THE UNITE FOUNDATION

Registered charity 1198601 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also registered in Scotland as SC051987 (OSCR)

The Unite Foundation provides a scholarship scheme for, and undertakes research and campaigning on behalf of, care leaver and estranged students in Higher Education with the objective of: Widening access to higher education, supporting academic progression, developing post graduate outcomes and employability. It works in partnership with a network of universities across the UK.

Objects

FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT TO PROMOTE THE EDUCATION (INCLUDING SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL TRAINING) OF PEOPLE UNDER THE AGE OF 25 YEARS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM IN SUCH WAYS AS THE CHARITY TRUSTEES THINK FIT, INCLUDING BY:1. AWARDING TO SUCH PERSONS SCHOLARSHIPS, MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCES OR GRANTS TENABLE AT ANY UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE OR INSTITUTION OF HIGHER OR FURTHER EDUCATION.

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

Causes: Education/training · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Bristol, City of, South West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity holds total net assets of £5,075,915, comprising a significant endowment fund of £6,420,963 and unrestricted general funds in a negative position of £1,273,913. The negative unrestricted reserves are attributed to the recognition of future multi-year scholarship grant commitments, which are supported by contingent assets of £5.6m in committed future donations from Unite Students. The trustees confirm that the charity can continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future, with financial support confirmed up to the 2027/28 financial year and a corporate assurance for run-off funding for existing students.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Sayer Vincent LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Going concern: going-concern doubt noted (FY2024) → no going-concern doubt (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

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

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.

What the charity says about itself (2024/25)

From its own voluntary annual review / impact report — the charity’s account of its work, distinct from the statutory accounts analysed above.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Unite Foundation (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Fiona Ellison — Co-Director (source)
• Kate Brown — Co-Director (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): instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/09/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~3.2 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (92% 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 (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (03/02/2023) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Dr John Cater
• FIONA SLAVEN
• James Watts · trustee of 2 other charities
• Lloydette Bai-Marrow · trustee of 1 other charity
• Michael James Burt
• Moray Notman
• Prof Julie Hall
• Rebecca Clare Hayhurst
• Samantha Grace Macrae
• Sunday November Blake

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

Operates in: Scotland · 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.

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 UNITE THE UNION BENEVOLENT FUND.

• UNITE THE UNION BENEVOLENT FUND income £149k
• UPP FOUNDATION income £118k
• UNISON WELFARE income £1.8m
• SOLENT STUDENTS' UNION income £670k
• UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE STUDENTS' UNION income £2.9m
• FUSION UK income £950k

Side by side with its peers

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