THE FACTORY OF CREATIVITY

Registered charity 1183251 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The Factory of Creativity is the Charity name for Hope Mill Theatre which is a small independent theatre based in a grade 2 cotton mill in Ancoats, Manchester which is an area of social deprivation. Hope Mill hopes to grow, letting in new voices and expertise, new ways to support staff, and make the theatre more financially sustainable, develop ways to nurture skills in local people, young and old

Objects

A) TO ADVANCE PUBLIC APPRECIATION OF THE PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS (INCLUDING, DRAMA, MUSIC, DANCE AND ART) BY THE PRESENTATION OF PERFORMANCES AND EXHIBITIONS.B) TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC IN THE KNOWLEDGE, UNDERSTANDING AND APPRECIATION OF THE PERFORMING ARTS (INCLUDING, DRAMA, MUSIC AND DANCE,) IN PARTICULAR, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY, BY ENCOURAGING AND FACILITATING THE PRACTICE OF PERFORMING ARTS THROUGH PERFORMANCES AND EXHIBITIONS AND THE PROVISION OF WORKSHOPS AND INSIGHT OPPORTUNITIES.

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

Causes: Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts

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

Financial health, per its FY2026 accounts

The accounts state that the charity ended the year with negative unrestricted reserves of £65,360, which is below the trustees' stated policy target of £300,000. Despite this deficit, the auditor has reported a material uncertainty regarding the charity's ability to continue as a going concern, although the opinion remains unmodified.

Automated summary of the FY2026 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Hawsons Chartered Accountants. Discloses 6 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
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• 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.

Property (HM Land Registry)

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2026)

Reported reserves equal ~0.0 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (60% 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: 5.2% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• DALE EDWARD BASSETTchair
• Darrell John Olsen
• Denis Treacy
• Dr Gillian Mandy
• Ian Tabbron
• Julie McCarthy
• Mario Rene Dubois
• Nicola Brown
• Paul Rowlett
• Peter Robert Wakefield
• Tiffany Chevis

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

Operates in: Lancashire · Manchester City

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 HABBIT FACTORY.

• THE HABBIT FACTORY income £191k

Side by side with its peers

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