THE CARBON LITERACY TRUST

Registered charity 1156722 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The Carbon Literacy Project was created to deliver on an objective in Manchester's climate plan to offer everyone who lives, works or studies in the city a day's worth of learning about climate change. This unique and ambitious project is now expanding to underpin action to reduce emissions and accelerate growth in the low-carbon economy across the UK and beyond.

Causes: Education/training · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Latest income
£1.3m
Latest spending
£1.5m
Registered
2014
Accounts read
FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a deficit for the year of £134,611, with unrestricted funds dropping to £9,383. However, the trustees note that cash balances were extremely positive at £629,708, supported by significant deferred income of £627,584 which they argue does not represent monies to be returned to customers. Per the trustees' report, reserves are considered to be in line with their policy target of holding three months' operating costs, despite the low reported unrestricted balance.

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

What the accounts disclose

Reserves policy: three months of unrestricted expenditure (held: £9k)
“reserves were in line with our policy to hold the equivalent of 3 months' operating costs (ca. £300,000)” — page 6
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Third Sector Accountancy Limited. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — The Carbon Literacy Project (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

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.

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/09/2025)

Total income
£1.3m
Total spending
£1.5m
Cost of raising funds
£59k
Reserves (reported)
£9k
Employees
2

Reported reserves equal ~0.1 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (78% 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: 4.5% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

Trustees · trustee networks

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

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Financial year endIncomeSpending
30/09/2025£1.3m£1.5m
30/09/2024£1.3m£1.3m
30/09/2023£960k£730k
30/09/2022£638k£429k
30/09/2021£184k£115k

Common questions

Is THE CARBON LITERACY TRUST financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity reported a deficit for the year of £134,611, with unrestricted funds dropping to £9,383. However, the trustees note that cash balances were extremely positive at £629,708, supported by significant deferred income of £627,584 which they argue does not represent monies to be returned to customers. Per the trustees' report, reserves are considered to be in line with their policy target of holding three months' operating costs, despite the low reported unrestricted balance. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Third Sector Accountancy Limited.

Who funds THE CARBON LITERACY TRUST?

Funders whose own accounts filings name THE CARBON LITERACY TRUST as a grant recipient include THE COMPASS GROUP FOUNDATION.

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

FunderYearAmountPurpose (as stated by the funder)
THE COMPASS GROUP FOUNDATIONFY2024£30kSupport in providing education on climate action to SMEs in the food sector

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 CHICHESTER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT TRUST.

Side by side with its peers

CharityIncomeTop pay bandStaff >£60kReserves vs policyFundraising costGoing concern
THE CARBON LITERACY TRUST£1.3m—0unclear—no doubt
CHICHESTER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT TRUST FY2025£2.8m£70,001 - £80,0001below—no doubt
CLIMATE ED FY2025£154k—0unclear—no doubt
THE CENTRE FOR LITERACY IN PRIMARY EDUCATION FY2025£1.0m£60,000 - £69,9991below—no doubt
ECOBIRMINGHAM FY2025£529k—0below—no doubt
THE NATIONAL LITERACY TRUST FY2025£14.3m——below—no doubt

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