Outhouse LGBTQ+ lobby group based in Colchester

Outhouse, based in Colchester, has total reserves of £911,511 and its income has risen by over 50% a year from 2019 to 2022, as shown in this Charity Commission graph. 

Who and what is Outhouse?

Outhouse - theouthouse.org.uk - is an unincorporated registered charity (number 1006244), formerly known as Outhouse East and originally as Colchester Gay Switchboard. It lobbies for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Essex and East Anglia.

Outhouse’s Statement of Financial Activities for the Year ended 31 March 2022 (the latest on record) shows that the charity is wealthy and has acquired ever-increasing funds in the last few years. It states as follows (with emphasis added):

Our funding has exceeded our objectives this year. … Our grant income within these accounts amounts to £627,438.

• We recently secured three year funding from the National Lottery to fund the posts of the back office staff including the Chief Executive Officer, the Operations Manager, Media Officer, Finance Officer and other administration staff.
• We gained thee year funding for therapeutic work from UK Youth Fund Thriving Minds to support our neurodiverse young people to initiate change in enabling them to attend groups and activities.
• We gained two year funding from Lloyd’s Bank Foundation for additional development of the Counselling service.
• A year’s funding grant through Make Some Noise has been gained to further support the health and well-being service.
• We secured three-year funding from Colchester Borough Council to employ a Counselling Co-ordinator to support the development and delivery of the counselling service and to employ a clinical supervisor to support our counsellors.
• Our latest success has been through the Essex PFCCE (Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex), one of whose priorities is to respond to the needs of individuals and local communities who are vulnerable to specific crime types such as hate crime, elder abuse, harassment, human trafficking, female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage and honour-based abuse (HBA).
• We gained 2 years funding to support young people through a variety of mediums, including therapeutic work.
• It is important to note that we have physically received £239,563 of this funding; the remaining £387,875 - funding from The National Lottery Community Fund - had not been received by the Balance Sheet date but has been recognised as accrued income as all income recognition criteria has been met.

As an aside, one of the four current trustees is well-known to local politics: Jordan Newell (@jordannewell on Twitter), also a trustee of Colchester Citizens Advice, was a one-time Labour parliamentary candidate (2010 general election) and leader of Colchester Labour Party, as reported in the local gazette-news.