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ACCESS - THE FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL INVESTMENT

Registered charity 1159699 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Access aims to bridge the gap in the social investment market so that suitable finance and support is available to social enterprises and charities which are new to social investment. Access will be a wholesale provider, working with and through existing market players to deliver its programmes. This enables Access to take a strategic view of the needs of social ventures over the next decade.

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · Economic/community Development/employment · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Latest income
£12.5m
Latest spending
£17.8m
Registered
2014
Accounts read
FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted funds stood at £9.4 million, which is significantly above the trustees' stated target reserves range of £1.25 million to £1.5 million. The trustees anticipate that reserves will reduce to within the target range over the current four-year budget cycle as the charity transitions from its spend-down endowment to unrestricted funds.

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

What the accounts disclose

Reserves policy: £1.25m - £1.5m of unrestricted funds (held: £9.4m)
“The trustees have therefore set a target reserves range of £1.25m - £1.5m of unrestricted funds to provide flexibility to manage uncertainty while ensuring funds continue to be deployed in furtherance of the charity’s charitable objectives.” — page 20
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Payments to trustees: The Chair of Trustees, Nick Hurd, received remuneration of £6,000 during the year (2024: £6,000) in recognition of the breadth of responsibilities of the role. This payment is permitted under the charity’s governing document and has been authorised by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. No other trustees received remuneration for their services as trustees during the year.
“The Chair of Trustees, Nick Hurd, received remuneration of £6,000 during the year (2024: £6,000) in recognition of the breadth of responsibilities of the role. This payment is permitted under the charity’s governing document and has been authorised by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. No other trustees received remuneration for their services as trustees during the year.” — page 46
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Trustee remuneration
“The Chair of Trustees, Nick Hurd, received remuneration of £6,000 during the year (2024: £6,000) in recognition of the breadth of responsibilities of the role. This payment is permitted under the charity’s governing document and has been authorised by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. No other trustees received remuneration for their services as trustees during the year.” — page 46
“During the period £3,986 (2024 - £2,702) was reimbursed and paid on behalf of trustee expenses relating to travel and subsistence to the annual board and staff away day costs to ten (2024 - ten) trustees.” — page 46
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Trustee expenses
“The Chair of Trustees, Nick Hurd, received remuneration of £6,000 during the year (2024: £6,000) in recognition of the breadth of responsibilities of the role. This payment is permitted under the charity’s governing document and has been authorised by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. No other trustees received remuneration for their services as trustees during the year.” — page 46
“During the period £3,986 (2024 - £2,702) was reimbursed and paid on behalf of trustee expenses relating to travel and subsistence to the annual board and staff away day costs to ten (2024 - ten) trustees.” — page 46
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Lease with related party
“The Chair of Trustees, Nick Hurd, received remuneration of £6,000 during the year (2024: £6,000) in recognition of the breadth of responsibilities of the role. This payment is permitted under the charity’s governing document and has been authorised by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. No other trustees received remuneration for their services as trustees during the year.” — page 46
“During the period £3,986 (2024 - £2,702) was reimbursed and paid on behalf of trustee expenses relating to travel and subsistence to the annual board and staff away day costs to ten (2024 - ten) trustees.” — page 46
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Payments to related party
“The Chair of Trustees, Nick Hurd, received remuneration of £6,000 during the year (2024: £6,000) in recognition of the breadth of responsibilities of the role. This payment is permitted under the charity’s governing document and has been authorised by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. No other trustees received remuneration for their services as trustees during the year.” — page 46
“During the period £3,986 (2024 - £2,702) was reimbursed and paid on behalf of trustee expenses relating to travel and subsistence to the annual board and staff away day costs to ten (2024 - ten) trustees.” — page 46
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Pro-bono services from trustee
“The Chair of Trustees, Nick Hurd, received remuneration of £6,000 during the year (2024: £6,000) in recognition of the breadth of responsibilities of the role. This payment is permitted under the charity’s governing document and has been authorised by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. No other trustees received remuneration for their services as trustees during the year.” — page 46
“During the period £3,986 (2024 - £2,702) was reimbursed and paid on behalf of trustee expenses relating to travel and subsistence to the annual board and staff away day costs to ten (2024 - ten) trustees.” — page 46
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

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

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.

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

Total income
£12.5m
Total spending
£17.8m
Cost of raising funds
£39k
Reserves (reported)
£9.4m
Employees
13

Reported reserves equal ~6.3 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (90% 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: 0.3% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.8%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

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

Operates in: Throughout England

Income and spending

Financial year endIncomeSpending
31/12/2025£12.5m£17.8m
31/12/2024£18.2m£24.6m
31/12/2023£11.8m£19.8m
31/12/2022£3.4m£9.6m
31/12/2021£7.4m£12.9m

Common questions

Is ACCESS - THE FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL INVESTMENT financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that unrestricted funds stood at £9.4 million, which is significantly above the trustees' stated target reserves range of £1.25 million to £1.5 million. The trustees anticipate that reserves will reduce to within the target range over the current four-year budget cycle as the charity transitions from its spend-down endowment to unrestricted funds. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Buzzacott Audit LLP.

Who funds ACCESS - THE FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL INVESTMENT?

Funders whose own accounts filings name ACCESS - THE FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL INVESTMENT as a grant recipient include POWER TO CHANGE TRUST, THE FEDERATION OF GROUNDWORK TRUSTS.

Known funders

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

FunderYearAmountPurpose (as stated by the funder)
POWER TO CHANGE TRUSTFY2022£400kCommunity Tech: Makers and Maintainers Fund
THE FEDERATION OF GROUNDWORK TRUSTSFY2022£134kGrant from list of funders thanked

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

FunderDateAmountPurpose
UK government01/04/2019£3.9mAccess Foundation
UK government01/04/2019£5.0mAccess Foundation
UK government—£4.2mAccess Foundation

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.

FunderSimilar charities fundedAmount to them
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS' LIVERY CHARITY2£6k
THE GRANT THORNTON FOUNDATION1—
MONDAY CHARITABLE TRUST1£1.1m
IMPETUS - THE PRIVATE EQUITY FOUNDATION1£750k
AKO FOUNDATION1£231k
Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation UK1£228k
THE EQ FOUNDATION1£80k
THE DULVERTON TRUST1£80k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE ACCESS FOUNDATION.

Side by side with its peers

CharityIncomeTop pay bandStaff >£60kReserves vs policyFundraising costGoing concern
ACCESS - THE FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL INVESTMENT£12.5m——unclear—no doubt
THE ACCESS FOUNDATION FY2025£561k—0unclear—no doubt
THE ACCESS PROJECT FY2025£3.1m——unclear—no doubt
THE FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS FY2025£6.4m£139,818—within—no doubt
Big Issue Trust FY2025£972k—0above—no doubt
SKIPTON BUILDING SOCIETY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION FY2025£843k—0unclear—no doubt

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