SUSTAIN: THE ALLIANCE FOR BETTER FOOD & FARMING

Registered charity 1018643 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity. We represent around 100 national public interest organisations, and are independent from the agri-food industry.

Causes: The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Environment/conservation/heritage · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

Latest income

£2.7m

Latest spending

£2.4m

Registered

1993

Accounts read

FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted general reserves were £810,597, which the trustees deemed adequate to meet current and estimated future liabilities against a policy target of six months' anticipated expenditure. The charity reported a net income of £281,434 for the year, with total income of £2,662,451 and total expenditure of £2,381,017, resulting in a positive cash flow from operating activities of £249,539.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Reserves policy: six months' anticipated expenditure (held: £811k)

“the Trustees have adopted a reserves policy that should ensure that: Excluding those funds represented by fixed assets, general reserves do not exceed more than six months’ anticipated expenditure.”

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Sustain received a grant of £251,737 via the Soil Association, a Sustain member. Three Sustain trustees are staff at Soil Association and Food Matters.

“Sustain received a grant of £251,737 (2024: £315,499) via the Soil Association, which is the overall programme manager for the Sustainable Food Places network – a programme run jointly by Food Matters, Soil Association (both Sustain members) and Sustain. Three of Sustain's trustees are a member of staff for the Soil Association and Food Matters.” — page 39

“Sustain paid the Obesity Health Alliance £21,891, who are partners on the Recipe for Change project. A Sustain trustee is a member of staff for the Obesity Health Alliance.” — page 39

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Sustain paid the Obesity Health Alliance £21,891. A Sustain trustee is staff at the Obesity Health Alliance.

“Sustain received a grant of £251,737 (2024: £315,499) via the Soil Association, which is the overall programme manager for the Sustainable Food Places network – a programme run jointly by Food Matters, Soil Association (both Sustain members) and Sustain. Three of Sustain's trustees are a member of staff for the Soil Association and Food Matters.” — page 39

“Sustain paid the Obesity Health Alliance £21,891, who are partners on the Recipe for Change project. A Sustain trustee is a member of staff for the Obesity Health Alliance.” — page 39

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Sustain paid Growing Communities £43,678. A member of Sustain’s Senior Leadership Team is on the board (unpaid) at Growing Communities.

“Sustain received a grant of £251,737 (2024: £315,499) via the Soil Association, which is the overall programme manager for the Sustainable Food Places network – a programme run jointly by Food Matters, Soil Association (both Sustain members) and Sustain. Three of Sustain's trustees are a member of staff for the Soil Association and Food Matters.” — page 39

“Sustain paid the Obesity Health Alliance £21,891, who are partners on the Recipe for Change project. A Sustain trustee is a member of staff for the Obesity Health Alliance.” — page 39

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Sustain paid Alexandra Rose Charity £34,936. A Sustain trustee is staff at the Alexandra Rose Charity.

“Sustain received a grant of £251,737 (2024: £315,499) via the Soil Association, which is the overall programme manager for the Sustainable Food Places network – a programme run jointly by Food Matters, Soil Association (both Sustain members) and Sustain. Three of Sustain's trustees are a member of staff for the Soil Association and Food Matters.” — page 39

“Sustain paid the Obesity Health Alliance £21,891, who are partners on the Recipe for Change project. A Sustain trustee is a member of staff for the Obesity Health Alliance.” — page 39

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Sustain paid the Landworker’s Alliance £10,520. A Sustain trustee is staff at the Landworker’s Alliance.

“Sustain received a grant of £251,737 (2024: £315,499) via the Soil Association, which is the overall programme manager for the Sustainable Food Places network – a programme run jointly by Food Matters, Soil Association (both Sustain members) and Sustain. Three of Sustain's trustees are a member of staff for the Soil Association and Food Matters.” — page 39

“Sustain paid the Obesity Health Alliance £21,891, who are partners on the Recipe for Change project. A Sustain trustee is a member of staff for the Obesity Health Alliance.” — page 39

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Goldwins. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Leadership, per the charity’s website

Kath Dalmeny — Chief Executive (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Total income

£2.7m

Total spending

£2.4m

Cost of raising funds

£21k

Reserves (reported)

£811k

Employees

30

Reported reserves equal ~4.1 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (97% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.8% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

Received assets from another charity (16/05/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

MIKE RAYNERchair · trustee of 1 other charity
ALISON JANE SWAN PARENTE BA DL
Andre Kpodonu · trustee of 1 other charity
Bridget Jennifer Henderson
Cobi-Jane Oluwatobi Akinrele
David Edwards Mr
Deirdre Alison Woods · trustee of 1 other charity
Dr Kawther Hashem
Josie Cohen
Jyoti Fernandes
KATHARINE HELEN BOYD
Rob Percival
Shefalee Loth
Stephanie Slater
Victoria Williams · trustee of 1 other charity

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/03/2025	£2.7m	£2.4m
31/03/2024	£2.8m	£2.2m
31/03/2023	£1.8m	£1.8m
31/03/2022	£1.6m	£1.5m
31/03/2021	£2.6m	£2.2m

Common questions

Is SUSTAIN: THE ALLIANCE FOR BETTER FOOD & FARMING financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that unrestricted general reserves were £810,597, which the trustees deemed adequate to meet current and estimated future liabilities against a policy target of six months' anticipated expenditure. The charity reported a net income of £281,434 for the year, with total income of £2,662,451 and total expenditure of £2,381,017, resulting in a positive cash flow from operating activities of £249,539. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Goldwins.

Who funds SUSTAIN: THE ALLIANCE FOR BETTER FOOD & FARMING?

Funders whose own accounts filings name SUSTAIN: THE ALLIANCE FOR BETTER FOOD & FARMING as a grant recipient include THIRTY PERCY FOUNDATION, GUY'S AND ST THOMAS' FOUNDATION.

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funder	Year	Amount	Purpose (as stated by the funder)
THIRTY PERCY FOUNDATION	FY2022	£300k	Systems Fund
GUY'S AND ST THOMAS' FOUNDATION	FY2023	£275k	Impact on Urban Health
THIRTY PERCY FOUNDATION	FY2023	£150k

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funder	Date	Amount	Purpose
Farming The Future	22/05/2026	£55k	Unlocking the power of public procurement
Farming The Future	02/09/2025	£35k	Growing Routes to Market for the Local Food Sector
City Bridge Foundation	26/11/2024	£127k	Grant to Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming
Barrow Cadbury Trust	15/11/2022	£81k	Good Food Enterprise: From food aid to food trade
Farming The Future	07/12/2021	£99k	Fringe Farming- scaling out agroecology at the edges of UK cities, Year 2
City Bridge Foundation	08/12/2020	£247k	Grant to Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming
Farming The Future	01/11/2020	£50k	Fringe Farming: Increasing Access to Public Land for Peri-urban Farming
Farming The Future	18/05/2020	£19k	Market Garden Cities: Creating Capital Growth
Farming The Future	31/01/2020	£25k	Making Voices Heard
UK government	01/04/2019	£55k	Age-friendly and Inclusive Volunteering
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	06/12/2018	£10k	"Growing Culture: Celebrating London's past and future food growing heritage"
Greater London Authority	24/09/2018	£5k	Good Food and Food Bank reports
Greater London Authority	30/07/2018	£15k	Grant to Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming
Greater London Authority	12/09/2017	£6k	Grant to Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming
The National Lottery Community Fund	31/05/2016	£50k	Sustain CAP development grant
City Bridge Foundation	23/09/2015	£145k	Grant to Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming
Greater London Authority	13/05/2015	£34k	Grant to Sustain - The Alliance for better food and farming
City Bridge Foundation	17/02/2011	£90k	Grant to Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Funder	Similar charities funded	Amount to them
JOHN ELLERMAN FOUNDATION	2	£185k
THE AURORA TRUST	2	£157k
THE MARK LEONARD TRUST	2	£78k
THE A TEAM FOUNDATION LIMITED	2	£54k
THE OAKDALE TRUST	2	£2k
THE ROTHSCHILD FOUNDATION	1	£417k
COMPASSION IN WORLD FARMING INTERNATIONAL	1	£245k
THE CONSTANCE TRAVIS CHARITABLE TRUST	1	£160k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with REAL FARMING TRUST.

REAL FARMING TRUST income £930k
PROGRESSIVE FARMING TRUST LIMITED income £1.0m
EATING BETTER income £450k
FOOD MATTERS FOUNDATION income £303k
SUSTAINABLE FIBRE ALLIANCE income £1.7m
FARM URBAN income £143k

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
SUSTAIN: THE ALLIANCE FOR BETTER FOOD & FARMING	£2.7m	—	—	within	—	no doubt
REAL FARMING TRUST FY2025	£930k	—	0	within	—	no doubt
PROGRESSIVE FARMING TRUST LIMITED FY2025	£1.0m	—	0	above	11.7%	no doubt
EATING BETTER FY2025	£450k	—	0	within	—	no doubt
FOOD MATTERS FOUNDATION FY2025	£303k	—	0	above	—	no doubt
SUSTAINABLE FIBRE ALLIANCE FY2025	£1.7m	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.