DISABILITY CHALLENGERS

Registered charity 1095134 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as CHALLENGERS

Challengers provides play & leisure opportunities for disabled children and young people between the ages of 2 & 18 years old. Our schemes give children & young people a space of their own to have fun, meet friends and challenge their impairments through play.Challengers operate a non-exclusion policy which means that any child can attend Challengers regardless of the severity of their impairment.

Objects

TO PROVIDE FACILITIES IN THE SOUTH EAST OF ENGLAND THROUGH RECREATION, ARTISTIC, SPORTING AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES AND OTHER FOR THE LEISURE TIME OCCUPATION OF DISABLED CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS INCLUDING THOSE CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS WITH A PHYSICAL AND/OR LEARNING DISABILITY, BEING FACILITIES OF WHICH SUCH CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS MAY HAVE NEED BY REASON OF THEIR YOUTH, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CIRCUMSTANCES AND THEIR DISABILITIES, BY1. PROVIDING TRULY INCLUSIVE, FUN AND SAFE PLACES WHERE ALL DISABLED CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE AGED UP TO 25 YEARS CAN SPEND TIME WITH THEIR FRIENDS2. PROVIDING A POSITIVE IMPACT FOR FAMILIES AND THE WIDER COMMUNITY ALONGSIDE SERVICE DELIVERY ACROSS SOUTH EAST ENGLAND3. TO NEVER EXCLUDE A CHILD OR YOUNG PERSON AND ENSURING SERVICES ARE DESIGNED TO MEET THE NEEDS AND DESIRES OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE4. DELIVERING HIGH QUALITY TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT AND VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES THAT ARE DEVELOPED TO ENHANCE THE WELLBEING OF DISABLED CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE5. LEADING BY EXAMPLE AND BE A CHAMPION FOR INCLUSION THROUGH THE OFFER OF PARTICIPATION, TRAINING, INFORMATION AND GUIDANCE SO THAT OTHERS CAN DO THE SAME6. PROVIDING OTHER SERVICES THAT ENABLE THE CHARITY TO DELIVER SUPPORT TO YOUNG PEOPLE AND CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS ACHIEVING THE VISION OF A WORLD WHERE ALL DISABLED CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE CAN PLAY TOGETHER FREELY.

Area of benefit: GUILDFORD.

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Disability · Recreation · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Guildford, South East, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a small overall deficit of £31k for the year, driven by depreciation charges in designated funds, while unrestricted funds showed a surplus. Free reserves were £593k, which is below the stated policy target of £739k-£1,248k, but the trustees and auditors confirm the organization remains a strong and viable going concern with sufficient resources to meet immediate needs.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Sayer Vincent LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

In its annual return the charity told the Commission it is also regulated by: Ofsted (Office For Standards In Education). This is the charity’s own declaration; it is not a rating and has not been verified by the Commission or by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Disability Challengers (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Gen Dearman — CEO (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.

Funders the charity credits

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

• Kelly’s Storage — “Kelly’s Storage Charity Events was born and an amazing relationship between the Green & Orange teams was established. We have worked on almo…” (source page)
• NFU Mutual — “NFU Mutual first supported Challengers through their COVID Funding programme in 2020, donating an amazing £3,164. This vital donation helped…” (source page)
• Waitrose — “Waitrose ha ve supported Challengers for many years through their Community Matters programme . Collectively across all stores in the South-…” (source page)

Public-sector contracts awarded

From the official Contracts Finder and Find a Tender notices (supplier matched by exact registered name). Contract income is distinct from grants.

Property (HM Land Registry)

2 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold). 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 ~2.2 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (65% 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: 12.8% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Alison Stenlake
• Ashley Francis Rees Carter
• Bernard McAlister
• Danae Salwan
• David Beresford Stam
• Holly Rebecca Goodwin
• Jake Hatt
• Russell Stuart Harvey
• Ruth Stephanie Milton

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

Operates in: Hampshire · Kingston Upon Thames · Richmond Upon Thames · Surrey · West Sussex

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

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

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

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 THE CHALLENGER TRUST.

• THE CHALLENGER TRUST income £50k
• FRIENDS - PLAY FOR DISABLED CHILDREN income £76k
• PROJECT CHALLENGE income £691k
• CREATING ADVENTURES income £71k
• VISION25 income £942k
• ADUR SPECIAL NEEDS PROJECT income £83k

Side by side with its peers

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