NESTA

Registered charity 1144091 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as NESTA OPERATING COMPANY

The UK's innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale new solutions to society's biggest problems, changing millions of lives for the better. We will focus our energy and resources on three innovation missions: a fairer start for every child; a healthy life for all, and a sustainable future where the economy works better for people and the planet.

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total group funds decreased by £4.3 million to £473.6 million, comprising £36.0 million in unrestricted reserves and £429.1 million in expendable endowment. Per the trustees' report, the charity relies on drawdowns from The Nesta Trust to fund operations, with £35.8 million transferred from the Trust during the year. The trustees confirm adequate resources for at least 12 months and identify no material uncertainties regarding going concern.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by RSM UK Audit LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 07706036
• Trading subsidiary: BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS LTD Companies House 08567792
• Trading subsidiary: NESTA ENTERPRISES LIMITED Companies House 08580327

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.

• MAZUMDER, Shaunak — director, appointed 01/09/2026not on trustee list
• NOON, David Allan — director, appointed 02/03/2026on trustee list
• THOMPSON, Jane Alexandra — director, appointed 01/10/2024on trustee list
• VINNICOMBE, Helena Victoria Brodie — director, appointed 09/09/2024on trustee list
• KING, Jeremy Bennett Biddle — director, appointed 01/10/2022on trustee list
• BRIEN, Catherine Mary — director, appointed 01/10/2022on trustee list
• RICHARDS, Edward Charles — director, appointed 01/04/2022on trustee list
• LEWIS, Jacqueline — secretary, appointed 20/11/2020

Official officers record.

Trustpilot: National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts scores 3.2/5 from 1 reviews (source) — reviews usually concern the charity’s shops or services, not its charitable performance.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (21,783 likes) · instagram (9,546 followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~5.9 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Other trading activities (49% 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: 42.0% of total income — above the 90th percentile for charities its size (median 3.8%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Catherine Mary Brien
• David Allan Noon
• Edward Richards
• Helena Vinnicombe · trustee of 1 other charity
• Jane Alexandra Thompson
• Jeremy Bennett Biddle King · trustee of 1 other charity
• Shaunak Mazumder
• Swarna Ramanathan
• Tamara Finkelstein · trustee of 1 other charity

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

Operates in: Scotland

Income and spending

Common questions

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 NESTA TRUST.

• THE NESTA TRUST income £17.3m
• NEW ECONOMICS FOUNDATION income £5.0m
• THE CENTRE FOR INNOVATION IN VOLUNTARY ACTION income £1.2m
• NEW FUTURES NEPAL LIMITED income £122k
• NATWEST SOCIAL & COMMUNITY CAPITAL income £522k
• NESTON COMMUNITY YOUTH CENTRE LIMITED income £289k

Side by side with its peers

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