THE SOCIAL MOBILITY FOUNDATION

Registered charity 1115888 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THE LINKSON FELLOWSHIP · also registered in Scotland as SC051842 (OSCR)

The Social Mobility Foundation is a charity that helps talented young people 16-25 from low-income backgrounds achieve their potential. Our programmes offer mentoring, university and job application support, skills and careers advice and work experience. We advocate and campaign for social mobility and undertake research including the annual Social Mobility Employers Index.

Objects

The Charity’s objects (the “Objects”) are to advance the education of disadvantaged young people in the United Kingdom in particular, but not exclusively by:3.1.1 affording opportunities to obtain internships and other work experience with organisations working in the professions and the fields of commerce, banking, financial services, industry and administration or such other fields as the Trustees in their absolute discretion see fit; and3.1.2 advising and assisting young people to enter and progress in careers in the professions and the fields of commerce, banking, financial services, industry and administration or such other fields as the Trustees in their absolute discretion see fit.

Area of benefit: UNDEFINED. IN PRACTICE, LONDON AND GREATER LONDON.

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

Causes: Education/training · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Hackney, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity returned to a surplus of £154,008 for the year ended 30 September 2025, with total income of £3,267,972 against expenditure of £3,113,964. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted reserves were £544,880, which is below the stated policy target of approximately £695,000 (2.5 months of running costs). The trustees confirmed adequate resources for the foreseeable future with no material uncertainties identified.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Goodman Jones LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

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
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds 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.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 05488354

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — The Social Mobility Foundation (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Sarah Atkinson — Chief Executive Officer (source)
• Alan Milburn — Chair (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.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• KETT, Paul Michael — director, appointed 05/02/2026on trustee list
• MILLER, Elizabeth Jane, Dr — director, appointed 05/02/2026on trustee list
• RAILTON, Nigel — director, appointed 05/07/2023on trustee list
• ROCKHILL, Tom Peter — director, appointed 05/07/2023on trustee list
• OWEN, Ruth Elizabeth — director, appointed 23/02/2022on trustee list
• DAWSON, Fiona Eleanor — director, appointed 17/02/2021on trustee list
• RODHAM, Benjamin John — director, appointed 10/01/2019on trustee list
• DOHERTY, Ann Teresa — director, appointed 01/04/2015on trustee list
• ATKINSON, Sarah Elizabeth — secretary, appointed 02/01/2020

Official officers record.

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/09/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~2.1 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (94% 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: 1.8% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (05/01/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Nigel Railtonchair
• Ann Doherty
• Benjamin John Rodham
• Dr Elizabeth Jane Miller
• Fiona Dawson
• Lee Edward Cain
• Namrata Patel
• Paul Michael Kett
• Ruth Elizabeth Owen
• Tom Peter Rockhill

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

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

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 THE MOVE PARTNERSHIP.

• THE MOVE PARTNERSHIP income £172k
• THE TALENT FOUNDRY TRUST income £2.0m
• BRIDGING BARRIERS income £145k
• DRIVING MOBILITY income £2.0m
• VISION25 income £942k
• Legal Social Mobility Fund income £38k

Side by side with its peers

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