TOWNER

Registered charity 1156762 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Towner is an award winning art gallery, showcasing artists of national and international significance and presenting works from their acclaimed collection. They place learning and a commitment to access at the very heart of everything they do, delivering a year long programme of exhibitions, learning and participation activities for all ages and all backgrounds.

Objects

THE COMPANY HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED FOR PUBLIC BENEFIT TO:- ADVANCE THE EDUCATION, ENJOYMENT AND APPRECIATION OF THE PUBLIC AT LARGE OF THE ARTS BY THE ESTABLISHMENT AND/OR MAINTENANCE OF A MUSEUM AND/OR ART GALLERY; AND/OR- WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO THE GENERALITY OF THE ABOVE, TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION, ENJOYMENT AND APPRECIATION OF THE PUBLIC AT LARGE OF THE ARTS BY THE MAINTENANCE OF THE TOWNER IN EASTBOURNE; AND/OR- ADVANCE THE EDUCATION, ENJOYMENT AND APPRECIATION OF THE PUBLIC AT LARGE OF THE ARTS THROUGH TOWNER?S ART COLLECTION; AND/OR- PURSUE SUCH OTHER CHARITABLE PURPOSES ANALOGOUS TO ANY OF THE ABOVE AS THE TRUSTEES IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION SHALL DETERMINE (TOGETHER THE ?OBJECTS?).

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Eastbourne, South East, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total reserves increased to £6,220,662, with unrestricted free reserves of £1,115,703 meeting the charity's six-month operating reserve policy. The trustees and auditors confirm the charity is a going concern with no material uncertainties, supported by a net income of £913,169 and sufficient cash resources to meet financial commitments.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Xeinadin Audit Limited. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Employees paid over £60,000: 1 (FY2024) → 2 (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
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• 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.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 08803625
• Trading subsidiary: TOWNER ENTERPRISES LIMITED Companies House 08808094 · Financial health read from its filings

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Sara Cooper — Head of Exhibitions and Collections (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.

• REID, Emily Hester — director, appointed 14/09/2026not on trustee list
• LAMB, Jane Elizabeth — director, appointed 04/06/2026on trustee list
• LEACH, Maya Rose — director, appointed 11/12/2025on trustee list
• CAHN, Flavia — director, appointed 08/09/2025on trustee list
• BARRETT, Myfanwy — director, appointed 08/09/2025on trustee list
• SMALES, Jonathan Paul — director, appointed 18/06/2025on trustee list
• LUCAS, Caroline, Dr — director, appointed 02/12/2024on trustee list
• WELTON, Stephen — director, appointed 18/11/2024not on trustee list
• BANNISTER, Margaret Elizabeth — director, appointed 11/09/2023on trustee list
• WOOD, Catherine Susan — director, appointed 06/06/2022on trustee list
• KING, Gyr Falcon Harwood — director, appointed 12/03/2014on trustee list

Official officers record.

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

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

Reported reserves equal ~5.1 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (54% 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: 5.1% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Catherine Susan Wood
• Dr Caroline Lucas · trustee of 1 other charity
• Flavia Cahn
• GYR KING · trustee of 2 other charities
• Jane Elizabeth Lamb
• Jonathan Paul Smales
• Margaret Bannister
• Maya Leach
• Myfanwy Barrett
• Stephen Welton CBE

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

Operates in: Throughout England

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 THE TYRER CHARITABLE TRUST.

• THE TYRER CHARITABLE TRUST income £41k
• THE ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER FOUNDATION income £869k
• PAINTER STAINERS FINE ART TRUST FUND income £5k
• WARE ARTS CENTRE LIMITED income £229k
• INTOART PROJECTS income £437k
• HARROGATE ARTS AND MERCER GALLERY DEVELOPMENT TRUST income £49k

Side by side with its peers

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