Annual Review 2021/22

Annual Review 2021/22 Registered Scottish Charity No. SC025837

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Welcome and update from Stuart Housden, Chair We continue to live in challenging economic, social and environmental times. 2021/2 was again disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic but as restrictions began to relax, we were able to re-open our Centre and engage more people from the local community and visitors from near and far. Our work with young people resumed, albeit with COVID safeguards in place.

I am grateful to our team (employees, volunteers and trustees) who continue to go the extra mile to ensure that everyone who interacts with us has a memorable experience. We are also immensely grateful to all our members, individual supporters and funders who so generously support what we do. Seabirds and the marine environment continue to need help.

Conservation

Our conservation activities on seabird islands in the Firth of Forth continued with biosecurity and habitat management to help protect internationally important seabird colonies.

We were delighted to join the WWF-led Restoration Forth partnership. We are contributing to activities that will restore seagrass meadows and native oysters in the Firth of Forth. This is an initiative that the community and schools can be directly involved in.

More people engaged in citizen science activities with us. We became part of the wider Shorewatch network by establishing a new whale and dolphin watch site at North Berwick harbour.

Education

Building on the lock-down lessons we continued to deliver a wide range of learning activities with a particular focus on primary aged years through our schools’ programme.

We produced activity packs to help older people, especially those in Care Homes, to connect with nature. This was enhanced by our partnership with Oomph Wellness.

Our learning team created new Dive In learning packs which are freely available on our website.

Communities

Our Marine Festival brought a range of partners together to help people engage and learn more about our marine and coastal wildlife through science, arts, music and food events.

90% of people who joined our communitybased wildlife walks also stated they felt more connected to, and had learnt something, about our marine wildlife.

Our beach clean loan station continues to be well used by locals and visitors and makes a positive impact on the local coastal environment.

Experience

Our 5-star visitor attraction and wildlife boat trip experiences continued to prove popular with visitors and with families looking for indoor or outdoor experiences that they can do together.

These experiences help us to raise awareness of the importance of Scotland’s marine environment to society and the challenges that must be overcome to protect and restore it in future.

Looking ahead to 2022

We look to the year ahead with optimism.

Our Board of Trustees supports a growth ambition around the Charity’s core conservation and education activities and further investment in our Discovery Experience.

Through our Scottish Environment Link’ membership we will amplify messages about the importance of nature. We want to see nature recovery targets clearly stated and enshrined in law, as well as a much stronger commitment to seabird conservation. With what we are now seeing with the devastating impacts of avian flu – leadership and bold action has never been more needed.

Our support for children and young people will continue through our schools, youth and outreach activities. This includes more support for people who may find it harder to engage with formal education, and engagement innovations such as our virtual reality experience of life in Scotland’s seas.

We want to see our visitor centre used more by visitors and the community across the year. We will be developing our Seabird Social events and will continue to host exhibits and gatherings in the Centre.

Please continue to support us – the challenges faced by nature means our work has never been more needed.

Thank-you.

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Summarised financial information The information on this page has been compiled using the full audited financial statements, a copy of which may be obtained on request from the Scottish Seabird Centre, The Harbour, North Berwick. The purpose of this information is to provide a summary account of the activities of the group.

Income Admissions (incl. Gift Aid donation) Other Discovery Experience Income Membership (incl Gift Aid donation) Catering and hospitality Retail Revenue & education fundraising, donations Boat income Other income Purchases Expenditure Salaries, wages and contract staff Catering expenditure Education Administration Insurance Utilities Marketing Membership expenses Fundraising resources Discovery Experience Boat trip expenditure Bass Rock levy Professional fees Other expenditure Bad debt write off Non-recoverable VAT Bank int & chgs Group net surplus/(deficit) before depreciation and capital grants Capital grants received Depreciation Net Surplus / (Deficit) Capital expenditure

2022 £

2021 £

73,594 1,037 44,931 308,343 146,382 459,336 316,217 119,378 1,469,218

37,995 1,612 39,808 164,184 67,462 769,474 92,603 102,099 1,275,237

143,019

73,497

644,122 8,560 477 103,755 29,217 38,137 23,794 683 46,915 15,358 246,303 18,684 1,278 4,311 10,695 1,192,289

550,716 5,404 210 71,473 27,874 35,337 12,843 610 43,277 10,793 79,022 17,596 1,387 46 3,879 11,272 871,739

133,910

330,001

35,239 (173,968) (4,820)

(184,390) 145,611

94,732

22.982

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With thanks We are grateful for the vital support we have received from many Trusts, companies and other organisations.

In particular to this year’s supporters (year ending 31.01.22) including: Adapt and Thrive (Scottish Government) BeGreen Dunbar Benevity Big Give – Green Match Fund donors Blackbaud Brewin Dolphin Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust Cirrus Logic International UK Cruden Foundation Limited Darwin 200 Digital Boost Development Grant Enterprise Holdings Foundation EventScotland – Year of Coasts and Waters 2021 Inchcape Foundation In memoriam and legacy donors

Trustees and Key Management North Berwick Golf Club North Berwick Trust Robertson Trust Rural Communities Ideas Into Actions Fund (administered

by Inspiring Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government Rural Economy and Communities Division) Sandra Charitable Trust Scottish Government – Visitor Attraction Support Fund Scottish Seabird Centre Friends, Friends for Life, Members and Founder Members Scottish Seabird Centre volunteers Selkirk Charitable Trust Slater Foundation St Mary’s Charity Strategic Business Framework Tay Charitable Trust TD Paton Trust Thistledown Trust Whitley Animal Protection Trust

JTH Charitable Trust

William Dean Countryside and Educational Trust

Kiltwalk donors

William Grant Foundation

Lothian Sea Kayakers Club

William Haddon Charitable Trust

MEB Charitable Trust Nancy Roberts Charitable Trust NatureScot – Nature Restoration Fund

We would also like to thank the many individuals who have donated money and time, who remain anonymous, but who know we are grateful.

In line with the governance of the charity a number of longstanding trustees retired during the course of the year and the process for new appointments, in line with the new strategic direction and skills audit progressed.

Key Management

Trustees

Charlotte Bray Fundraising Manager

Stuart Housden Chair, OBE Fiona Alder (resigned 24-06-21) Chris Arnold

Susan Davies Chief Executive

Jess Thompson Marketing Manager Helen McDonald Finance Manager

Jill Dryburgh Business Support Officer Dora Roden Project Officer

Dr Stephen Breslin Elizabeth Eckles Martha Fleming (resigned 30-04-22) Dr Charlotte Hopkins Dr Richard Lilley Hamish MacAndrew Diana Murray, CBE (retired 30-06-22) Professor David Paterson Tessa Quinn Phil Taylor Professor Steven Votier Biographies online at www.seabird.org Lindsays WS Company Secretary

Cover image credits (clockwise from top): © Jade Mitchell, Changes East Lothian, © Helen Pugh, © Emily Burton, © Rohan Holt, Darwin 200, © Helen Pugh, © Lewis Jeffries