COMMUNITY FIRST

Registered charity 288117 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as COMMUNITY COUNCIL FOR WILTSHIRE

An independent charity working to improve the quality of life and the economic well-being of people in Wiltshire and Swindon.Community First provides technical advice, practical support and grant aid for a range of community based projects.

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · Economic/community Development/employment · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity ended the year with a surplus of £378,475, bringing unrestricted free reserves to £272,997. This level of reserves is described as being within the trustees' stated policy target of 3 to 6 months of central running costs. The auditors confirmed that there are no material uncertainties regarding the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by David Owen & Co. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

What the charity says about itself (2024/25)

From its own voluntary annual review / impact report — the charity’s account of its work, distinct from the statutory accounts analysed above.

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Lynn Gibson — Chief Executive (source)
• Harry Tipple — Deputy 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.

Property (HM Land Registry)

4 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)

Reported reserves equal ~1.1 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (86% 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: 2.5% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (26/10/2021) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (14/10/2021) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (07/05/2019) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (26/04/2018) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (06/05/2016) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (24/02/2016) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Dr Catherine Phillips
• EDWARD WILLIAM HEARD
• Fiona Slevin-Brown
• JAMES MOODY
• Merope Sylvester
• Michael Brooks
• PIERS FARQUHAR DIBBEN
• Steven Boocock
• Timothy Humphreys · trustee of 1 other charity

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

Operates in: Swindon · Wiltshire

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 COMMUNITIES FIRST WESSEX.

• COMMUNITIES FIRST WESSEX income £4.4m
• THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR WILTSHIRE & SWINDON income £3.1m
• COMMUNITY FIRST OXFORDSHIRE income £576k
• COMMUNITIES 1ST income £1.6m
• COMMUNITY FIRST YORKSHIRE LTD income £1.0m
• HAMPSHIRE AND THE ISLE OF WIGHT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION income £656k

Side by side with its peers

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