PROGRESSIVE FARMING TRUST LIMITED
Registered charity 281276 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as EFRC, ELM FARM RESEARCH CENTRE ORGANIC ADVISORY SERVICE, THE ORGANIC RESEARCH CENTRE, THE ORGANIC RESEARCH CENTRE, ELM FARM
The Progressive Farming Trust is committed to developing sustainable land management and food production systems based on organic/ agroecological principles; fostering knowledge exchange and influencing public debate with sound evidence, to help meet human nutritional needs with safe, affordable, high quality food that enhances the natural environment and ensures the health and wellbeing of all.
Causes: Education/training · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that unrestricted reserves fell to £377,751, a reduction of £199,563, due to low net contributions from Horizon Europe projects and challenges in securing statutory grants. Per the trustees' report, the charity entered into a post-balance sheet agreement to transfer its research operations to RSK ADAS Limited to improve financial sustainability, while focusing future efforts on the Agricology knowledge exchange platform.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Fundraising cost ratio: 11.7% of fundraised income, as disclosed
“Fundraising - 118,268” — page 19
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Reserves policy: three to twelve months of unrestricted expenditure (held: £378k)
“adopt an Unrestricted Free Reserves policy of holding between 3-12 months of unrestricted expenditure; currently a range of between £70,000 - £280,000.” — page 12
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Trustees donated to the charity
“For the year ended 31 March 2025 trustees donated a total of £2,628 (2024: £5,471) to the Organic Research centre during the year.” — page 40
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by Godfrey Wilson Limited. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.
Corporate structure
Leadership, per the charity’s website
- Lucy MacLennan — CEO (source)
- Honor Eldridge — Chair (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.
- BERGSETH, Brock James, Dr — director, appointed 27/03/2026on trustee list
- SKINNER, Nicholas Charles — director, appointed 27/03/2026on trustee list
- MILLER, David Timothy — director, appointed 12/02/2026on trustee list
- OULTON, Martin Alister — director, appointed 12/01/2026on trustee list
- BOLTON, Susannah Mary Lee, Dr — director, appointed 25/06/2025on trustee list
- HIRD, Victoria Louise — director, appointed 01/07/2024on trustee list
- ELDRIDGE, Honor May — director, appointed 16/06/2021on trustee list
- DWYER, Janet Caroline, Professor — director, appointed 16/06/2021on trustee list
- MACLENNAN, Lucy Caroline — secretary, appointed 03/02/2020
Official officers record.
Property (HM Land Registry)
2 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (2 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 31/03/2025)
Cost of raising funds
£118k
Reported reserves equal ~4.5 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (94% 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: 11.7% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).
- BROCK JAMES BERGSETH
- DAVID TIMOTHY MILLER
- Dr Susannah Mary Lee Bolton
- HONOR MAY ELDRIDGE
- MARTIN ALISTER OULTON
- NICHOLAS CHARLES SKINNER
- Professor JANET CAROLINE DWYER
- Victoria Louise Hird
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Throughout England And Wales
Income and spending
Common questions
Is PROGRESSIVE FARMING TRUST LIMITED financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that unrestricted reserves fell to £377,751, a reduction of £199,563, due to low net contributions from Horizon Europe projects and challenges in securing statutory grants. Per the trustees' report, the charity entered into a post-balance sheet agreement to transfer its research operations to RSK ADAS Limited to improve financial sustainability, while focusing future efforts on the Agricology knowledge exchange platform. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Godfrey Wilson Limited.
Who funds PROGRESSIVE FARMING TRUST LIMITED?
Funders whose own accounts filings name PROGRESSIVE FARMING TRUST LIMITED as a grant recipient include THE ROTHSCHILD FOUNDATION, JOHN ELLERMAN FOUNDATION, THE MARK LEONARD TRUST, THE EDWARD CADBURY CHARITABLE TRUST, THE LIMBOURNE TRUST.
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 REAL FARMING TRUST.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.