ISM Trust Annual Review

Deborah Annetts summarises the ISM Trust activities for the year ended 31 August 2020

The ISM Trust, sister charity of the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM), was created in 2014. In 2015, the ISM Trust became the sole corporate trustee of the Benevolent Fund of the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM Members Fund, a charitable trust). The objects of the ISM Trust are to: advance education; advance health; and promote the arts, particularly music.

Achievements and performance 2019-20

Work in the early part of the year centred on the implementation of a legacy plan from The Empowered Musician, the one-day conference attended by 400 musicians in October 2018. As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold the Trust pivoted to disseminating information and advice through webinars to support the music profession through the crisis. Subjects ranged from moving to online teaching, safeguarding online and risk assessments.

Across the year the Trust delivered 15 webinars in total, two of which were collaborations with The Amber Trust. The Trust also developed closer ties to ABRSM through the licensing of two webinars for inclusion in its Becoming a Better Music Teacher course available on the Futurelearn platform. The course ran five times across the financial year with Setting up your business viewed 3,058 times and Looking after your hearing health 3,562 times. It is clear that there is a real appetite for learning digitally across a range of areas and the ISM Trust will continue to provide a highquality offer to all those engaged in the music sector.

Seminars continued to be presented on behalf of the Trust by music education specialists including Dr Alison Daubney and Paul Harris. In total eight seminars were delivered to Derby, Cornwall, Hounslow and Tri-borough Music Hubs, Severn Arts, Kingston and East Riding Schools’ Music Services and to a group of ISM members in Liverpool. In March 2020 the Trust launched Indian Takeaway! Rag and Tal basics, a major new online resource by Indian music specialist Yogesh Dattani, at the Music and Drama Education Expo in London. It has been viewed 1,280 times since it was launched.

There have been approximately 58,780 visits to the Trust’s website across the financial year. The most popular resource was the Primary Music Toolkit page which had 8,153 views.

Compliance

The ISM Trust is registered as a data controller in its own right at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). All ISM staff working on Trust activities are bound by the provisions of the ISM Group Data Governance Policy introduced across all ISM Group companies in 2018 as part of our activities to ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (‘GDPR’) and the Data Protection Act 2018. The Trust was also registered with the Fundraising Regulator and in accordance with Charity Commission guidance further training in trustee duties and charity governance was provided to Trustees in 2019. New Trustees received guidance in relation to trustee duties and charity governance during the course of the year.

Financial review

During the reporting period, total income grew by 1.3% over the previous year to £97,569 (2019: £96,284) and expenditure fell by 6.4% to £112,127 (2019: £119,828). During the year under review, the Trust generated a deficit of £14,558 (2019: £23,544). The ISM Trust derives its income from three main sources: membership subscriptions, income from events, and donations. Income from membership subscriptions grew during the year with £5,377 recognised in the reporting period (2019: £4,600), an increase of 16.9%. As a result of professional development work £5,637 (2019: £11,634) has been generated, a fall of 51.5% over the previous year. During the financial year, the COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting lockdowns around the UK led to the cancellation of all planned face-to-face events in the last six months of the year which is largely the reason for the reduced income in the period.

The Trustees acknowledge with thanks a legacy to the Trust from the estate of the late Orience Evelyn Burton. The Trustees are most grateful to all individuals who made donations or organised fundraising initiatives during the reporting period.

The ISM Trust started its partnership with NMC on a new project called Discover which led to £40,000 of recognised costs in the financial year.

Plans for Future Periods

The Trust will continue to offer information to support the sector through online seminars and face-toface events when possible. The Trust will continue its partnership with NMC Records to promote and support composers and artists working in the area of contemporary music in the UK. The Friends of the ISM Trust membership scheme will be reviewed.

Deborah Annetts, Chief Executive, ISM

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