SOCIETY FOR HORTICULTURAL THERAPY

Registered charity 277570 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THRIVE

Thrive is the leading UK gardening for health charity, helping to improve people's physical and mental health through gardening. Thrive has over 45 years' experience of an approach called Social and Therapeutic Horticulture (STH), where trained horticultural therapists work with people and plants to improve an individual's physical and psychological health, communication and social skills.

Objects

THE OBJECTS FOR WHICH THE COMPANY ARE ESTABLISHED ARE RESTRICTED SPECIFICALLY TO THE RELIEF OF PERSONS WHO ARE PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY ILL OR DISABLED (WHETHER PERMANENTLY OR TEMPORARILY), OR WHO ARE IN NECESSITOUS CIRCUMSTANCES BY THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION IN THE USE OF LAND THROUGH HORTICULTURE, AGRICULTURE, FARMING AND GARDENING IN ALL THEIR FORMS, INCLUDING THE PROVISION, MAINTENANCE OR IMPROVEMENT OF A PUBLIC PARK OR OTHER PUBLIC AMENITY WHERE IT IS FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT OR THE CONSERVATION OR PROMOTION OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY THROUGH THE PROVISION, CONSERVATION, RESTORATION OR ENHANCEMENT OF A NATURAL HABITAT.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

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 · Disability · Environment/conservation/heritage · Recreation · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a small surplus of £12,521 before investments, with total income increasing by 30% to £2,110,643. Free reserves are held at £939,013, representing seven months of operating cover, which exceeds the trustees' stated policy target of six months. The trustees consider the financial outlook significantly improved, though they note that maintaining this trajectory requires further fundraising success.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Sumer Audit. Discloses 6 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Top pay band moved from £69,236 (FY2024) to £71,050 (FY2025).
• Reserves position vs the charity's own policy moved from "below" (FY2024) to "above" (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
• 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.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 01415700

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Ben Thomas — CEO (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.

• MACLENNAN, Euan James Alasdair — director, appointed 16/03/2026on trustee list
• GOODMAN, Laurence William — director, appointed 08/09/2025on trustee list
• PHILBRICK, Sarah Monica Loveday — director, appointed 08/09/2025on trustee list
• KENNY, Mark Jeffery — director, appointed 08/09/2025on trustee list
• LEADBITTER, Neil James, Dr — director, appointed 09/09/2021on trustee list
• MLLER, Ian Peter — director, appointed 09/09/2021not on trustee list
• JAMES, John, Dr — director, appointed 29/03/2021on trustee list
• KARIGER, Benedicte — director, appointed 13/06/2019on trustee list
• DYER, David — director, appointed 13/06/2019on trustee list
• KERSHAW, Sophy — director, appointed 15/11/2018on trustee list
• JARRETT, Deborah Ann — director, appointed 15/11/2018on trustee list

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

3 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (3 freehold). 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 31/03/2026)

Reported reserves equal ~6.1 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 13.9% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (03/06/2019) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (01/10/2018) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Sarah Philbrickchair
• Benedicte Kariger
• David Dyer
• Deborah Jarrett
• Dr John James
• Dr Neil James Leadbitter
• Euan MacLennan
• Ian Peter Miller
• Laurence Goodman
• Mark Kenny
• Sophy Kershaw

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

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

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 GROW FOR LIFE.

• GROW FOR LIFE income £106k
• HORTICULTURAL THERAPY TRUST income £73k
• CULTIVATING CHANGE income £84k
• FARNCOMBE COMMUNITY GARDEN income £64k
• THE GROWING SPACE (WINCANTON) LIMITED income £61k
• NORMANDY COMMUNITY THERAPY GARDEN income £250k

Side by side with its peers

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