Annual report template for a small nonprofit community group

Hollybank Community Garden Association is a members' association that runs a 0.6 hectare community garden on land licensed from the local council behind the Hollybank library. We were founded in 2012 by eleven neighbours who wanted somewhere to grow food. Today we have 214 members, 64 individual plots, shared beds and an orchard, a teaching garden used by four schools, and a weekly food share for two local food pantries.

This report covers the financial year from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. It is presented to members at the annual general meeting on Monday 19 October 2026, together with the audited financial statements, which members can request from the secretary.

This was the year the garden grew up. When I joined the committee five years ago we had 40 plots, a leaking shed and a waiting list in a notebook. This year every one of our 64 plots was tended, the new tool shed opened in March, and 37 people are still waiting for a plot, which tells us how much this place is wanted.

The thing I am proudest of is not on any chart. On a Saturday in April I counted people from nine countries working the shared beds together, swapping seeds and recipes. That is what a community garden is for. Thank you to every member who turned up, to our volunteers, to our coordinator Tess, and to the council and our funders who make it possible.

We finished the year with a small surplus of $2,100 and $23,500 in the bank. The committee's priority for next year is a rainwater tank, because the water bill rose by a third this year and is now one of our largest running costs.

Moira Feeney, Chair

My job is three days a week, and most of it is saying yes to good ideas from members and finding the people to make them happen. This year members ran 38 workshops, from composting to pickling to pruning fruit trees. The schools program doubled to 22 classes. And the Saturday food share, which began as a few spare zucchinis on a table, delivered 1,150 kilograms of fresh food to two pantries.

There were hard moments too. A dry spell in January cost us much of the summer bean crop and pushed our water bill up by a third. Theft from plots happened twice. We responded with a mulching day that drew 46 people and a roster of members who lock up each evening. Both problems are smaller now than a year ago.

Tess Okonkwo, Garden coordinator

Hours peak in the planting months and dip over the holidays in December and January, when many members are away and the roster runs on a core of about 20 people.

Together these make 4,200 kilograms, weighed at the harvest table. Food grown on individual plots belongs to the plot holder and is not weighed, so the true total is higher.

Sixty four plots of 12 square metres each are rented to members for $300 a year, or $100 for members on a concession card. Plot holders agree to tend their plot at least fortnightly and give two hours a month to the shared garden. This year 11 plots changed hands, each to the next person on the waiting list, and four raised plots were built for members who use a wheelchair or cannot kneel.

Every Saturday morning, volunteers harvest the shared beds and the orchard, weigh the produce and drive it to two food pantries before noon. Plot holders add their surplus to the table. Over 50 Saturdays the food share delivered 1,150 kilograms of fresh vegetables and fruit, up from 720 kilograms the year before. Both pantries tell us fresh food is the thing they can least afford to buy.

Twenty two classes from four primary schools visited the teaching garden for a two hour session, planting, tasting and learning where food comes from. Each school also has a raised bed it tends through the year. Three members with teaching backgrounds wrote the session plans, and two student teachers from the local university ran sessions as part of their placements.

Thirty eight workshops filled 612 places, all taught by members or local volunteers. The most popular were composting, saving seed, pruning fruit trees and pickling. Workshops cost $15, or $5 on a concession card, and the fees pay for materials and teachers' costs. Six workshops were run in a second language for members who asked for them.

The garden is also a small working example of growing food with less waste. Forty households near the garden now drop their food scraps at our compost bays, and every scrap of green waste from the plots is composted on site. A volunteer bird count each quarter tracks how the orchard and native hedge are changing the site.

Water use rose by about a third, almost all of it in the dry January to March quarter, which used 520 of the year's 1,350 kilolitres. Drip lines now run on all shared beds, and the rainwater tank planned for next year is sized to cover that quarter.

In May, 142 of our 214 members answered the annual member survey. Their answers shape the plans on the next pages.

Our finances are sound and simple. We spend what we raise, keep a reserve for hard times, and hold project money separately until it is spent. This year grants were the largest source of income, boosted by the one off shed grant, and plot rents covered almost a fifth of our costs. The $12,000 shed grant paid exactly for the shed, so the $2,100 surplus came from ordinary activities, which is what the committee aims for every year.

The accounts were audited by an independent volunteer auditor, a retired accountant who is not a member, who found them to be in order. Two things to watch next year: the water bill, and grant income, which is never certain. Peter Vukovic, Treasurer

The association had income of $95,300 and expenses of $93,200, a surplus of $2,100. The figures below summarise the audited financial statements for the year to 30 June 2026. The largest single expense, apart from the coordinator's wages, was the new tool shed, paid for by a one off grant.

The committee aims to hold at least three months of running costs, about $16,000, in reserve. Cash above that amount at year end, after money held for specific projects, goes into the following year's garden improvements.

The committee met 11 times during the year. All committee members are volunteers and receive no payment. The association employs one part time coordinator.

None of this happens without the people and organisations who give their time, money and goodwill. Our thanks this year go to: