EDUCATION SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Registered charity 1166958 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as ESSA

The object of the Charity is for the public benefit to advance education in Sub-Saharan Africa. ESSA will play a vital role in transforming education: boosting the work of others, focusing on impact and outcomes and spreading best practice. In this way we aim to improve the effectiveness of investment in education, especially where systems are most challenged.

Objects

THE OBJECT OF THE CHARITY IS FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT TO ADVANCE EDUCATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.

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

Causes: Education/training · Economic/community Development/employment · Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total income grew significantly to £4,191,789, while total expenditure was £2,065,117, resulting in a net surplus. The charity maintains unrestricted reserves of £285,360, which exceeds its stated policy target of approximately £200,000, and the trustees confirm the organization is financially sustainable through September 2027.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Crowe U.K. LLP. Discloses 4 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
• Investment
• 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

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Education Sub Saharan Africa - ESSA (matched by registered charity number).

Funders the charity credits

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

• Gates Foundation — “The Gates Foundation has provided funding to ESSA to augment its work in promoting African researchers.” (source page)
• The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation — “Conrad N. Hilton Foundation supports ESSA’s research project in collaboration with the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Cen…” (source page)
• Carnegie Corporation of New York — “They are supporting us on our Demographics of African Faculty in the East African Community project.” (source page)
• Echidna Giving — “Echidna Giving is supporting us on the Enhancing Education Research in Africa project.” (source page)
• Imaginable Futures — “ESSA got funding from Imaginable Futures to augment its work promoting African researchers.” (source page)
• The Jacobs Foundation — “The Jacobs Foundation is supporting our efforts in the Enhancing Education Research in Africa project.” (source page)
• Global Partnership for Education — “GPE supports ESSA on the Unlocking Data initiative.” (source page)
• International Development Research Centre (IDRC) — “IDRC is supporting us on the Unlocking Data initiative, the African Edtech Research Impact Project and the Localising Education Research in …” (source page)
• Mastercard Foundation — “They currently support our work on the African Centre for School Leadership” (source page)
• Dubai Cares — “Dubai Cares partnered with ESSA in 2019, providing $1.5 million to strengthen ESSA as an organisation and accelerate its vision of high-qual…” (source page)
• Robert Bosch Stiftung — “The Robert Bosch Stiftung is a leading European private foundation and ESSA’s major funder at start up.” (source page)
• The Schaufler Foundation — “The Schaufler Foundation contributed significantly to ESSA's Pilot Scholarship Impact Hub project.” (source page)

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

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

Reported reserves equal ~1.2 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (100% 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: 2.5% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Abdelrahman Hassan
• Baidy Dieng
• CHRISTOPHER FOY
• Jonathan Ane
• PATRICK EAMONN ROANIN DUNNE
• Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann
• Professor Hellen Inyega

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

Operates in: Botswana · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cameroon · Eswatini · Ethiopia · Ghana · Ivory Coast · Kenya · Lesotho · Malawi · Mali

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 SOS AFRICA.

• SOS AFRICA income £992k
• ESS EDUCATION AND SUPPORT SERVICES income £230k
• ESSA FOUNDATION income £100k
• SHAREAFRICA income £599k
• AFRICA EDUCATIONAL TRUST income £1.7m
• MELLON EDUCATE (UK) income £535k

Side by side with its peers

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