THE DOWNFORCE TRUST

Registered charity 1187541 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as Homeland Conservation

The Downforce Trust promotes action on climate change, specifically through funding research and programmes designed to accelerate the deployment and scaling of known technologies. The Trust has a particular interest in carbon drawdown using nature-based solutions as these are available and scalable today.

Causes: Environment/conservation/heritage · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Latest income

£1.2m

Latest spending

£665k

Registered

2020

Accounts read

FY2026

Financial health, per its FY2026 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted reserves stood at £3,177,799, which the trustees consider appropriate to support current and planned activities. The charity reported a net income of £542,128 for the year, funded primarily by a £1,000,000 donation. The auditor confirmed that the use of the going concern basis of accounting is appropriate with no material uncertainties identified.

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

What the accounts disclose

Reserves policy: sufficient unrestricted reserves to ensure that the Trust can meet its existing commitments and maintain continuity of operations (held: £3.2m)

“The trustees aim to maintain sufficient unrestricted reserves to ensure that the Trust can meet its existing commitments and maintain continuity of operations. The appropriate level of reserves is reviewed annually by the trustees and is assessed with reference to planned expenditure, grant commitments and operational costs.” — page 7

Per its FY2026 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Wenn Townsend. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Leadership, per the charity’s website

Ranjita Rajan — Chief Executive (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.

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/01/2026)

Total income

£1.2m

Total spending

£665k

Reserves (reported)

£3.2m

Employees

Reported reserves equal ~57.4 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (83% 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: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

Dr Adam Parrchair
Matthew Mungo Tristram Soggot
Merrick Hugh Denton-Thompson OBE

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

Operates in: Angola · Australia · Benin · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cameroon · Central African Republic · Chile · Congo · Congo (Democratic Republic) · Equatorial Guinea · Ethiopia

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/01/2026	£1.2m	£665k
31/01/2025	£1.3m	£443k
31/01/2024	£534k	£379k
31/01/2023	£1.1m	£228k
31/01/2022	£600k	£50k

Common questions

Is THE DOWNFORCE TRUST financially healthy?

Per its FY2026 accounts: The accounts state that unrestricted reserves stood at £3,177,799, which the trustees consider appropriate to support current and planned activities. The charity reported a net income of £542,128 for the year, funded primarily by a £1,000,000 donation. The auditor confirmed that the use of the going concern basis of accounting is appropriate with no material uncertainties identified. Its FY2026 accounts were audited by Wenn Townsend.

Who funds THE DOWNFORCE TRUST?

Funders whose own accounts filings name THE DOWNFORCE TRUST as a grant recipient include THE ALEXANDER MOSLEY CHARITABLE TRUST.

Known funders

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

Funder	Year	Amount	Purpose (as stated by the funder)
THE ALEXANDER MOSLEY CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2024	£2.0m
THE ALEXANDER MOSLEY CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2025	£50k	null

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.

Funder	Similar charities funded	Amount to them
THE BANISTER CHARITABLE TRUST	1	£467k
The Brindle Foundation	1	£275k
M J CAMP CHARITABLE FOUNDATION	1	£239k
Tinsley Charitable Trust	1	£101k
JOHN ELLERMAN FOUNDATION	1	£100k
THE FRAXINUS CHARITABLE TRUST	1	£70k
THE TOLKIEN TRUST	1	£55k
THE DASHLIGHT FOUNDATION	1	£45k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with DOWNLANDS TRUST.

DOWNLANDS TRUST income £1.1m
THE DOWNS SCHOOL TRUST income £106k
SOUTH DOWNS NATIONAL PARK TRUST income £2.3m
GREENPEACE ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST income £13.4m
FAMILY FOUNDATIONS TRUST LIMITED income £327k
NUFFIELD TRUST FOR THE FORCES OF THE CROWN income £1.4m

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
THE DOWNFORCE TRUST	£1.2m	—	above	—	no doubt
DOWNLANDS TRUST FY2024	£1.1m	—	above	—	no doubt
THE DOWNS SCHOOL TRUST FY2026	£106k	—	unclear	—	no doubt
SOUTH DOWNS NATIONAL PARK TRUST FY2025	£2.3m	—	unclear	—	no doubt
GREENPEACE ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST FY2024	£13.4m	—	above	—	no doubt
FAMILY FOUNDATIONS TRUST LIMITED FY2025	£327k	—	above	—	no doubt

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