The Pilgrim Trust
Book 1 Agenda item: 4
Director’s report
a) Dinner following the meeting
The dinner will be held at Brooks’s. The guest will be Janet Gough, Director of the Church
Buildings Council of the Church of England.
Janet was appointed to the Church Buildings Council in 2008. A Cambridge graduate in
history and history of art, she qualified as a chartered accountant and pursued a career in
finance in the City before working for Sotheby’s for 10 years where she became a director.
From 2001 to 2002 she was acting director of The Phoenix Trust (now The Prince’s
Regeneration Trust), one of The Prince of Wales’s charities that rescues and finds new uses
for historic buildings. She left to have her young children and to run architectural tours and
courses.
For more than eight years until 2006, Janet Gough was a trustee of the Churches
Conservation Trust, which looks after some 300 of England’s finest historic churches.
Building on the core conservation work of the Trust, she was involved in improving access to
the churches – from more lavatories, lights and kitchens to a visitor website, an education
officer and better interpretation and signage. She was also involved in seeking more
ambitious uses for some churches such as the circus skills school at St Paul’s Bristol, which
still remains open for worship.
Janet is a trustee of the Museum of Fulham Palace, the 1000-year-old former palace of the
Bishops of London, which recently underwent a major conservation and restoration project
sponsored by the Heritage Lottery Fund. She lives in London and worships at St Martin-inthe-Fields, Trafalgar Square.
Michael Baughan, one of the Pilgrim Trust’s co-opted members of the Finance Committee
will also be joining Trustees for dinner.
b) Grant to the John Rylands University Library
The Pilgrim Trust has offered up to £20,000 towards the purchase, at auction on 8 July, the
Colonna Missal. The results of the auction will be known at the meeting.
c) The Big Give
The Big Give has approached the Pilgrim Trust about the possibility of it participating in the
Big Give Challenge this Christmas.
“The Big Give was established by Sir Alec Reed as a place for charities to promote their
work to philanthropists and change the way in which high level donors approached grant
making.
The site was an early success with over 5000 charities registering in the first year and several
£10,000+ donations being made as a result, including one donation of £175,000.
Sir Alec, as head of the Reed Foundation, wanted to increase the impact of the platform and
in 2008 pledged £1m to match donations made to all charities on the site (up to a value of
The Pilgrim Trust
Book 1 Agenda item: 4
£5,000) from 1st December onwards. The £1m was matched in just 45 minutes and the Big
Give Christmas Challenge was established.
In 2009, the format of the Challenge was changed so that participating charities were required
to raise pledges before the launch to match donations to their organisation, along with the
Reed Foundation money. The Reed Foundation committed a further £1.5m in Sponsor
Funding and a total of £8.5m was raised duri9ng the Challenge.
With the Christmas Challenge format a proven success, in 2010 Sir Alec invited external
sponsors to share his new method of fundraising. Sponsors were able to use the same format
and choose a group of their own charities who they wished to support. The result was £9.4m
raised for hundreds of charities.
The Christmas Challenge provides charities with the opportunity not only to access much
needed funding, provided by the Reed Foundation and other sponsors, but to bring in new
donors, get old donors giving more. For charities without a history of fundraising it is a great
opportunity to build a donor database and help to secure their long term future.
For sponsors the Christmas Challenge is the chance to increase the number of charities they
are able to support due to the six times leverage the Challenge gives them. It also increases
the impact of their funding in terms of giving the charities the opportunity to bring in further
donations from their own efforts and build up a more established level of voluntary income.”
Attached are two sheets explaining how the Big Give works. It is complicated to say the
least!
The Big Give was supported by the Garfield Weston Foundation in 2010. The Director has
spoken to Philippa Charles, who runs the Foundation, about it. It was agreed that the
formula, as articulated by the Big Give above, is too complicated. The requirement on
smaller charities to raise funds from their Trustees and donors as well as through the on-line
web site is overly onerous and, in any case, neither Philippa nor Georgina, could quite grasp
how it works. The Garfield Weston Foundation therefore decided that although it wished to
participate, it would do so on the basis that is would match (up to a maximum of £50,000)
any donations raised on line during the Christmas week Big Give Challenge for its chosen
charities. It selected medium sized charities that it already knew and matched what they
raised from their supporters and others pound for pound. The Garfied Weston Foundation
was pleased with the results and has agreed to take part again this year.
Would Trustees be interested in pursuing this further?
The Pilgrim Trust
Book 1 Agenda item: 4
d) Pilgrim Trust Office Accommodation
Pilgrim Trust Office Accommodation
The Pilgrim Trust moved into Clutha House in August 2007, just before the financial crisis
hit and when central London office rents were at their height. Indeed, the Pilgrim Trust was
“gazumped” at the last minute on Clutha House and had to up its offer! The lease was for 10
years with a break clause negotiated on the part of the Trust after five at the time of the first
rent review. The rent is upwards only. This means that in August 2012 there will be a rent
review and the potential for the Pilgrim Trust to move offices, if it so wishes.
Cost of current offices
Rent @£41 per square foot
£55,104
Service charge at c. £14 per sq ft
17,947
Rates (charitable)
3,576
Total
76,627
Cost per square foot (without cleaning
and electricity)
£57.20
The Pilgrim Trust currently sub-lets part of the offices to Heritage Alliance. In 2009 the
room across the hallway was assessed at £18.50 per square foot. This is partly explained by
the fact that the Pilgrim Trust staff have to use the kitchen in the corner of the room, but even
so this valuation demonstrates the way rental values have fallen in the last four years.
Heritage Alliance currently pays the Pilgrim Trust £9,500 and this includes use of the
boardroom.
There is also no doubt that it is a luxury to have the boardroom. Although it is shared with
Heritage Alliance, it stands empty for the majority of the time. It is costing the Pilgrim Trust
£14,128 a year. Therefore it is costing over £3,500 per Trustees’ meeting! The Director has
made some enquiries and the Trust would have no difficulty borrowing or renting (at a
modest cost) a room in central London for the board meetings.
Office rents have fallen markedly since summer 2007. It appears that the going rate in SW1
is currently between £25 and £35 per square foot for a non air conditioned building – either a
period property or modern. A list of examples of properties available now is below
Clutha House 4th floor £35/sq ft (431 sq ft)
Queen Anne’s Gate Buildings, Dartmouth St £29.50/sq ft (740-1582 sq ft)
Hope House, Gt Peter St £34.50/sq ft (650-2100sq ft)
Eccleston St £25/sq ft (793 sq ft)
If Trustees were borrowing a room for the board meetings, then there is no real necessity for
the Pilgrim Trust to be in Westminster. In Hammersmith, for example, the rental is
approximately £20 to £35 / sq ft. There is a delightful office building near Stamford Brook
station and office is £20,000 per annum (£29 psf approx) with a meeting room and kitchen at
£2,830 (circa £10 psf). Service charges appear to be about £6 per square foot.
The Pilgrim Trust
Book 1 Agenda item: 4
Using the cost of moving in 2007 as a guide, it estimated that an office move would cost
approximately £25,000. The Pilgrim Trust needs about 1,000 square feet (without a
boardroom).
Estimated cost of new office outside central London:
Rent @ £32 square foot (1,000 sq ft)
Service charge @ £8 square foot
Rates
Meeting room costs
Total
£32,000
8,000
2,500
2,000
44,500
The cost of moving, on the above figures, would be saved in the first year.
Alternatively, the first step might be to see whether the landlords would be open to a rent
reduction (against the terms of the lease) to keep the present offices occupied. There is little
doubt that the rent for a new lease in 2011 would be less than the £41 per square foot being
paid by the Pilgrim Trust. However, even at £35 per square foot, for the currently occupied
space, the cost would be £68,423 a year.
Trustees are asked to give guidance on whether:
a) The Pilgrim Trust should consider moving
b) The preferred location of new offices