DESIGN COUNCIL
Registered charity 272099 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register
Design Council's purpose is to make life better by design.We are an independent charity and the government's advisor on design. Our vision is a world where the role and value of design is recognised as a fundamental creator of value, enabling happier, healthier and safer lives for all. Through the power of design, we make better places, better products, better processes and better performance.
Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Disability · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Accommodation/housing · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that the charity reported a surplus of £218k for the year, with total unrestricted funds increasing to £847k. The trustees note that while the AHRC grant provides stability, there is uncertainty regarding future income levels, describing the period as a transition requiring prudent assumptions. Despite this, the trustees confirm the charity has adequate resources to continue operations.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Reserves policy: three and six months of overheads (held: £788k)
“the unrestricted funds not committed or invested in tangible fixed assets (the “free reserves”) should be between three and six months of overheads.”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by Sayer Vincent LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.
Year-over-year changes
- Reserves position vs the charity's own policy moved from "within" (FY2024) to "above" (FY2025).
- 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.
Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram · linkedin
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)
Reported reserves equal ~3.0 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (100% 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).
- Christopher William Ecclesharechair
- Christopher David Naylor
- JONQUIL ELIZABETH HACKENBERG
- PAUL RAYMOND MONAGHAN
- Patrick Bellew
- Prathaban Ramalingam
- Professor Elena Marco
- Sadaf Hosseini
- Tom Crawford
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Throughout England
Income and spending
Common questions
Is DESIGN COUNCIL financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity reported a surplus of £218k for the year, with total unrestricted funds increasing to £847k. The trustees note that while the AHRC grant provides stability, there is uncertainty regarding future income levels, describing the period as a transition requiring prudent assumptions. Despite this, the trustees confirm the charity has adequate resources to continue operations. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Sayer Vincent LLP.
Who funds DESIGN COUNCIL?
Funders whose own accounts filings name DESIGN COUNCIL as a grant recipient include GUY'S AND ST THOMAS' FOUNDATION.
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 Design West.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.