THE FRIENDS OF ASHDOWN FOREST

Registered charity 205245 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Assists the Conservators of Ashdown Forest to maintain the forest by provision of additional funds for specific items which they would otherwise not be able to afford.

Objects

THE OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY ARE AS FOLLOWS:-(A) BY VOLUNTARY EFFORT TO ASSIST IN THE CONSERVATION OF ASHDOWN FOREST AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CHARITABLE PURPOSES OF THE ASHDOWN FOREST ACT.(B) TO PROVIDE FUNDS FOR THE PURPOSE OF SUPPLEMENTING IN SUCH MANNER AS THE SOCIETY THINKS FIT THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO THE BOARD OF CONSERVATORS.(C) TO PROMOTE FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT BY ENCOURAGING INTEREST IN THE CONSERVATION, MAINTENANCE, PRESERVATION AND PEACEFUL ENJOYMENT OF THE FOREST BY SUCH MEANS AS THE SOCIETY THINKS FIT.

Area of benefit: ASHDOWN FOREST

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

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

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted reserves stood at £303,543, which the trustees consider to be within their stated policy target of three to six months' expenditure. The charity reported a net income increase to £25,876, driven largely by a significant rise in donations and legacies, despite a loss on investment revaluations.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). 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.

• Complaints 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
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures

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

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (20/01/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• MRS P ARNOLDchair
• Deborah Joan Barber MBE · trustee of 1 other charity
• Hilary Jane Randall · trustee of 1 other charity
• JANET WIRDNAM
• Rosalind Roger Marriott · trustee of 1 other charity
• Susan Jane Taylor · trustee of 1 other charity
• William Neil Lovett · trustee of 1 other charity

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

Operates in: East Sussex

Income and spending

Common questions

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 FRIENDS OF THE HURTWOOD.

• FRIENDS OF THE HURTWOOD income £155k
• SOUTH DOWNS NATIONAL PARK TRUST income £2.3m
• DOWNLANDS TRUST income £557k
• THE TOTTLE WOODLAND AND WILDLIFE CHARITY income £136k
• THE FRIENDS OF OXFORD BOTANIC GARDEN & ARBORETUM income £242k
• THE SHERWOOD FOREST TRUST income £379k

Side by side with its peers

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