SPARK SOMERSET

Registered charity 1179438 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Our aim is to inspire strong and sustainable communities through voluntary and communityaction. We provide information, advice, training and support to charities and community groups andrepresent the sector on strategic bodies. We also run the Volunteer Service, inspiring people to make adifference in their communities.

Objects

TO PROMOTE THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC IN SOMERSET BY:I) THE PROVISION OF INFORMATION, ADVICE, TRAINING AND SUPPORT; ANDII) PROMOTING AND ORGANISING PARTNERSHIP AND CO-OPERATION IN THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR."VOLUNTARY SECTOR" IS DEFINED AS "CHARITIES AND VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS".CHARITIES ARE ORGANISATIONS, WHICH ARE ESTABLISHED FOR EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE PURPOSES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW OF ENGLAND AND WALES.VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS ARE INDEPENDENT ORGANISATIONS 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 PERMITTED BY THEIR CONSTITUTION TO MAKE A PROFIT FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION.

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 · Disability · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity generated a net surplus of £313,874 for the year ended 31 March 2025, with total unrestricted reserves standing at £873,158. The trustees report that these reserves exceed their stated policy target of three to six months' normal expenditure (£325,000 - £650,000) and are satisfied that long-term financial plans will maintain sufficient reserves. The independent auditors confirmed that the financial statements give a true and fair view and identified no material uncertainties regarding the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Thompson Jenner 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
• 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

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.

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Katherine Nolan — Chief Executive (source)
• Grahame Paine — Chair of Trustees (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.

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~12.8 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (99% 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: 0.4% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Grahame Painechair
• Belinda Margaret Lock
• Debra Marie Drew
• Emily Katherine Taylor
• Ian John Bramley
• Joseph James Mcgregor-harper
• Martin John Green

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

Operates in: Somerset

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 SPARC TRUST.

• SPARC TRUST income £299k
• THE COMMUNITY COUNCIL FOR SOMERSET income £2.9m
• COMMUNITY SOUTHWARK income £1.4m
• SOMERSET COUNSELLING CENTRE income £476k
• SOMERSET ACTIVITY AND SPORTS PARTNERSHIP income £3.3m
• SPARKS OF SUCCESS LTD income £66k

Side by side with its peers

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