CHESS Homeless

Registered charity 1093901 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as CHELMSFORD CHESS, CHESS

Initially to provide emergency accommodation and support for the homeless in Essex. Then to assess each individuals needs and work towards finding long term solutions as appropriate.

Causes: Education/training · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Accommodation/housing · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted reserves of £1,091,129 are below the charity's stated policy target of £493,629 to £987,258, with the trustees noting a deficit relative to the lower end of that range. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted operating costs increased significantly by 24.46% to £1,618,000, driven by higher rental, maintenance, and utility expenses. The trustees expect reserves to improve due to an uplift in Housing Benefit and are considering recalculating reserve requirements to a more realistic figure of £250,000.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Lovewell Blake LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — CHESS Homeless (matched by registered charity number).

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

• Auris Ear Care — “Auris Ear Care , your partnership has resulted in extraordinary photo opportunities for our charity. We are immensely grateful for your supp…” (source page)

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold); recorded price paid £600k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

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

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

Reported reserves equal ~2.5 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (74% 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 (09/07/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Andrew Stephen Murphy
• Graeme Hall
• Julie Ingham
• Nadine Hendrie · trustee of 1 other charity
• Richard Alfred Madden · trustee of 1 other charity

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

Operates in: Essex

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

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

Government & lottery funding

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

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 CHESTER AID TO THE HOMELESS.

• CHESTER AID TO THE HOMELESS income £425k
• KINGSTON CHURCHES ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS income £1.2m
• HOMELESS ACTION income £3.8m
• Church Homeless Charity income £421k
• HOMELESS PEOPLE AND THE OXFORD CHURCHES(GATEHOUSE) income £429k
• HOUSING THE HOMELESS CENTRAL FUND income £80k

Side by side with its peers

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