THE SARA LEE TRUST FUND

Registered charity 1055048 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

An independent, local charity providing complementary therapies, counselling and creative therapies to people in Hastings and Rother living through cancer and other serious illness; with support for their families and carers.

Causes: Education/training · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · website · Get email alerts

Latest income
£471k
Latest spending
£423k
Registered
1996
Accounts read
FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the Trust ended the financial year with a non-recurrent surplus of £48,692, resulting in total funds of £2,332,914. However, the trustees report an annual funding gap of over £250,000 and note that the unpredictable financial environment presents a considerable ongoing challenge to sustainability. The charity aims to reach a sustainable breakeven position by 2029, relying on securing additional funding to avoid interim cost-cutting measures.

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

What the accounts disclose

Reserves policy: nine months of recurrent operational expenditure (held: £355k)
unrestricted funds which have not been designated for a specific use should be maintained at a level equivalent to approximately 9 months of recurrent operational expenditure (i.e. £315,000). — page 20
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Trading subsidiary: Sara Lee Trading Ltd
The Trust has a trading company called the Sara Lee Trading Ltd — page 37
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — The Sara Lee Trust Fund (matched by registered charity number).

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/04/2024)

Total income
£608k
Total spending
£399k
Cost of raising funds
£77k
Reserves (reported)
£131k
Employees
18

Reported reserves equal ~4.0 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 7.0 months; benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

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

Operates in: East Sussex

Income and spending

Financial year endIncomeSpending
30/04/2025£471k£423k
30/04/2024£608k£399k
30/04/2023£654k£654k
30/04/2022£396k£377k
30/04/2021£337k£332k

Common questions

Is THE SARA LEE TRUST FUND financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the Trust ended the financial year with a non-recurrent surplus of £48,692, resulting in total funds of £2,332,914. However, the trustees report an annual funding gap of over £250,000 and note that the unpredictable financial environment presents a considerable ongoing challenge to sustainability. The charity aims to reach a sustainable breakeven position by 2029, relying on securing additional funding to avoid interim cost-cutting measures. Its FY2025 accounts were independently examined.

Government & lottery funding

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

FunderDateAmountPurpose
The National Lottery Community Fund03/03/2023£9kSara Lee Trust - IT systems for patient services
The National Lottery Community Fund20/10/2022£98kThe Sara Lee Trust Therapy Centre Sidley
The National Lottery Community Fund28/06/2018£8kCancer Aware Community Therapy Support

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.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with Salisbury Hospice Charity Limited.

Side by side with its peers

CharityIncomeTop pay bandStaff >£60kReserves vs policyFundraising costGoing concern
THE SARA LEE TRUST FUND£471k0unclearno doubt
Salisbury Hospice Charity Limited FY2025£2.7m0aboveno doubt
THE BRIGITTE TRUST FY2025£335k0unclearnoted
EAST SUSSEX HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST CHARITABLE FUND FY2025£225k0unclearno doubt
BRACKEN TRUST LIMITED FY2025£250k0unclearno doubt
THE LEONARDO TRUST FY2025£10.8m£60,001 - £70,0001unclearno doubt

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