WILDERNESS FOUNDATION UK

Registered charity 1118493 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q55637661 · Wikipedia · also known as WF-UK, WFUK, WILDERNESS FOUNDATION · also registered in Scotland as SC041697 (OSCR)

The Wilderness Foundation UK mission is to harness the positive power of nature to change lives. Each year we work with over 8,000 young people across the UK, including some of the hardest-to-reach most disadvantaged youth, to offer programs that utilize the irreplaceable quality of wilderness and nature as a catalyst for transformational personal growth and change.

Objects

TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC BY INCREASING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF WILDERNESS AND THE CONSERVATION THEREOF AND THE INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WILDERNESS AND THE ENVIRONMENT GENERALLY BY THE PROVISION OF INSTRUCTION AND OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIRECT EXPERIENCE OF WILDERNESS.TO INITIATE AND MANAGE SOCIAL BENEFIT PROGRAMMES WHICH USE WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE TO ENABLE VULNERABLE AND DISADVANTAGED YOUNG PEOPLE TO PLAY A FULLER ROLE IN SOCIETY (ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG)

Area of benefit: NATIONAL AND OVERSEAS

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

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Chelmsford, East of England, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity generated a modest surplus of £54,325 for the year ended 31 December 2025, with total income increasing by 16% to £928,936 compared to the prior year. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted reserves declined to £143,460, while total reserves stood at £1,124,603, excluding the fixed asset value of Mann Wood.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Edmund Carr 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
• Complaints handling
• Complaints 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.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Wilderness Foundation UK (matched by registered charity number).

Property (HM Land Registry)

3 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (3 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~2.0 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (78% 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: 5.7% of total income — above the median for charities its size (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• GERALD VINCENT BODENHAM THOMPSONchair · trustee of 1 other charity
• ANDREW SHEEPSHANKS
• Alan Somerville
• Alexandra Johnson
• Deborah Claire Fielding
• Glyn Parry
• Julie Ann Rogers
• MRS JO ROBERTS
• Murray Dunan Soutar
• Perdeep Grewal
• Ross Brockman
• Stephen John Carver
• Tomilewa Platts

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

Operates in: Essex · Scotland

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 WOODLAND TRUST.

• THE WOODLAND TRUST income £89.4m
• THE WILDLIFE AID FOUNDATION income £2.1m
• WILD TEAM CONSERVATION income £210k
• WOODLAND HERITAGE LIMITED income £1.7m
• WILD WELFARE income £283k
• WALESBY FOREST income £1.5m

Side by side with its peers

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