ONCE UPON A SMILE LIMITED

Registered charity 1170975 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as ONCE UPON A SMILE

Children bereavement support, financial support, respite breaks

Objects

TO RELIEVE THE NEEDS OF, AND PROTECT AND PROMOTE GOOD HEALTH OF, BEREAVED FAMILIES IN PARTICULAR BUT EXCLUSIVELY BY THE PROVISION OF BEREAVEMENT COUNSELLING, PRACTICAL SUPPORT AND ADVICE AND GRANTS OF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.

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

Causes: The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Manchester, North West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a significant surplus of £144,101 for the year ended 31 August 2025, following a deficit in the previous year. Per the trustees' report, free reserves were £269,008, which is equivalent to 10.9 months of core running costs and is considered in line with the charity's policy target of 9 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.

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
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• 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
• 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 09836201 · Financial health read from its filings

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Once Upon A Smile (matched by registered charity number).

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.

• KNIGHTON, Emma Louise — director, appointed 21/11/2024on trustee list
• MALEY, Victoria — director, appointed 21/11/2024on trustee list
• BARLOW, Robert Anthony — director, appointed 22/09/2022on trustee list
• JILLINGS, Laura — director, appointed 04/09/2019on trustee list
• CHEETHAM - KARCZ, Paul — director, appointed 22/10/2015not on trustee list
• MILLER, Daniel — director, appointed 22/10/2015on trustee list

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold); recorded price paid £409k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/08/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~8.3 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (74% 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: 23.3% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.9%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (26/03/2019) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• PAUL CHEETHAM-KARCZchair
• DANIEL MILLER
• Emma Louise Knighton
• Laura Jillings
• Robert Anthony Barlow
• Victoria Maley

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

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

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

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

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 SPREAD A SMILE.

• SPREAD A SMILE income £2.2m
• SMILE income £53k
• ONE TO ONE CHILDREN'S FUND income £2.0m
• ONE TO ONE (ENFIELD) income £223k
• SMILE GROUP income £281k
• JOSEPH'S SMILE income £169k

Side by side with its peers

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