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
Causes: The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · website · Get email alerts
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
Reserves policy: nine months of core running costs (held: £269k)
“The charity’s reserves policy is to maintain free reserves that would cover at least 9 months of core running costs.”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.
Corporate structure
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)
Cost of raising funds
£123k
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.
- 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
Is ONCE UPON A SMILE LIMITED financially healthy?
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. Its FY2025 accounts were independently examined.
Who funds ONCE UPON A SMILE LIMITED?
Funders whose own accounts filings name ONCE UPON A SMILE LIMITED as a grant recipient include THE JD FOUNDATION, BOOTS CHARITABLE TRUST, THE GREATER MANCHESTER HIGH SHERIFF'S POLICE TRUST, THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN SOCIETY CHARITABLE TRUST, MANCHESTER AIRPORT COMMUNITY TRUST FUND.
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 GIFT A SMILE.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.