THE WHITAKER ORGANISATION

Registered charity 1202807 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THE WHITAKER ORGANISATION COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Operation of the Whitaker museum and art gallery to advance the arts, culture and heritage in Rossendale and regionally. Programming a diverse exhibition programme and activities for early years, schools, families and the wider community, supporting individual artists with exhibition and commission opportunities and enabling public access and engagement with the Whitaker collection.

Objects

THE OBJECT OF THE CIO IS TO (I) PROMOTE ART, CULTURE AND HERITAGE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC BY THE ESTABLISHMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF THE WHITAKER MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY AND/OR (II) PROMOTE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE INHABITANTS OF ROSSENDALE AND THE SURROUNDING AREA THE PROVISION OF FACILITIES FOR RECREATION AND OTHER LEISURE TIME OCCUPATION OF INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE NEED OF SUCH FACILITIES BY REASON OF THEIR YOUTH, AGE, INFIRMITY OR DISABLEMENT, FINANCIAL HARDSHIP OR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CIRCUMSTANCES OR FOR THE PUBLIC AT LARGE IN THE INTERESTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE AND WITH THE OBJECT OF IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF LIFE OF THE SAID INHABITANTS

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

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net income of £99,032 for the year ended 31 March 2025, resulting in total funds of £82,049. However, the balance sheet shows net current liabilities of £221,759, with the going concern basis supported by the parent company's confirmation not to seek repayment of outstanding debt for at least 12 months.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Ainsworths Limited. Discloses 4 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 policy and procedures
• 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

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — THE WHITAKER ORGANISATION (matched by registered charity number).

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2024)

Reported reserves equal ~0.0 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 7.1 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Other trading activities (52% 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: 26.7% of total income — above the 90th percentile for charities its size (median 3.0%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• IAIN MARTIN TAYLORchair
• Brendan Flanagan · trustee of 1 other charity
• Caroline Grime
• Clarisse de Guia Erana
• Gary Spelman
• Rebecca Frances Miller
• Sally Fort

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

Operates in: Lancashire

Income and spending

Common questions

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 WHITAKER CHARITABLE TRUST.

• WHITAKER CHARITABLE TRUST income £328k
• GILBERT WHITE & THE OATES COLLECTIONS income £551k
• WHITBY LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY income £379k
• SADDLEWORTH MUSEUM income £130k
• THE HEPWORTH WAKEFIELD income £4.2m
• THE SIR MAX AITKEN MUSEUM income £113k

Side by side with its peers

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