NATURAL ABILITY
Registered charity 1136665 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register
Natural Ability offers agricultural and land-based training, employment, supported living, activity holidays and specialist education packages to people with learning and other disabilities. Respect for the environment, learning about farming, caring for animals and plants and living in a sustainable way are also fundamental to the organisation.
Causes: Education/training · Disability · Accommodation/housing · Environment/conservation/heritage · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that the charity reported a net income of £111,442 and unrestricted funds of £478,599 at the year-end. Per the trustees' report, the charity holds free reserves of £362,529, which exceeds its stated policy requirement of £335,000. The trustees confirm that the charity is in a healthy financial position with no material uncertainties regarding its ability to continue as a going concern.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Largest income source: Earned income (94% of income)
“The proportion of earned income for the year ending 31 March 2025 was 94% (2024: 91%).”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Reserves policy: 6 months’ core operating costs, redundancies, lease obligations and a contingency for unexpected expenses (held: £479k)
“It is the policy of the charity to seek to establish and maintain a reserves fund based on a business risk assessment to cover 6 months’ core operating costs, redundancies, lease obligations and a contingency for unexpected expenses. The reserves policy figure deemed necessary at 31 March 2025 was £335,000.”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.
Corporate structure
Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Natural Ability (matched by registered charity number).
Leadership, per the charity’s website
- Bruce Howorth — Chair (source)
- Nicola Crawford — CEO (source)
- kathy lowe — Director of Business Services (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.
- NICHOLSON, Calum Keith — director, appointed 11/06/2025on trustee list
- GARDENER, Daisy Anne — director, appointed 22/11/2021on trustee list
- HOWORTH, Bruce Neville — director, appointed 14/10/2014on trustee list
- HOLMES, Moya — director, appointed 14/10/2014on trustee list
- QUINN, Michael John — director, appointed 14/10/2014on trustee list
- PHILIPSON, Robert Edward Henderson — director, appointed 22/07/2009on trustee list
- CRAWFORD, Nicola — secretary, appointed 11/07/2018
Official officers record.
CQC provider record: Natural Ability — Registered, 4 registered locations, 1 regulated activity, last inspected 25/10/2019.charity number confirmed by CQC CQC record
Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)
Cost of raising funds
£28k
Reported reserves equal ~3.1 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (98% 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: 1.4% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).
Care Quality Commission ratings
CQC inspection ratings for services run by a provider matching this charity’s name (matched by name; verify provider identity on CQC’s site).
- Bruce Howorthchair · trustee of 1 other charity
- Calum Keith Nicholson
- Daisy Anne Gardener
- MOYA HOLMES · trustee of 1 other charity
- Michael Quinn
- ROBERT PHILIPSON
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Throughout England
Income and spending
Common questions
Is NATURAL ABILITY financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity reported a net income of £111,442 and unrestricted funds of £478,599 at the year-end. Per the trustees' report, the charity holds free reserves of £362,529, which exceeds its stated policy requirement of £335,000. The trustees confirm that the charity is in a healthy financial position with no material uncertainties regarding its ability to continue as a going concern. Its FY2025 accounts were audited.
Who funds NATURAL ABILITY?
Funders whose own accounts filings name NATURAL ABILITY as a grant recipient include THE NINEVEH CHARITABLE TRUST, THE INMAN CHARITY, THE CATHERINE COOKSON CHARITABLE TRUST.
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 PATHWAYS CARE FARM.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.