LEEDS CASTLE FOUNDATION

Registered charity 268354 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The aims and activities of Leeds Castle Foundation are to preserve the Castle, its collections and its grounds for the benefit and enjoyment of the public. Its secondary aim is to provide a location for discussion and debate of medical science, and a forum for the arts. The Castle and its grounds are made available to the general public for 364 days per annum.

Objects

TO ADVANCE EDUCATION TO RELIEVE POVERTY TO ADVANCE RELIGION AND TO PROMOTE AND AID SUCH OTHER PURPOSES AS ARE RECOGNISED BY ENGLISH LAW TO BE EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE AND IN PARTICULAR TO PRESERVE FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT THE WHOLE OR PARTS OF THE BUILDINGS AND THEIR GROUNDS KNOWN AS LEEDS CASTLE IN THE COUNTY OF KENT AND TO PROMOTE AND ENCOURAGE MEDICAL RESEARCH, AND TO ENCOURAGE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION IN ANY BRANCH OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES (FOR FURTHER DETAILS SEE CLAUSE 3 OF MEMORANDUM AND ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION

Area of benefit: THE COUNTY OF KENT

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

Causes: Education/training · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Amateur Sport · Animals · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Maidstone, South East, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net loss of £90,000 for the year ended 31 March 2025, driven by a decrease in investment returns and pension scheme actuarial losses. Despite this, the trustees confirm the organization remains a going concern with adequate resources to continue operations for the foreseeable future, supported by robust reserves and cost-saving measures.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Crowe U.K. LLP. 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
• 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
• Investment
• 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.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 2 were received after the due date: year ending 29/03/2022 (received 06/02/2023, 8 days after the 29/01/2023 due date); year ending 29/03/2021 (received 01/02/2022, 3 days after the 29/01/2022 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 01172263

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

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Helen Bonser-Wilton — Chief Executive (source)
• Lucy Hutchings — Commercial Operations Director (source)
• Robin Richman — Finance Director (source)
• Mark Delin — Marketing & Events Director (source)
• Dave Hedges — Estates 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.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• MACKENZIE, Emily Charlotte — director, appointed 12/06/2026on trustee list
• STRINGER, Matthew Jackson — director, appointed 12/06/2026on trustee list
• KNIGHT, Ruth — director, appointed 29/09/2023on trustee list
• ARMITT, Judith Jane — director, appointed 29/09/2023on trustee list
• MASOTTI, Sarah Eleanor — director, appointed 29/09/2023on trustee list
• ROOTS, Sarah Elizabeth — director, appointed 29/09/2023on trustee list
• KERSLAKE, Rosaleen Clare — director, appointed 16/12/2022not on trustee list
• SMITH, Julian Arthur Vaughan — director, appointed 30/04/2021on trustee list
• DEEBLE, Helen — director, appointed 15/03/2019on trustee list
• TINNISWOOD, Adrian John — director, appointed 16/03/2018on trustee list
• RICHMAN, Robin Andrew — secretary, appointed 01/04/2009

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

13 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (13 freehold); recorded price paid £120k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 29/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~4.8 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (51% 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: 42.1% of total income — above the 90th percentile for charities its size (median 3.7%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Adrian Tinniswood
• Emily Charlotte MacKenzie · trustee of 4 other charities
• Helen Deeble
• Judith Armitt
• Julian Arthur Vaughan Smith · trustee of 4 other charities
• Matthew Jackson Stringer · trustee of 1 other charity
• Rosaleen Clare Kerslake BA MBA CBE · trustee of 2 other charities
• Ruth Knight
• Sarah Eleanor Masotti
• sarah elizabeth roots

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

Operates in: Kent

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 LEEDS CIVIC TRUST.

• LEEDS CIVIC TRUST income £407k
• LOWTHER CASTLE AND GARDENS TRUST income £74k
• ARUNDEL CASTLE TRUSTEES LIMITED income £5.9m
• THE PICTON CASTLE TRUST income £557k
• COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR LEEDS income £4.5m
• LEEDS PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY SOCIETY LIMITED income £27k

Side by side with its peers

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