Report by Rob Bradley (Trust Chair and Fan-Engagement Team Co-Leader)

On behalf of our Red Imps Community Trust board, I must start this report by recognising the contributions a great many individuals and organisations have made in ensuring our Trust is a hard-working, effective, and vibrant fans’ body here at Lincoln City FC.

Many thanks go to Tension Twisted Realities, our continuing main sponsor, and to our commercial partners in 2025. We thank everyone at the football club including then chairman Clive Nates, his board of directors and all the staff on and off the field of play. A special mention for David Lowes, club director with Fan Engagement responsibilities, who we liaise with on a regular basis.

We continue to enjoy a good working relationship with other allied organisations including the Former Players Association and the Fan Advisory Board.

As chair I am constantly amazed at the commitment and skills displayed by members of our Trust board and associated volunteers. Some of the achievements they brought about in 2025 are detailed below following this general ‘thank you’. Our Elected Supporter Directors – Phil Scrafton representing our broad membership and Mandi Slater representing our John O’Gaunts members – deserve a special mention. Their roles are not easy but they carry our members’ views into the boardroom and bring back club views in return with great skill and patience. As part of engaging with younger members more we now have a Youth Board representative in Tom Baker who has been made very welcome. 

Finally I must express our gratitude to our 6,000 plus members for being part of the Red Imps Community Trust, including for their involvement and feedback, and how, as the most important people at a football club, they create the goodwill and atmosphere at matches home and away and in general in this fair city and county beyond. As ever we try and communicate with every single one of our members via direct e mails, and effective social media and website outputs. I mustn’t forget too how we interact face-to-face all the time, with Trust personnel spreading the RICT word and guiding and advising at every opportunity.    

In my report a year ago I described the changes we made to our governance including the establishment of ‘teams’ with appropriate leadership that fulfill the themes of our strap line ‘Supporting Our Fans, Our Club, Our Community’, and in particular assisted in meeting as professionally as possible the aims and actions in our RICT Strategy Document of 2023.  Very much in summary this established Fan Engagement (led by myself and Emma Crellin), Club Engagement (Phil Scrafton and Mandi Slater), Community Engagement (Biff Bean), and External Liaison (Julian Buttery) pillars in our governance. A year later I think we can say the leadership and team work associated with each of these has been very successful.

Our governance in general is robust and modern. Our rules, policies, and role descriptions ensure that we are accountable, open, democratic. The processes described in this annual report confirm the latter, with officers retiring by rotation and their positions filled in an appropriate way. Our monthly meetings are professional and efficient with pre-read reports being submitted in advance where ever possible. We are all busy people and can only spare so much time. The way we run our Trust reflects this. Another important element of our governance is collaboration with other organisations. To this end we have representatives positioned within the Former Players Association and the Fan Advisory Board. We chair the Four Party Group comprising Lincoln City FC, Lincoln City Foundation, and the FPA and us – a collaborative body sharing information about each ones’ activities.

I will now describe some activities that have been carried out in 2025 within each of the areas outlined earlier. Whilst not covering all that we do they might give a taste of our aims to support our fans, club, and community as well as we can. 

Our main fan engagement impact is often assumed to be our work at our Fan Village base. We do much more but this is definitely a very busy visible element of what we do. From early on we are there on a matchday offering competitions, collectible items, freebie items for young fans, and much more. We sell the club team sheet, and invite guests to join us like Imptoons and their fundraising items, and good causes and charities to promote what they do. We have seen street entertainers join us for the fans’ enjoyment, and, last but not least, we are delighted to hear supporters’ views positive or negative and help where we can. The club have been pleased to have been recognised nationally in how good their fan engagement is, especially in terms of matchday provision. I like to think our Trust have played a part in this being recognised.   

Trust communications are very important in fan engagement but of course in all other areas. Ours are very good and our team expanded in 2025 with Tony and Tamyra Beeston joining in. Our social media and website comms are very good and project us well. Our decision to focus on what our young members and younger supporters generally want from their experiences when the club plays at home has been aided by our comms and activities at our Fan Village pod. After establishing some significant conclusions we now look to enter phase 2 in 26-27 and provide measures to increase the value of being a young Imp.  

Since a match programme ceased to be available, we have headed up a Programme Group and as an outcome, a number of fans have produced an alternative publication. Called ‘IMPress’ it has been very successful and we are pleased to be the base to sell it, and well as contribute to its content now and again. 

Another fan engagement activity I will describe centres on club heritage. We have had an online museum for some time, which features hundreds of exhibits. We have a programme archive, and offer heritage items for collectors every home game.

In 2025 we put together a Lincoln City exhibition in the Chapter House at Lincoln Cathedral. This was no small project but held over all of August I think we can say it was a resounding success. There were story boards and many exhibits on show, match video coverage, and an interactive competition available for visitors. To see our club promoted in such an iconic setting was very rewarding. As the event drew to a close, we were able to unveil our third iconic Lincoln City plaque at the Cathedral visitor centre. It recognises the link between the famous stone Imp in the Angel Choir and our club’s nickname. 

Club engagement is led by Phil and Mandi as described earlier but many of us have regular dialogues with club staff on shared matters. We like to think we have a respectful and efficient working relationship with everyone at Lincoln City so that outcomes are to the benefit of our members. Our elected representatives are not just messengers though – they contribute to club strategies and decision-making. This makes their roles very satisfying when we promote how the Trust and football club make it available for any fan to gain a seat in the boardroom if they wish to put themselves forward – something unavailable at many clubs up and down the country. 

The Red Imps Community Trust, as always, wishes to make a positive impact in the local community. Lincoln City Foundation is now our permanent charity partner, albeit we select another good cause each year alongside them. Our support of the Foundation has manifested itself in us making a number of donations to them following fundraising activities. Focused mainly on their Poacher’s Den we have been able to buy a range of games, equipment, and so on as well as an external ‘feather’ sign to show better where it’s located.

Our ‘Community Team’ promotes the businesses involved and raised good sums, and other good causes have felt our Community effect including Andy’s Man Club, the Legend on the Bench mental health support bench movement, and Christmas appeals. On the income side, RICT was selected as a Community Champion by Lincolnshire Co-operative, which aided our support of community activities accordingly. 

In terms of liaison with outside organisations, we now have a good working relationship with the Football Supporters Association. Julian sits on the Fan Advisory Board for us, and, as the Football Governance Bill emerged, we hosted Martyn Henderson, the then shadow Independent Regulator for Football Interim Chief Operating Officer, at one of our monthly meetings where he described progress and IRF aims and took part in our Q and A. It may be that our Trust plays a part consultatively in how the Regulator operates and promotes the involvement of supporters in their clubs in the future.

Other Trust activities in 2025 included a couple of our board and one of our members being part of the LCFC Mental Health First Responder team, the suggestion to LCFC to hold a ‘thank you’ event for the many volunteers who help the club (which we helped with when it was taken up), and the arrangements to set up a new Events, Sponsorship, and Fundraising strategy which will launch in season 26-27. Finally, I confirm as before that just like the board and staff at Lincoln City, our board members are temporary guardians of the Red Imps Community Trust, and we urge new people to come forward. I hope this report shows how rewarding involvement in the Trust, and in many way in Lincoln City as a result, can be.

NOTE: The report above forms part of the Trust Board Members’ Annual Report for the year ended 31st December 2025, which was presented at the Trust’s Annual General Meeting on 4th June 2026. Please click here to view draft Minutes of that Meeting.