We need your help to keep going! We are self funding registered charity but short of funds.
We need volanteers to help with the canteen and general maintenance.
The St Albans Sea Cadets is one of the most successful Units in the country as proven by its accolades achieved in this and previous years. We need you to be a part of that continued success, and support the Cadets even more than you presently do.
Firstly are you paying your donations? We are asking donations of £1.00 per cadet evening. For convenience of managing this donation and certifying this to the Revenue when requested, we ask that you pay by a monthly standing order of £8.70 (or a bit more if you can afford it!) in advance. This is discretionary, if you suffer from financial hardship you don’t need to pay. But for the unit to continue we need these to be paid by the majority. A standing order form is available here (PDF 17k).
Throughout the year it's just £104.00 and should be paid whether your cadet attends or not during their life as an enrolled member of the Sea Cadet. Of course if you have more than one Cadet in the unit then we will discount this to £1.75 per week – that’s a massive 25% discount.
The St Albans Sea Cadets is a registered charity and as such we are able to recover income tax on all donations receive. Our banks details are: St Albans Sea Cadets, Nat West account: 06428681, sort code: 60-18-11.
To qualify for an income tax refund you must be a UK tax payer resident in the UK. Similarly you can claim a refund on your income tax for the donations you make to us as a charity.
For more details check out the Inland Revenue's site here.
So we ask that donations are made from time to time and simply if insufficient donations are received the event to be enjoyed will not take place. PS we have never had to cancel an event through insufficient donations! Please contact Brian if you have any queries.
We also need help running the galley on parade nights – it’s fun but we are short of parents to run the galley for, it’s basically shop keeping the 15 minute stand easy and making a few staff teas. To ease the burden we need a big rota of people, some to help sell for a moment or two others to stay longer and clear-up etc... Could you please give us one night a month (or more!)?
Our strategy to improved financial stability covers a variety of projects spanning the whole year and once in place will run smoothly for some considerable time, but we do need your help to achieve this position. The range of our fund raising activities are as follows:
Fun events
- Quiz evenings – I just love the suppers.
- Wine tasting evenings – one is supposed to discharge the wine on tasting but nobody ever does, drink and be merry!
- Theatre nights out – so many shows to see.
- Lotto Bonus Ball weekly – this is quite a laugh. Ask Margaret to join.
- By the way, we need a social secretary to liaise on these, any takers?
Our regular events
- House to House collection
- St Albans Carnival
- Christmas Raffle
- Christmas Bag Packing
Direct cash funding by way of donations for
- Activity weekdays on parade nights
- Activity weekends
- Local and national courses
Services in kind
- Grant application manager – we have a raft of agencies to apply to for funding in one way or another, but no one to manage the process.
- Our premises our in need a helping hand and DIY jobs are plentiful.
- Help run the galley on parade nights.
- Help / Chef the various in unit activity events, some of which are listed above
- Driving the Cadets and Staff to and from various venues – we need to expand our list of pool drivers to drive our own mini bus or your private motor car.
- Provide periodic maintenance to our mini bus.
New Ideas Scheme
- We promise to listen attentively to your own success stories in fund raising – there is nothing new to this and takes consistency and determination, but which are the easiest and best managed schemes. Let us know your thoughts.
Back Ground Information
- There is a presently a small management team in place within the St Albans Sea Cadet Unit who run the above events from time to time with long standing planning dates in place. Committee work is not everyone’s cup of tea, which we fully respect.
Inland Revenue’s Gift Aid Scheme
- We work along side the Inland Revenue in their Gift Aid Scheme. What this means is that the giver and the receiver benefit from tax relief on the amount of donation that is made to the charity, that’s 28% refund to the St Albans Sea Cadets and a rebate to the giver at their personal rate of tax. The main rules for qualification are that the donator is a tax paying person and the amount of tax refund applied for by the giver is not greater than their tax paid in the year.
What we will do now is begin to put this business plan into action and keep you posted as we proceed and if you feel you can help in any of the above areas then give me a ring 01727 760272 or chat on most any Friday evening from about 9.00 pm.
Finally please remember our premises are available for hire. It's an ideal venue for club meetings, AGM's and changing facilities for cross country runners, cyclists,walkers, swimmers (local swimming pool), kids parties, exercise classes and toddler groups. If you ever need a venue of know someone who does please ensure we are considered... For more on hire see here.
Brian Hewitt: Treasurer Tel: 01727 760272