THE GUARDIAN FOUNDATION

Registered charity 1153865 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THE SCOTT TRUST FOUNDATION

The charity's focus is on the charitable advancement of education, human rights and the right to information. In support of this its main activities are currently: 1. news literacy programmes for children 2. international media capacity-building programmes 3. the Scott Trust Bursary scheme and Hugo Young Award for jounalism students 4. maintenance and operation of the Guardian and Observer archive

Objects

THE OBJECTS OF THE CHARITY ARE, FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT, THE ADVANCEMENT OF ANY CHARITABLE PURPOSE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF ENGLAND AND WALES.

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 · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

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

Financial health, per its FY2026 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted reserves stood at £220,916, which is above the charity's stated policy target of maintaining three months of core activity funding. The charity reported a net deficit of £5,683 for the year, largely driven by £304,062 in severance costs following staff restructuring, while total incoming resources were £1,892,084. The trustees and auditors confirm the charity is a going concern with no material uncertainties, supported by continued funding commitments from The Scott Trust Limited through 2031/32.

Automated summary of the FY2026 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Knox Cropper LLP. Discloses 4 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
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• 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.

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 31/03/2023 (received 05/02/2024, 5 days after the 31/01/2024 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.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 08437335

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.

• LAING-BAKER, Thomas Robert — director, appointed 12/02/2024on trustee list
• VAZQUEZ-LLORENTE, Raquel — director, appointed 12/02/2024on trustee list
• SCOTT, Russell James — director, appointed 19/07/2023on trustee list
• MAGEE, Keith Lovell — director, appointed 13/07/2022on trustee list
• RAMESH, Randeep — director, appointed 16/08/2021on trustee list
• BLACKWELL, Nina, Ms. — director, appointed 25/05/2020on trustee list
• PATRY, Melody — director, appointed 10/01/2018on trustee list
• YOUNGE, Gary Andrew — director, appointed 10/01/2018on trustee list

Official officers record.

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2026)

Reported reserves equal ~0.0 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (72% 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 (23/02/2017) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Gary Andrew Younge
• Melody Patry
• Nina Blackwell
• Prof Rev Keith Magee
• Randeep Ramesh
• Raquel VAZQUEZ-LLORENTE
• Russell Scott
• Thomas Robert Laing-Baker

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

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

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 ROBERT GAVRON CHARITABLE TRUST.

• THE ROBERT GAVRON CHARITABLE TRUST income £225k
• HUMANITY CONCERN PROJECTS income £83k
• THE GORDON FOUNDATION income £21.8m
• W G S TRUST income £862k
• GRAHAM ROWLANDSON FOUNDATION income £314k
• DONATING CHARITY LIMITED income £1.9m

Side by side with its peers

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