Cheshire West Voluntary Action

Registered charity 1136465 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as CHESTER VOLUNTARY ACTION

At Cheshire West Voluntary Action (CWVA) we are proud to have been supporting the local community since 1914. Our vision is championing the community sector - building trust, influencing, inspiring. We work with community organisations, as well as partners in other sectors, across west Cheshire.

Objects

THE CHARITY'S OBJECTS (THE OBJECTS) ARE: 4(1) TO PROMOTE ANY CHARITABLE PURPOSES FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC, PRINCIPALLY BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF CHESHIRE WEST AND CHESTER AND ITS ENVIRONS (HEREINAFTER CALLED THE AREA OF BENEFIT) AND, IN PARTICULAR, BUILD THE CAPACITY OF THIRD SECTOR ORGANISATIONS AND PROVIDE THEM WITH THE NECESSARY SUPPORT, INFORMATION AND SERVICES TO ENABLE THEM TO PURSUE OR CONTRIBUTE TO ANY CHARITABLE PURPOSE. 4(2) TO PROMOTE, ORGANISE AND FACILITATE CO-OPERATION AND PARTNERSHIP WORKING BETWEEN THIRD SECTOR, STATUTORY AND OTHER RELEVANT BODIES IN THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE ABOVE PURPOSES WITHIN THE AREA OF BENEFIT.4(3) FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS ARTICLE 4:(A) THIRD SECTOR MEANS CHARITIES, VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES.(B) CHARITIES ARE ORGANISATIONS WHICH ARE ESTABLISHED FOR EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE PURPOSES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW OF ENGLAND AND WALES. (C) VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES ARE INDEPENDENT ORGANISATIONS, WHICH ARE ESTABLISHED FOR PURPOSES THAT ADD VALUE TO THE COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE, OR A SIGNIFICANT SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY, AND WHICH ARE NOT PERMITTED BY THEIR CONSTITUTION TO MAKE A PROFIT FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES DO NOT INCLUDE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OR OTHER STATUTORY AUTHORITIES.

Area of benefit: CHESHIRE WEST AND CHESTER

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 · Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity · Other Charitable Purposes · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Cheshire West and Chester, North West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The charity reported a net deficit of £16,596 for the year ended 31 March 2025, with total income of £1,127,205 and total expenditure of £1,141,804. Unrestricted reserves decreased slightly by £5,489 to £276,468, a figure the trustees state remains within their policy tolerance of three to six months' expenditure. The accounts were prepared on a going concern basis with no material uncertainties identified by the independent auditor.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Champion Accountants LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Reserves position vs the charity's own policy moved from "above" (FY2024) to "within" (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed 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
• Campaigns and political activity 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
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• 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.

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Gary Cliffe — Chief Executive (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.

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~2.9 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (100% 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: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (03/09/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (13/08/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (24/11/2011) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Victoria Buzzachair
• Alistair Kevin Jeffs
• Benjamin David Rigby
• Diane Brown
• Dr Holly White
• Jack Davies
• Shantele Sutherland

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

Operates in: Cheshire West & Chester

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 WALES COUNCIL FOR VOLUNTARY ACTION.

• WALES COUNCIL FOR VOLUNTARY ACTION income £36.6m
• OXFORDSHIRE COMMUNITY AND VOLUNTARY ACTION income £1.7m
• COMMUNITY AND VOLUNTARY SERVICES CHESHIRE EAST income £590k
• DEVON VOLUNTARY ACTION income £55k
• VOLUNTARY ACTION ARUN AND CHICHESTER income £329k
• CHARITY EVALUATION WORKING GROUP (CHEW) income £28k

Side by side with its peers

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