FIRST STORY LIMITED

Registered charity 1122939 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as FIRST STORY

First Story brings talented, professional writers into schools serving low-income communities to work with teachers and students to foster creativity and communication skills.

Objects

3.1 TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG STUDENTS IN CHALLENGING UK SECONDARY SCHOOLS BY PROVIDING AND ASSISTING IN THE PROVISION OF FACILITIES NOT REQUIRED TO BE PROVIDED BY THE LOCAL EDUCATION AUTHORITY FOR EDUCATION IN CREATIVE WRITING;3.2 TO ADVANCE IN LIFE AND HELP YOUNG STUDENTS IN CHALLENGING UK SECONDARY SCHOOLS THROUGH THE PROVISION OF SUPPORT, OPPORTUNITIES AND ACTIVITIES WHICH FOSTER THEIR CREATIVITY, LITERACY AND TALENT TO BUILD SELF-CONFIDENCE, SKILLS AND ASPIRATION SO THEY MAY GROW TO FULL MATURITY AS INDIVIDUALS AND MEMBERS OF SOCIETY; AND3.3 TO PROMOTE THE ARTS AND, IN PARTICULAR, LITERATURE, POETRY AND CREATIVE WRITING BY:(A) INVITING, COMMISSIONING AND MAINTAINING SERVICES OF BRITISH WRITERS WHETHER SUCH SERVICES REQUIRE THE PAYMENT OF FEES BY THE CHARITY OR OTHERWISE; AND(B) ENCOURAGING AND ASSISTING IN PROMOTING, ADVANCING AND PUBLISHING THE WORKS OF BRITISH WRITERS.

Area of benefit: UK

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

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

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

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity achieved 102% of its fundraising target and closed the year with a surplus, adding £40,091 to unrestricted reserves. The trustees report that the charity is on a better and more sustainable financial basis going forward, with unrestricted reserves of £395,400 sitting between the stated minimum and target levels. The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme and holds no defined-benefit pension deficit.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). 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
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investment
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest 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.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 1 was received after the due date: year ending 30/06/2022 (received 02/05/2023, 2 days after the 30/04/2023 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — First Story (matched by registered charity number).

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/06/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~6.1 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (71% 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: 5.8% of total income — above the median for charities its size (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Edward James Baden-Powellchair · trustee of 1 other charity
• Bobby Nayyar
• Carey Scott
• Chloe Holland
• Dina Mistry
• Dr SUSAN MARGARET HORNER
• Geraldine Badcock
• Hannah Louise Brown
• Lauren Shapiro
• Sarah Alexandra Marshall

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

Operates in: Throughout England

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 FIRST GIVE.

• FIRST GIVE income £908k
• FUTURE FIRST ALUMNI LIMITED income £1.0m
• FIRST FRUIT income £2.0m
• FIRST STEP OPPORTUNITY GROUP income £294k
• FIRST STEP TRUST income £1.4m
• SETTLE STORIES LIMITED income £404k

Side by side with its peers

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