AVON WILDLIFE TRUST

Registered charity 280422 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q4829256 · Wikipedia

Avon Wildlife Trust is the largest local charity working to protect wildlife in the West of England area. With the support of 18,000 members, 800 volunteers plus corporate support, we are the largest local charity working to protect wildlife and inspire people.

Objects

TO ADVANCE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND IMPROVEMENT FOR WILDLIFE IN THE AREA FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE COUNTY OF AVON

Area of benefit: THE FORMER COUNTY OF AVON AND THROUGHOUT ENGLAND

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

Causes: Education/training · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Bristol, City of, South West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2026 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a total deficit of £531,000 for the year ended 31 March 2026, resulting in a decrease in net assets from £8,391,000 to £7,860,000. Per the trustees' report, general unrestricted reserves increased to £1,157,000, which is consistent with the stated policy target of maintaining between three to six months' expenditure (£900,000 to £1,800,000). The auditor confirmed that the use of the going concern basis of accounting is appropriate and identified no material uncertainties regarding the charity's ability to continue.

Automated summary of the FY2026 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Burnside Chartered Accountants. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Employees paid over £60,000: 2 (FY2025) → 1 (FY2026).

Comparing this charity’s FY2025 and FY2026 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
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting 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 01495108
• Trading subsidiary: FOLLY FARM CENTRE LIMITED Companies House 06538712 · Financial health read from its filings

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Avon Wildlife Trust (matched by registered charity number).

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

• The National Lottery Heritage Fund — “With a generous grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Avon Wildlife Trust will create climate resilient wetlands and a…” (source page)

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.

• JEFFS, Kathryn Morag — director, appointed 15/11/2025on trustee list
• ROSE, Judith Sara — director, appointed 15/11/2025on trustee list
• HILLS, Karen — director, appointed 08/11/2023on trustee list
• HUTCHISON, Sumita — director, appointed 08/11/2023on trustee list
• BURCH, Lara Frances Michelle — director, appointed 10/11/2022on trustee list
• LYNE, Martin John — director, appointed 10/11/2022on trustee list
• FAIRLEY, Ross — director, appointed 13/11/2019on trustee list
• RUTTER, Nathan Chares — director, appointed 14/11/2018on trustee list
• NICHOLSON, John Zac — director, appointed 05/03/2018on trustee list

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

35 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (29 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 ~3.4 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 24.5% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (24/07/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Lara Burchchair · trustee of 1 other charity
• Judith Rose
• Karen Hills
• Kathryn Jeffs
• Martin John Lyne
• Nathan Rutter
• Ross Fairley
• Sumita Hutchison · trustee of 1 other charity
• Zac Nicholson

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

Operates in: Bath And North East Somerset · Bristol City · North Somerset · South Gloucestershire

Income and spending

Common questions

Shared trustees with funders

Register facts shown side by side: a person serves as trustee of both this charity and a funder whose accounts record grants to it. Shared trusteeship is lawful and common; well-run charities manage it through declared-interest procedures.

• Lara Burch — trustee here and at ROYAL SOCIETY OF WILDLIFE TRUSTS

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

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 DEVON WILDLIFE TRUST.

• DEVON WILDLIFE TRUST income £7.5m
• GWENT WILDLIFE TRUST LTD income £1.3m
• THE LONDON WILDLIFE TRUST income £7.3m
• THE WILDLIFE TRUST OF SOUTH AND WEST WALES LIMITED income £5.3m
• WILDLIFE VETS INTERNATIONAL income £103k
• NOTTINGHAMSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST income £8.7m

Side by side with its peers

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