THE EDWARD JAMES FOUNDATION LIMITED
Registered charity 1126084 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register
The Foundation delivers education through West Dean College and, as a secondary activity, maintains and preserves the West Dean Estate.
Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that the charity recorded a net expenditure of £4.169m, marking its sixth consecutive deficit since the pandemic, which the trustees describe as unsustainable in the medium to long term. To address this, a Financial Recovery Plan has been endorsed with the aim of achieving at least a break-even position by 2028/29, while the charity continues to utilize its significant asset strength and investment reserves to absorb the operating losses. General unrestricted reserves have deteriorated to £4.43m, falling below the stated policy target of £9.62m.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Reserves policy: not less than 6 months’ expenditure (equivalent to a minimum of £9.62m as at 30 September 2025) (held: £4.4m)
“The Reserves Policy of the Foundation is to hold as a general unrestricted reserve an amount equivalent to not less than 6 months’ expenditure (equivalent to a minimum of £9.62m as at 30 September 2025)”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by Moore Kingston Smith LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.
Property (HM Land Registry)
7 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (6 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 30/09/2025)
Cost of raising funds
£4.8m
Reported reserves equal ~2.8 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (63% 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: 31.9% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 3.8%) (benchmarks).
- PROFESSOR PAUL O'PREY PHDchair
- Caroline Winifred Griffith
- Dr Ghazwa Alwani-Starr
- Francis Plowden
- Kevin Graham Edgeley
- MARTIN WILLIAM ASHLEY
- Naomi Davenport
- Richard Ewbank · trustee of 1 other charity
- Yen-Yen Teh
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Throughout England
Income and spending
Common questions
Is THE EDWARD JAMES FOUNDATION LIMITED financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity recorded a net expenditure of £4.169m, marking its sixth consecutive deficit since the pandemic, which the trustees describe as unsustainable in the medium to long term. To address this, a Financial Recovery Plan has been endorsed with the aim of achieving at least a break-even position by 2028/29, while the charity continues to utilize its significant asset strength and investment reserves to absorb the operating losses. General unrestricted reserves have deteriorated to £4.43m, falling below the stated policy target of £9.62m. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Moore Kingston Smith LLP.
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 DHS Educational Foundation.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.