COMMUNITY FIRST IN HEREFORDSHIRE & WORCESTERSHIRE

Registered charity 703072 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as COMMUNITY FIRST

We offer information, advice, guidance and technical support to voluntary organisations and community groups. Services include: funding advice; management of grants schemes; contract/programme management; training and support on organisational management; support for collaborative service delivery, rural advocacy, support for community buildings, community oil buying scheme.

Objects

(I) TO DEVELOP AND TO PROMOTE ALL OR ANY CHARITABLE PURPOSE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE AREA OF BENEFIT BY WAY OF THE FURTHERANCE OF ALL MEASURES LEADING TOWARDS SOCIAL INCLUSION AND IN PARTICULAR:(II) TO ADVANCE EDUCATION, TO IMPROVE HEALTH AND TO RELIEVE POVERTY SICKNESS AND DISTRESS:(III) WITHOUT LIMITATION TO THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING TO PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR ORGANISATIONS WITH CHARITABLE OBJECTIVES IN ORDER TO ASSIST SUCH ORGANISATIONS IN THEIR CHARITABLE WORK.(IV) TO PROMOTE AND TO ORGANISE CO-OPERATION IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF THESE PURPOSES AND TO BRING TOGETHER IN COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES OF VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS, STATUTORY AUTHORITIES AND INDIVIDUALS.

Area of benefit: HEREFORDSHIRE AND WORCESTERSHIRE AND IMMEDIATELY SURROUNDING AREAS

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

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

Registered contact address: Herefordshire, County of, West Midlands, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total expenditure exceeded income by £55,136, resulting in a decrease in total reserves from £245,153 to £190,017. The trustees report that free reserves equate to just over 6 months of current expenditure, which is at the upper limit of their stated policy target of two to six months. The organization acknowledges financial strain due to the loss of non-recurrent funding for its Wellbeing and Recovery College.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

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
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest 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.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2022)

Reported reserves equal ~4.5 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 7.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (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: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Geoffrey John Hughes · trustee of 1 other charity
• Neil Alan Herman · trustee of 1 other charity
• Richard Humphries · trustee of 3 other charities

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

Operates in: Herefordshire · Worcestershire

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 WARWICKSHIRE COMMUNITY AND VOLUNTARY ACTION.

• WARWICKSHIRE COMMUNITY AND VOLUNTARY ACTION income £2.0m
• COMMUNITIES 1ST income £1.6m
• COMMUNITY, ADVICE, SUPPORT AND EDUCATION income £60k
• HEREFORDSHIRE VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS SUPPORT SERVICE income £619k
• COMMUNITY FIRST income £2.8m
• COMMUNITIES WELFARE NETWORK income £58k

Side by side with its peers

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