Minerva charity status approved
20th December, 2024
There is now a change in our club’s legal status which was initially discussed at the January 2024 AGM. After many months of hard work behind the scenes by our Trustees, Minerva Bath Rowing Club is now a CIO, or Charitable Incorporated Organisation – in effect a charity.
This is a legal status that many other sports clubs have adopted, including our neighbours at Bradford on Avon who were helpful in advising us throughout the application process. The new status will bring many benefits, not least when fundraising, but also in terms of costs we incur. The most significant is the ability to claim GiftAid on donations made by tax paying individuals to the club. This is particularly beneficial if you are a higher rate tax payer as you can claim more than the standard tax rate of 20% on your donation.
In the next few weeks we will be setting up processes to monitor and collect donations made by both members or individuals outside of the club to ensure we maximise this benefit. If you’d like to help in this area please let us know. There will also be plenty of opportunities for you to donate to the club both for equipment and larger capital projects so watch this space!
On that note, we are pleased to report that following the granting of planning permission for a new boat shed and facilities training block, work will commence in Spring 2025 on the first stage of the build, which is the boat shed dedicated to Bath University Boat Club. Once Bath University occupies the new shed this will release half of the existing Arnold Cooke shed for Minerva and other boats to be stored. The good news here is that Bath University and their alumni have raised all of the funding required for this boat shed, so we can start the build as soon as the weather improves in Spring 2025.
Fundraising for the second stage will commence once we have finalised the spec for that build and have tendered the work with contractors. At this point work will begin in earnest on fundraising which will come, inter alia, from grant giving bodies such as Sport England and the National Lottery, local charitable trusts, our local council through their CIL fund, and individuals – which is why achieving charitable status was so important.
Please look out for future updates and do let us know if you are considering a donation to the club. We’d love to hear from you!
Sue Shipley Development Lead, Andy Tyler Fundraising Lead
