AFRICA'S VOICES FOUNDATION LIMITED

Registered charity 1159589 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as AFRICA'S VOICES

Africa's Voices innovates in collecting and analysing public opinion through media and technology. Our platform helps organisations to connect with and understand their target audience, measure impact, and develop effective, evidence-based policy.

Objects

SUCH PURPOSES AS ARE EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE ACCORDING TO THE LAWS OF ENGLAND AND WALES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION:1 TO PROMOTE THE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF CHARITIES OPERATING IN AFRICA FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT; 2. TO PROMOTE THE EFFECTIVE USE OF RESOURCES FOR CHARITABLE PURPOSES BY CHARITIES AND NON-CHARITABLE ORGANISATIONS OPERATING IN AFRICA FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT; 3 THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION AND RESEARCH AND THE DISSEMINATION OF THE USEFUL RESULTS OF SUCH RESEARCH FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT.

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 · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity posted a net deficit of $93,744 for the year ended 31 December 2025, resulting in unrestricted reserves of $208,921. The trustees confirm these reserves are in line with their stated policy and that the charity has sufficient resources to continue operating as a going concern for at least twelve months.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Top pay band moved from $110,000 - $120,000 (FY2024) to $120,000 - $130,000 (FY2025).
• Employees paid over £60,000: 2 (FY2024) → 1 (FY2025).
• Going concern: material uncertainty (FY2024) → no going-concern doubt (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
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• 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

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 09215046

Funders the charity credits

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

• Twilio.org — “In late 2019, Twilio.org awarded Africa’s Voices with a grant to scale and deploy life-saving resources through a two-way SMS platform.” (source page)
• The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation — “In November 2015, the Foundation awarded a three-year grant to Africa’s Voices which was renewed again in 2018.” (source page)
• The David and Elaine Potter Foundation — “The Foundation awarded grants to Africa’s Voices in 2015, 2016 and 2018.” (source page)
• The Mai Family Foundation — “In 2018, the Mai Family Foundation awarded Africa’s Voices with an operational support grant.” (source page)
• The Cairns Charitable Trust — “Lord Cairns, a foundational funder of Africa’s Voices” (source page)
• The Shuttleworth Foundation — “In May 2017, we won a Shuttleworth Foundation Flash Grant, which we have used for innovations in data analysis and management.” (source page)
• The Cambridge-Africa Alborada Research Fund — “Researchers at the Centre of Governance and Human Rights successfully secured funding from the Cambridge-Africa Alborada Research Fund which…” (source page)
• The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Impact Acceleration Account — “In 2014, the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account at the University of Cambridge supported Africa’s Voices’ Dr Claudia Abreu Lopes to spend thre…” (source page)
• The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the UK Department for Internal Development (DFID) — “In 2012, the Centre of Governance and Human Rights was awarded ESRC-DFID research funding for an 18-month politics and interactive media (Pi…” (source page)
• The Isaac Newton Trust — “The Trust awarded a grant to the Centre of Governance and Human Rights — supporting the foundational research of Africa’s Voices.” (source page)
• The Vice-Chancellor's Discretionary Fund — “The Centre of Governance and Human Rights was awarded funding from the University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor’s Discretionary Fund , to sup…” (source page)

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.

• CURTIS, Lisa Charlotte Rose — director, appointed 17/03/2021on trustee list
• NDEMO, Elijah Bitange, Dr — director, appointed 25/01/2021on trustee list
• POFFLEY, Adrian Edward — director, appointed 11/06/2018on trustee list
• GREEN, Gregory David, Sir — director, appointed 18/07/2015on trustee list

Official officers record.

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~3.4 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (71% 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 (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• SIR DAVID GREENchair
• Adrian Poffley
• Elijah Bitange Ndemo
• Lisa Curtis
• Sharath Srinivasan

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

Operates in: Cambridgeshire · Kenya · Somalia · South Africa · Uganda

Income and spending

Common questions

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 AFRICA ADVOCACY FOUNDATION.

• AFRICA ADVOCACY FOUNDATION income £1.4m
• THE AFRICA COLLEGE FOUNDATION (UK) income £234k
• VOICES OF THE HOLOCAUST income £141k
• ADVANTAGE AFRICA income £359k
• ACE AFRICA (UK) income £508k
• VOICES income £328k

Side by side with its peers

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