We think it’s important to share with our supporters our concerns regarding untruthful information being posted by the Save St Francis Group. Yesterday we had to remove a post on our Facebook page that was subsequently shared by the Save St Francis Group, because it contained untruthful information about the Trustees.

It also contained misleading statements and
divulged personal information about other people. However, we are pleased to
answer a question from within the post that might be of interest to others, about the grant that Trustees made to the Coronavirus Emergency Fund of the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (ADCH).

The fund has been raising money from individuals, Rescue Charities and Trusts. We took advice from our Charity lawyers before making the grant of £3,000 to the fund... NOT £10,000 as is stated in the post on the Save St Francis Group Facebook Page.

Our Lawyers advice was that our Charity exists to help dogs in need and that, while we cannot do this on site, it was important to continue our charitable work. This was one way for St Francis to help dogs in need.

We were not the only Charity to help in this way, although we think we might have been one of the first. We were proud to see the ADCH website show our image below.

In our new strategy we include the sentence: “We will always try to work
collaboratively to bring as much help to dogs as possible.” We believe that there is great value in Charities working together and this grant given to the emergency appeal is an example of our St Francis strategy in actions that match our words.

⭐ UPDATE! ⭐

At St Francis Dogs Home HQ, we’ve been super busy behind the scenes over the past few months.

We wanted to share with you what we’ve been up to and how our plans are unfolding…

Exciting times ahead! 🐶


FIRST STEPS TOWARDS HELPING MORE DOGS

We promised you updates about the Charity from time to time. This is the first in a series of communications to keep in touch with you about what we’ve been doing. There have been some moments of excitement, along with periods of just hard work.

The core duties of Charity Trustees relates to the charitable purpose of the Charity – helping dogs in need in various ways. We have been making sure that St Francis’ dogs are cared for. Dogs that were in The Home have all been rehomed. We put in place mutual support arrangements with a range of respected rescue centres in Cornwall and one in Devon. They helped us out taking the small number of dogs returned to us since the site was closed. Equally we have helped them with a range of initiatives to help dogs in their care.

To make sure that our Charity continues to help dogs St Francis, in line with other leading rescues, donated to the Emergency Appeal of The Association of Dogs and Cats Homes which supported rescues in crisis in the South West and across the UK and Ireland.

Many of you joined us in our virtual dog show which was great fun for everyone. It showed off the wonderful dogs who are our companions, many from St Francis as well as others from elsewhere. All the dogs on display were superb and much loved. Thank you for everybody’s support with this event.

Part of our duty as Trustees is planning to help more dogs in the future. Our planning work has centred on three aspects. Firstly we have worked on appointing a professional team to oversee the design and building work. We have already held meetings (socially distanced and / or by video and phone) with leading firms of specialist architects and project managers in the run-up to our tender process. Secondly, we have researched and / or met with potential grant funders. Thirdly we have been updating our documented strategy to reflect our vision and values as well as the exciting rebuild and reopening. We’ll be publishing a summary shortly.

A third strand of Trustees’ duties relates to Governance. We have kept our regulator informed and they have responded very positively and with helpful guidance. We have almost finished a change in status from a definitely out-dated charitable trust to a modern Charitable Incorporated Organisation. This involved winding up the old Charity, opening a new one, and transferring across the assets. It is a technical process which very many charities have done in recent years. It’s unglamorous, but very necessary to comply with the Charity Commission’s guidance on reviewing our charitable structure to make sure it meets our needs for the future.

We’d like to end by thanking all those who’ve helped us, both locally and in the wider family of animal rescue organisations across the country. Your support for the Trustees has been invaluable in helping us in all the work we’ve been doing. In all that work we aim to honour our Founders and many supporters, most especially Peggy Wiles whose gift in her will provides a great contribution to the rebuild project.

With best wishes to you all – until our next update.

The Trustees

St Francis Dogs Home

New Charity Number 1185816