QueerAF is a community interest company that helps people understand the LGBTQIA+ world and supports queer creatives to change the media. We incorporated on Sep 1st 2021 and launched our newsletter and writing schemes to the public in January 2022. Since launching, we have worked with over 100 creatives. They’ve been provided with paid commissions, along with writing skills sessions, mentoring, and, in some cases, equipment they can use to further their career using the hardware. Creatives this year reported feeling more confident and found our training and mentoring schemes very beneficial; one said, “I loved the joy and pride I felt while investigating and writing, and also finding it in readers as well. Feedback I got during the retro session was extremely valuable and helped me center the focus of my article”. Another said, “A really helpful feedback and editing session, organised with clarity and care. It was a wonderful, affirming thing to be a part of.” We supported Trans+ History Week CIC’s second year after our fiscal sponsorship in its first year. It was one of QueerAF's launchpad project which facilitates, mentors and supports LGBTQIA+ creatives in their own original projects as part of our not-for-profit publisher's mission to help you understand the LGBTQIA+ world and support queer creatives to change the media. Trans+ History Week is dedicated to celebrating the rich history of transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse, and intersex individuals through stories, events and lesson books for the whole world to use. It is a QueerAF launchpad project and an independent Trans+ led CIC run by a team of volunteers. Together, we run the week's official content, events and output and work with international partners to deliver a global impact. Information is a tool for liberation, and learning lessons from history helps us win the fight today. In the organisation's CEO’s absence due to personal reasons, we took over the running of the initiative for three months, including producing its annual workbook with hundreds of downloads that popularised Trans+ history in workplaces all over the UK. We also supported them in raising funding and sponsorship for the initiative, developing relationships with multinational organisations and 20 LGBTQIA+ sector organisations to ensure the week was a success. Together we: - Published, paid and mentored 20 Trans+ creatives, and worked with a dozen more at events and getting them paid opportunities - Supported the curation and production of multiple in-person, hybrid and online events to educate, inform and entertain the LGBTQIA+ with lessons from Trans+ history - Reached 1 in 6 people in the UK with a pro-bono agency-led outdoor billboard campaign that platformed our creative's work on acclaimed national advertising spaces in 600+ locations all over the UK - Inspired a vast media output about transgender history in both the mainstream press and massive social media accounts We relaunched our podcast for another season, extending our mentoring support from journalism back into the audio industry. All the creatives who produced the podcast got to keep professional radio equipment bought for them to deliver this, so they can use them as a freelancer, reducing the equipment barriers some creatives face getting into the industry. The podcast was also nominated for another British Podcast Award for its impact as an initiative. Other notable milestones this year include; - Remained the only LGBTQIA+ publisher to publish contributor data and spending amounts to the public as part of our mission to be transparent about how our media and publishing work happens. - We remain the only LGBTQIA+ publisher to be registered as a non-profit and be independently regulated by both IMPRESS and the CIC regulator. - Shortlisted for a number of awards including: UK Social Enterprise Awards (DEI and Justice awards), British Podcast Awards (Impact category), and the World Association of News Publishers, Best Newsletters in Europe as well as winning an Indie Media Maverick Award (Winner, Digital Journalism). Our launchpad initiative Trans+ History Week, and our work for it, also picked up a highly commended award at the Rainbow Honours. - Published multiple exclusive journalistic investigations which set queer media agendas and galvanised action in the community by providing unique insights into transgender healthcare issues in the UK. - Secured a grant from the Good Law Project to enable us to independently produce more investigative journalism about the LGBTQIA+ community in the UK. - Was the only publisher in the entire UK media to hire a Trans+ person to respond to the Supreme Court ruling, which carried significant changes for this marginalised community. This piece went on to have over 100K impressions and clicks, making it one of the most read resources about this change in all of the UK. - Supported the LGBTQ+ Journalism Network’s founder to build towards a relaunch of the initiative as our next ‘launchpad project’. - Ran a special content series for Black History Month, with The Love Tank’s Phil Samba as a guest editor, who provided additional mentoring on top of the support we provide to four black creatives. All were paid and received published commissions, investing in an incredibly marginalised section of the LGBTQIA+ community in the creative industries. - Ran a successful membership campaign to fund a team of queer creatives to increase our investigative output, matched funded by a private donor. - Ran a successful crowdfunding campaign to enable our outlet’s mentoring schemes - Our founder and director delivered and took part in multiple industry panels to share our expertise and platform for LGBTQIA+ creatives, as well as facilitating payment for this work, in different spaces, including at Acast Pride. - Ran media partnerships with National Student Pride and Sparkle Weekend to support the queer community initiatives. - Worked with other queer creative and non-profit organisations to support their output, and deliver additional commissions for our creatives, including with What The Trans?! - Worked with a non-binary creative to develop our audiences and bring more lived experience to the team as a freelancer who worked part-time with us. - Reached a membership base of 600 recurring paying members who fund our non-profit’s work and 9000+ newsletter readers who use our platform to understand LGBTQIA+ news.

The stakeholders are the LGBTQIA+ community and, specifically, ‘QueerAF members’ of our publisher. We survey all new members of QueerAF to find out what kind of content they’d like to see commissioned by our not-for-profit publisher. Alongside regular surveys to our audience within our newsletter to get information, feedback and suggestions for future content. We have met with dozens of LGBTQIA+ and media organisations to develop relationships with the sector about our work in the last year. We have used these meetings to generate feedback and support for our work, so it is working towards the interests of the LGBTQIA+ community at large. For our writing, podcasting and mentoring schemes, we survey each writer. Their input allowed us to regularly improve the brief and the session to make it better for writers from different backgrounds. We also asked them to rate our communication and the retrospective after the session in a form so they had more freedom to say what they felt. The writers ranked us on average 9.3/10 for our communication and the session itself 9.4/10. They find them useful, reassuring, and easy to do. Writers have said the sessions are “valuable”, “Confidence-boosting, informative and instrumental” and one added, “I thought it wouldn't be my thing but was actually extremely helpful. Not the sort of editing process you get with mainstream publications - much better!”. Another added the set up of the sessions made them feel very confident and a safe way to receive feedback because they were “like having coffee with someone who actually wants the best for you and your work”.

The aggregate amount of emoluments paid to or receivable by directors in respect of qualifying services was £34,500

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration