and again the supporter’s credit card will be charged. This works very well for merchandise-phone our office, tell us what you want, we’ll calculate the total, then you pay via Charity Choice and within an hour GIN will be notified of your payment, and by then the parcel will be ready for posting. Please don’t forget Gift Aid, the method used by the Government to help  charities.    I’ve written about it in many previous newsletters, and am pleased to say that both Just Giving and Charity Choice offer Gift Aid declarations, so GIN gets the extra cash. One other method of helping GIN is available to working supporters. All large employers and many small ones, have a Payroll Giving system, known as GAYE, under which         charitable giving is taken from gross pay, i.e. tax is reduced. So if you are a standard rate tax payer and donate £5 per month to GIN, this will actually cost you £4 per month, while GIN will of course get the full £5. If you are interested in helping GIN in this way, contact your payroll department, and if they operate GAYE, ask them to set up a regular donation to GIN. Please contact me at Wraysbury if you need further details on any of the areas I’ve covered above.                                                           Geoffrey