As most will recall, we usually produce a full report on the Protest Fund at the end of the season. This year, we held off in the hope that the takeover would soon be completed and that our report would be the final one, able to include announcing the closure of the fund. Sadly, the takeover has not yet happened and we feel it is appropriate to publish our end of season report now, before the start of the new season.
Background
The Protest Fund was launched on 3 January 2016 with the aim of providing a ready source of funds to enable protest ideas to be turned quickly from concept to reality. Regular reports on the fund have been provided in line with the commitments we made at launch, including detailed end of season reports in May 2016 and May 2017.
This report covers the period 5 May 2017 to 20 July 2018 and summarises the sources of income and expenditure by type.
2017/18 overview
Unsurprisingly, the lower level of physical protest activity in the 2017/18 season led to a reduction in the number and frequency of donations. Nevertheless, income totalled £2,741 comprising donations of £2,321 (including £75 from Coventry fans, incidentally), merchandise sales of £410 and interest payments of £10.
The only significant items of expenditure were £3,240 for the red and white rosettes to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Back to the Valley and £518 in support of the RoT campaign in Belgium.
Total fund income and expenditure
Total Income £59,211
Total Expenditure £50,827
Current balance of fund £8,384
Further committed expenditure £2,544
Usable balance on hand £5,840
Income
Income was £59,211. The source of funds (all in £s) is:
Donations………………………………………………..37,167 (62.8%)
Merchandise sales…………………………………..….13,115 (22.1%)
Coach fares and sponsored places……………..……. 4,088 (6.9%)
Other cash donations, raffles and auctions………….. 1,954 (3.3%) (includes Boat Party, Protest song revenues, donations from Brighton & Coventry fans)
Specific Payments……………………………………… 1,857 (3.1%) (where money has been paid into the protest fund for an agreed specific purpose, e.g. the air banner at Gillingham)
Sponsorship of alternative programme…………….… 1,000 (1.7%)
Interest…………………………………………………….… 30 (0.1%)
Expenditure
Expenditure was £50,827. The expenditure by type (all in £s) is:
Projectiles......................................................15,477 (30.5%) (e.g. stress toys, beach balls, balloons)
Coach hire..................................................... 6,220 (12.2%)
Banners & flags.............................................. 4,681 (9.2%) (e.g. banners, flags, placards)
Other visual materials.................................... 8,396 (16.5%) (e.g. BTTV rosettes, stickers, t shirts, beermats, badges, fake season tickets, inflatable Roland)
Printing.......................................................... 3,575 (7.0%) (e.g. leaflets, alternative programmes, posters)
Merchandise supplies..................................... 2,182 (4.3%)
Scarves........................................................... 2,135 (4.2%)
Taxi wrap…………………………………………1,910 (3.8%) (i.e. the application and later removal of the Taxi for Roland livery)
Specialist services.......................................... 1,628 (3.2%) (e.g. legal advice, specialist services on trademarks)
Advertising.................................................... 1,271 (2.5%) (e.g. AdVan, billboards, newspaper ads, postcards in Taxi for Roland, )
Air banner...................................................... 1,020 (2.0%)
Travel costs.................................................... 753 (1.5%) (e.g. Taxi eurotunnel and expenses, band for Unity Protest)
Christmas cards............................................. 220 (0.4%) (i.e. cards sent to all other league and local non-league clubs)
Misc............................................................... 1,359 (2.7%)
It might be of interest to note that, of the £50,827 total expenditure, £10,543 (20.7%) was in support of CARD, Belgium 20 and RoT protest activities or campaigning in Belgium.
In conclusion
We thank you once again all for all the donations, the expressions of support and the practical help. Every single contribution has helped to accelerate an end to the disastrous Duchatelet era and hopefully we will see a return to a club with the values we cherish in the near future.
Let us all hope that the takeover is completed soon. But if it isn’t, the Protest Fund will continue to be available to all fans and fans groups undertaking protests and campaigns against Duchatelet.
As ever, we are humbled to have been entrusted with your money and are grateful for your generosity, amazing creativity and hard work to support the protest fund.
Come on you Addicks!
Davo55 and Curb_It
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Comments
That is quite astounding.
We’ve only spent £50k,
Compared to Duchatelet’s £millions
And he’s selling up.
That’s good value for money.
How many protest naysayers will still whine that the "trips" to Belgium were merely p*ss ups using funds?
I have done two of the trips to Belgium and funded my personal costs myself.
If he only wants my thanks and credit where its due then well done and thanks for all you have done to try and remove Duchatelet, and I do mean that...
If its that they have their own fund and therefore dont want to use the protest fund then well done again, I think we have all spent a considerable amount personally during four years of struggle to rid us of Duchatalet..
If its that CARD are a bunch self centred twats (I am gathering that from mutliple tweet that start calling CAFCFANS!!!!) then I can only admit that I myself am a twat, fat and ginger but not self centred I think...
;-)
And great to see support from Coventry and Brighton fans
I only just noticed that I managed to start this thread in a category called "Rumours" in error. If it is possible to move this into the "General Charlton" category, please do so for me. Thanks.
Intrigued by the future committed expenditure...
Can I check though, have we really spent £15k on projectiles since May 2017? I wasn't aware that we'd thrown very much recently. Perhaps it's more exciting at The Valley on match days than I'd thought ;-)
The detailed breakdown of income and expenditure is cumulative since the fund started. The 2017/18 information is in the section above that.
Let's hope we see the return for the money and hard work soon.