The Abingdon Music Centre Trust

Charity No. 309181

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Why do we need your financial support?

We run a lot of activities at AMC and most of them pay their share of our costs. Some cannot …

Why some activities don’t pay their way.

We are a charity and we have a duty to help people develop musically and enjoy their music.

Some activities are for vulnerable people, especially children and the very old.  These activities need support from us as they cannot afford the full costs.  Music can help so many people in this position.

Why does it cost so much?  

Surely everyone can pay for the teacher?  Yes, but that is only a small part of the cost. 
Other things include: Premises. Staff costs: director, administrators, co-ordinator, teaching assistants, accompanists.    Music and other materials for activities.    Office costs such as telephone, internet, IT maintenance and materials.

What else apart from the activities?

We cannot stand still but need to develop the Centre; to improve existing activities and to create new ones.  This requires time to plan and design.  A lot of this is done by the Director but she works with other staff and with volunteers before new activities can happen.  This cost arrives long before any income.

We spend time making bids and going to meetings to obtain support from bodies such as Oxfordshire Adult Learning.  These generate funding which helps to keep our fees down but also require management time to run.

Why not put fees up to cover all of these costs?

We can only charge so much before people cannot pay the higher fees.  So then we have put off people who would gain from participation in music and their lives are no longer enhanced. That is not the idea.

Isn’t there a trust fund to do all of this?

Yes, but it is surprisingly small and we need it to provide a reserve in case of a disastrous situation which could cause us to close down; we would need to meet outstanding commitments. We calculate class fees in such a way as to contribute to overheads but we cannot include everything.