Finance Score: 2

Governance Score: 4

Support Score: 11

Strong growth: +2
No PartB

No volunteer policy: -2
Dynamic board: +3
Gender balanced board: +3

Large volunteers +3
Grant maker support: +8

Overall GiG Score: 17

WE ARE FAMILY

We Are Family is a parent-led, peer-to-peer adoption support community, that promote the health and well-being of prospective adopters and adoptive parents mainly in the London area, and in particular the relief of the predictable stress, strain and sense of isolation. Our members meet regularly through core activities such as playgroups for under-fives, parent support groups or family outings.

Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

This charity has been successful in attracting volunteers relative to its size
There has been strong growth in spending over the last 5 years
There have been no material income shortfalls in recent years
A significant proportion of recent income was derived from major grant makers including the Government
The Board appears to be well diversified in terms of gender and dynamic in terms of composition

Regulatory & Governance issues to consider:

Although this charity works with volunteers it does not have a Volunteer Management policy
Over half the Board have joined recently

Financial issues to consider:

A PartB annual return has not been required and so detailed financial information is not available from the online data

Established: 9 years

www.wearefamilyadoption.org.uk

hello@wearefamilyadoption.org.uk

020 7135 2037

Charity Commission for England and Wales

Tweets

Financial Data ?

Income & Spending ?

Sources of Income ?

Y/E	Income £k	Spending £k	Surplus/ Deficit	Fundraising Cost £k	Total Funds £k	Unrestricted Funds £k	Mths Rsrvs	Staff	Volun- teers
31/03/23	£99	£103	£-4	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	50
31/03/22	£100	£76	£24	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	40
31/03/21	£89	£63	£26	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	45
31/03/20	£45	£45	£0	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	40
31/03/19	£20	£7	£13	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	40
31/03/18	£7	£3	£4	£0	£0	£0	n/a	0	0
31/03/17	£6	£0	£5	£0	£0	£0	n/a	0	0
31/03/16	£0	£0	£0	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	0

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Highest pay bracket: less than £60,000

Listed activities

General Charitable Purposes
The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives

How it operates

Acts as an umbrella or resource body
Provides advocacy/advice/information
Provides services

Where it operates

Throughout England,

Who it helps

Other Charities Or Voluntary Bodies
Other Defined Groups

Who works here?

Unknown number of employees
50 volunteers

Who's supporting them? ?

Donations from Grant Makers ?

We have details on the following significant donations. Multi-year donations are allocated to the years for which they are earmarked.

Major supporters in last 5 years

Tudor Trust	£55,000
The Fore	£30,000
Garfield Weston Foundation	£15,000
City Bridge Trust	£13,220
Woodward Charitable Trust	£1,000

Specific Donations

Amount	When Months	To be used for
Woodward Charitable Trust - Core costs
£1,000	29/03/2023	Core costs
Tudor Trust - Grant to We Are Family
£53,000	25/03/2022 24	over two years as unrestricted continuation funding for a charity providing peer support for adoptive families around the UK
Garfield Weston Foundation - Main Grants award
£15,000	20/08/2021	We Are Family Adoption Support Community: Organisational Development
Tudor Trust - Grant to We Are Family
£2,000	15/02/2021	as an additional grant to support staff, volunteer and trustee wellbeing, to assist the organisation deliver its charitable purpose more effectively
City Bridge Trust - Grant to We Are Family Adoption
£13,220	19/05/2020	A grant of £13,220 to fund the essential and urgent costs outlined in the appliciation, so that the organisation can carry on providing support to Londoners.
The Fore - Grant to We Are Family Adoption
£30,000	01/04/2020 24	We are Family provides a 'peer-to-peer' ( i.e . parent-to-parent) mutual support community for adoptive parents and prospective adopters, so that they, in turn, can be better equipped to support ....more We are Family provides a 'peer-to-peer' ( i.e . parent-to-parent) mutual support community for adoptive parents and prospective adopters, so that they, in turn, can be better equipped to support their children, many of whom have experienced extreme pre-adoption trauma or neglect. Currently operating through 10 groups in and around London and Essex, WAF offers its c. 520 active registered members free or low-cost (often subsidised) activities, including: parent support meetings; playgroups; coffee and chat sessions; family meet-ups and parties; and information evenings. We Are Family are using funding from The Fore to expand their volunteer management capacity, enabling them to grow the team of volunteers significantly, unlocking increased scale and sustainability.
National Lottery Community Fund - Creating a centralised member database
£9,610	29/11/2018 12	The project will create a membership database. The aim is to improve the service provided to adoptive parents and the efficiency of the organisation.
Tudor Trust - Grant to We Are Family
£65,000	06/09/2018 36	over three years towards the development of peer support groups for adoptive parents in and around London

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Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (11)

Current Trustees appointed

Gender Split

Based on 10/11 persons

AMY JANE BURNS-THOMSON Appointed: 2023

ANDREW TAYLOR-DAWSON Appointed: 2020

ANITA ANTOINETTE GOVEAS Appointed: 2023

ANNA WILLOW Appointed: 2022

BARABARA DIANE MCGRATH Appointed: 2020

ELIZABETH JAYNE HOCTER Appointed: 2021

ESI LEAH CATHLINE Appointed: 2022

MARK TREFOR HOULT-ALLEN (Chair) Appointed: 2019, Other trusteeship: The Blue Tangerine Charity,

MICHAEL CLARKE Appointed: 2022

SOBIA ANJAM SHAMIM Appointed: 2021

SOPHIE MILLER Appointed: 2023

Legal constitution

Charity registered in England & Wales on 26/08/2015, number: 1163318

Gift Aid

Registered with HMRC for Gift Aid

Policies in force

Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
Complaints policy and procedures
Financial reserves policy and procedures
Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
Internal risk management policy and procedures
Safeguarding policy and procedures
Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
Social media policy and procedures
Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
Trustee expenses policy and procedures

Filing Record

8 returns made; all on time

Main office

27
Old Gloucester Street
London
WC1N 3AX

Objectives

THE OBJECTS OF WE ARE FAMILY, AS A PARENT-LED, PEER-TO-PEER ADOPTION SUPPORT COMMUNITY, ARE, FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT, TO PROMOTE THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF PROSPECTIVE ADOPTERS AND ADOPTIVE PARENTS AND THE PARTNERS OF ADOPTIVE PARENTS WHO WERE NOT PARTY TO THE ORIGINAL ADOPTION ORDER (THESE THREE GROUPS BEING REFERRED TO TOGETHER AS ‘ADOPTIVE PARENTS’ IN THESE OBJECTS) THROUGHOUT THE UNITED KINGDOM, AND IN PARTICULAR THE RELIEF OF THE PREDICTABLE STRESS, STRAIN AND SENSE OF ISOLATION THAT COMES WITH BECOMING AN ADOPTIVE PARENT AND IN PARENTING TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN. THESE OBJECTS SHALL BE ACHIEVED IN PARTICULAR BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY BY : (A) ADVOCATING AND ADVANCING PEER-TO-PEER SUPPORT FOR ADOPTIVE PARENTS, BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER PLACEMENT AND ADOPTION; (B) ADVOCATING, ESTABLISHING, SUPPORTING, RUNNING AND PROMOTING PARENT-LED COMMUNITIES OF ADOPTIVE PARENTS, CONSISTING OF LOCALLY AND CENTRALLY MANAGED NETWORKS WHICH ALLOW FOR PARTICIPATION BY WAY OF BOTH IN-PERSON AND ONLINE MEETINGS AND FORUMS; (C) OFFERING LOCAL AND REGULAR MEETING PLACES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ADOPTIVE PARENTS WHICH REFLECT THEIR PARTICULAR NEEDS, WITH OR WITHOUT THEIR CHILDREN, IN PARTICULAR BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY BY RUNNING SUCH ACTIVITIES AS UNDER-5S PLAYGROUPS AND FAMILY EVENTS (WITH CHILDREN) AND PARENT SUPPORT GROUPS (WITHOUT CHILDREN); (D) PROMOTING AND ADVANCING THE NEED FOR PARENTAL SELF-CARE WHILE RAISING CHILDREN WHO HAVE SUFFERED EARLY TRAUMA (SELF-CARE MEANING LOOKING AFTER ADOPTIVE PARENTS’ OWN EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL NEEDS TO ALLOW THEM TO BETTER CARE FOR AND SUPPORT THEIR ADOPTED CHILDREN, INCLUDING BY HELPING THEM REMAIN EMOTIONALLY REGULATED AND STABLE IN THEIR INTERACTIONS WITH THEIR CHILDREN); (E) PROVIDING PLATFORMS FOR ADOPTIVE PARENTS TO SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES, FOR EXAMPLE THROUGH PARENT SUPPORT FORA AND ONLINE BLOGS; (F) DISSEMINATING INFORMATION ABOUT PRACTICAL ADOPTION SUPPORT AND RELATED TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES (SUCH AS WAYS OF RELIEVING STRESS AND REDUCING ISOLATION); AND (G) SUPPORTING, INFLUENCING, ADVOCATING FOR, AND CONTRIBUTING TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELEVANT ADOPTION SUPPORT SERVICES AND ADVANCING PARENTAL SUPPORT THROUGHOUT THE ADOPTION PROCESS AND BEYOND.

Data Sources