As advised at the Annual General Meeting the Association has been considerably fortunate to receive an anonymous donation of £2,625,736 which was given to the Association on various terms and conditions including strict confidentiality as regards the identity of the donor. Our Deputy Chair, Liz Le Poidevin, was very instrumental in obtaining the donation and the Association owes her a great debt of gratitude. Conditions upon which the donation was made are as follows:- 1 £320,000 is set aside to benefit 16 named organisations selected by the anonymous donor whom the Committee will notify individually. 2 £250,000 is to be utilised to:- (a) develop and administer a programme of education and information to benefit Jersey Charities in the longer term; (b) fund a support service for Jersey Charities such as those without the internal resources able to benefit from skills of specialists and consultants; (c) improve the Association's systems and enable it to provide increased support to its member and to develop a structure to represent its members proposed or future regulatory changes including the introduction of a Jersey Charities Commission; and (d) work with members to equip them with the skills and resources that enable them to increase the effectiveness of their own fund raising and thereby reduce the reliance upon the Association's funding. 3 The Committee rather than the Members is responsible for deciding how the funding is applied. 4 The distribution of the remainder of the donation ("the Unrestricted Fund") is limited to distributing the income plus a maximum amount of 5% per annum of the capital sum (save of course for the £570,000 that is designated for other purposes as set out above). 5 There is a limit on the maximum sum that any Member can receive in any one year from the combined Unrestricted Fund and from the general funds of the Association (principally the Jersey Lottery proceeds) and this is £20,000. The Committee have decided that A The same criteria for existing grants will be applied in consideration of grants to be paid out of the unrestricted part of the anonymous donation fund. B With low interest rates at present the Committee is looking at prudent investment policies to secure reasonable yield and capital return and is taking advice from an independent financial adviser in relation to this. C It is not expected in the short term that these funds will therefore dramatically increase the amount available to members on an annual basis and for the first year until we receive income the Committee will only distribute 5% of the capital of the Unrestricted Fund and thus £102,786.
