THE THIRD AGE TRUST

Registered charity 288007 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THE UNIVERSITY OF THE THIRD AGE

The Third Age Trust is the national representative body for the u3a movement in the UK providing a wide range of support services to existing u3as. In addition it helps to develop new u3as and to raise the profile and increase awareness of the u3a movement throughout the UK.

Causes: Education/training · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity holds unrestricted general reserves of £2,289,726, which the Trustees consider adequate but not excessive against a target range of £1,000,000 to £1,500,000. Per the financial review, the group reported a net surplus of £71,990 for the year, with total net assets increasing to £2,318,690. The trustees confirm the charity is in a healthy financial position for the next few years despite expected future expenditure exceeding income.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Goodman Jones LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 01759471
• Trading subsidiary: THIRD AGE TRUST TRADING LIMITED Companies House 11899419

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.

• CRAWLEY, Sheila Margaret — director, appointed 15/10/2025on trustee list
• GABRIELCZYK, Maria Genowefa — director, appointed 13/05/2025on trustee list
• RUSSELL, Alan — director, appointed 01/04/2025on trustee list
• WALE, Laurence William — director, appointed 01/04/2025on trustee list
• GREEN, Pauline, Dame — director, appointed 01/04/2025on trustee list
• HARWOOD, Derek Murray — director, appointed 26/08/2021on trustee list
• WALMSLEY, Allan Graham — director, appointed 29/09/2020on trustee list
• BENT, John — director, appointed 31/08/2017on trustee list
• CASSIDY, Iain — secretary, appointed 16/10/2024

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 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)

Reported reserves equal ~8.2 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Other trading activities (47% 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: 40.9% of total income — above the 90th percentile for charities its size (median 5.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (19/07/2018) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Allan Graham Walmsleychair
• Alan Russell
• DEREK MURRAY HARWOOD · trustee of 3 other charities
• Dame Pauline Green
• John Bent · trustee of 2 other charities
• Laurence Wale
• MARIA GENOWEFA GABRIELCZYK
• Sheila Crawley

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

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

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 STAFFORD UNIVERSITY OF THE THIRD AGE (U3A).

• STAFFORD UNIVERSITY OF THE THIRD AGE (U3A) income £90k
• THE THIRD AGE PROJECT income £210k
• CHRISTCHURCH UNIVERSITY OF THE THIRD AGE income £137k
• UNIVERSITY OF THE THIRD AGE - YORK income £141k
• THORNBURY U3A income £141k
• MILTON KEYNES U3A (UNIVERSITY OF THE THIRD AGE) income £116k

Side by side with its peers

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