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.

Objects

THE OBJECTS OF THE COMPANY ARE, FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT: 1) PROMOTING THE EFFECTIVE USE OF RESOURCES FOR CHARITABLE PURPOSES BY THE SOCIAL SECTOR INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, BY:(I) IDENTIFYING NEEDS IN THE SOCIAL SECTOR, SUCH AS ACCESS TO FINANCE, AND SUPPORTING AND DEVELOPING PROGRAMMES, POLICIES, ACTIVITIES AND INITIATIVES TO ADDRESS THOSE NEEDS; AND(II) DEVELOPING CAPACITIES AND SKILLS OF THE SOCIAL SECTOR.2) FURTHERING SUCH OTHER PURPOSES AS ARE EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE UNDER THE LAWS OF ENGLAND AND WALES AS THE DIRECTORS FROM TIME TO TIME DETERMINE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, SUPPORTING WORK UNDERTAKEN BY SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS WHICH HAS A CHARITABLE PURPOSE. THE “SOCIAL SECTOR” MEANS CHARITIES AND SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS. “SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS” ARE INDEPENDENT ORGANISATIONS, NOT INCLUDING LOCAL GOVERNMENT OR OTHER STATUTORY AUTHORITIES, WHICH ARE ESTABLISHED FOR PURPOSES THAT ADD VALUE TO THE COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE, OR A SIGNIFICANT SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY, AND WHICH ARE NOT ESTABLISHED PRIMARILY TO DISTRIBUTE A PROFIT.THE COMPANY SHALL NOT CONFER ANY PRIVATE BENEFIT, EXCEPT WHERE, IN CARRYING OUT ITS OBJECTS, SUCH PRIVATE BENEFIT IS INCIDENTAL TO THE FURTHERANCE OF THE OBJECTS.

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 · Economic/community Development/employment · 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 FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted funds stood at £9.36m, which is significantly above the trustees' stated target range of £1.25m to £1.5m. The charity reports no material uncertainties regarding its ability to continue as a going concern, citing sufficient cash and reserves to support operations for at least 12 months.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Buzzacott Audit LLP. Discloses 5 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
• 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
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures

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.

In the news

Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).

• Seb Elsworth to lead newly launched Access: The Foundation for Social Investment thirdsector.co.uk · 20/03/2015

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 09153909

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Seb Elsworth — Chief Executive (source)
• Mel Palmer — Director of Finance and Operations (source)
• Chloe Stables — Director of Partnerships and Advocacy (source)
• Lydia Levy — Director of Impact and Evaluation (source)
• Neil Berry — Director of Programmes (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.

• BARONE SOARES, Daniela — director, appointed 23/09/2026not on trustee list
• MATTIS-ROME, Felicia Latoya — director, appointed 26/11/2025on trustee list
• THOMAS, Whitni Mcintosh — director, appointed 26/11/2025on trustee list
• HEWETT-AVISON, Simon Douglas — director, appointed 26/11/2025on trustee list
• SARWAR, Mohammed Hamzah — director, appointed 26/11/2025on trustee list
• ARASARATNAM, Roshana Christine — director, appointed 09/07/2025on trustee list
• RANERO, Franz Joseph — director, appointed 17/09/2020on trustee list
• GOODALL, Emilie — director, appointed 16/09/2020on trustee list
• KUPER, Kate — director, appointed 25/09/2019on trustee list
• WILLIAMSON, Robert John — director, appointed 25/09/2019on trustee list

Official officers record.

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

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 (3.7%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• DANIELA BARONE SOARESchair · trustee of 2 other charities
• Emilie Goodall
• Felicia Mattis-Rome
• Franz Ranero
• Kate Kuper
• Mohammed Sarwar
• Robert John Williamson
• Roshana Arasaratnam
• Simon Hewett-Avison
• Whitni Thomas

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 ACCESS FOUNDATION.

• THE ACCESS FOUNDATION income £561k
• ACCESS ADVENTURES income £427k
• SHARED INTEREST FOUNDATION income £683k
• YOUTH ACCESS income £396k
• SHAREDIMPACT income £347k
• INCLUSION FOUNDATION income £505k

Side by side with its peers

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