Finance Score: 5
Governance Score: 9
Support Score: 13
  • Future income +5
  • No PartB
  • Good trustee age range: +3
  • Dynamic board: +3
  • Gender balanced board: +3
  • Overall weighted support: +13
Overall GiG Score: 27 ?

CUMBRIA LAW CENTRE

Free legal advice and representation in Carlisle, Allerdale, Copeland and Barrow. (Future plan for Eden). We tackle poverty and oppression for those who cannot access help elsewhere. Telephone advice (01228 515 129) every weekday, and clinics throughout Cumbria. Specialists in Housing, Employment, Community Care, Welfare Benefits, Debt, Discrimination, Public law and Human Rights & Education.
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • A significant proportion of recent income was derived from major grant makers including the Government and there are significant future grants due to be received
  • The Board appears to be well diversified in terms of age and gender and dynamic in terms of composition

Financial issues to consider:

  • A PartB annual return has not been required and so detailed financial information is not available from the online data

Financial Data ?

Income & Spending ?
Sources of Income ?
Y/E Income
£k
Spending
£k
Surplus/
Deficit £k
Fundraising
Cost £k
Total
Funds £k
Unrestricted
Funds £k
Mths
Rsrvs
Staff Volun-
teers
31/03/23£333£368£-35n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/22£350£360£-9n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/21£388£354£33n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/20£391£393£-2n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/19£371£397£-26n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/18£395£388£7n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/17£420£380£40n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/16£364£437£-73n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/15£465£445£20n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/14£461£423£38n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/13£363£430£-67n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/12£445£438£6n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/11*£462£467£-5n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/10£574£444£130£5£163£1313.5160
31/03/09£361£360£1n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/08£282£309£-27n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/07£366£403£-37n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/06?*£377£400£-23n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/04*£342£346£-4n/an/an/an/an/an/a

Highest pay bracket: less than £60,000
Established: 33 years

www.cumbrialawcentre.org.uk

reception@cumbria-law.co.uk

01228515129

Charity Commission for England and WalesCompanies HouseFacebookX
UN SDGs
?
Listed activities
  • Accommodation/Housing
  • Disability
  • Economic/Community Development/Employment
  • Education/Training
  • General Charitable Purposes
  • The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
GiG Classification
  • Legal & financial advice
How it operates
  • Provides advocacy/advice/information
  • Provides human resources
  • Provides services
Where it operates
  • Cumbria,
Who it helps
  • Children/Young People
  • Elderly/Old People
  • Other Charities Or Voluntary Bodies
  • Other Defined Groups
  • People Of A Particular Ethnic Or Racial Origin
  • People With Disabilities
  • The General Public/Mankind

Who supports them? ?

Donations from Grant Makers ?

We have details on the following donations. Multi-year donations are allocated to the years for which they are earmarked.

Major supporters in last 5 years
Access to Justice Foundation£692,278
Indigo Trust£515,000
Esmee Fairbairn£25,000
Cumbria Community Foundation£19,592
DCMS£19,592
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months
To be used for
Access to Justice Foundation - Improving Lives Through Advice Grant
£500,000 01/03/2024
The Improving Lives Through Advice programme is made possible by a £30 million grant from The National Lottery Community Fund, thanks to National Lottery players. Working in partnership with the largest community funder in the UK, the Improving ....more
Indigo Trust - Uplift to funding for FY24-25 and 25-26
£200,000 07/02/2024
Funding uplift of £100,000 in each FY23-24 and 24-25 to Cumbria Law Centre
Access to Justice Foundation - Community Justice Fund Wave Three
£12,196 22/11/2022
Wave three of the Community Justice Fund aims to support organisations delivering social welfare advice services to people most impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.
Indigo Trust - Unrestricted 3-year grant
£165,000 25/10/2022
Unrestricted 3 year grant towards mitigating cost of living crisis
Access to Justice Foundation - Help Accessing Legal Support (HALS)
£78,750 13/09/2022
Help Accessing Legal Support (HALS) is a programme of The Access to Justice Foundation with the Ministry of Justice. We are working with organisations to sustain and improve access to early social welfare and family legal advice, to enable users ....more
Access to Justice Foundation - Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support (IOTLS) grant
£41,332 23/05/2022
The funding programme aims to support organisations working to sustain and improve access to early social welfare and family legal support and advice, to enable users to resolve these problems as early as possible and avoid the need for court or ....more
Access to Justice Foundation - Joint Initiative Flexible COVID-19 Grant
£60,000 09/08/2021
A flexible grant as part of wave 2 of the Community Justice Fund. A pooled fund to support the specialist legal welfare advice sector in its response to COVID93
Cumbria Community Foundation - Emergency Legal Advice Service - vulnerable individuals
£19,592 24/09/2020
Emergency Legal Advice Service - vulnerable individuals
DCMS - VSCE CMC Fund
£19,592 24/09/2020
NET, Comic Relief and Children in Need will use this funding to provide: increased support to vulnerable people and hidden groups, thus reducing the burden on public services; reach local grassroots and small organisations who can provide an ....more
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Cumbria Law Centre
£25,000 19/05/2020
6
towards unrestricted core costs as a COVID-19 Fast Response grant
Indigo Trust - To provide specialist legal advice to the community
£150,000 30/01/2020
Unrestricted core funding to support the work of the Law Centre.
Indigo Trust - Core funding/learning grant
£20,000 11/03/2019
Core funding.
Cumbria Community Foundation - Older people's priority referral service
£4,000 16/01/2019
Older people's priority referral service
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Cumbria Law Centre
£150,000 04/04/2017
36
Towards salary and overhead costs related to a project that seeks to stabilise families in distress through specialist legal advice and representation.
Lloyds Bank Foundation - Grant to Cumbria Law Centre
£21,200 31/05/2013
salary costs in order to deliver an outreach service at Carlisle key which supports vulnerably housed young people
National Lottery Community Fund - Carlisle Advice Link
£270,645 19/04/2013
36
The aim of this new project is to develop a sustainable collaboration of four key specialist advice partners. Cumbria Law Centre (CLC), Carlisle and Eden District Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), Carlisle City Council Welfare Benefits Advice Service ....more
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (6)
Current Trustees appointed
Gender Split

Age Range of Trustees: 38-76
  • DR JOHN MASSON Appointed: 2012, Occupation: Consultant Clinical Psychologist
  • JOHN RICHARD HUNSTON Appointed: 2013, Occupation: Chartered Accountant
  • JOHN REGINALD NICOL (Chair) Appointed: 2022, Occupation: Solicitor
  • LAURA ELIZABETH RUTHERFORD Appointed: 2018, Occupation: Solicitor
  • MICHELLE WRIGHT Appointed: 2022
  • VIVIENNE ANNE LEWIS Appointed: 2010, Occupation: Consultant
Legal constitution
  • Charitable company registered in England & Wales on 10/09/1991, number: 1004114
  • Registered at Companies House on 20/07/1990, number: 02524320
Gift Aid
  • NOT registered with HMRC for Gift Aid
Other Regulators
  • Financial Conduct Authority
Policies in force
  • Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
  • Complaints handling
  • Complaints policy and procedures
  • Conflicting interests
  • Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
  • Financial reserves policy and procedures
  • Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
  • Internal risk management policy and procedures
  • Investing charity funds 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
  • Trustee expenses policy and procedures
  • Volunteer management
Filing Record
19 returns made; AR11: 18 days late, AR06: 112 days late, AR04: 162 days late,
Main office

8 SPENCER STREET
CARLISLE
CA1 1BG

Objectives

I) TO RELIEVE POOR PERSONS RESIDENT IN THE BENEFIT AREA BY PROVIDING SUCH PERSONS WITH LEGAL SERVICES WHICH THEY COULD NOT OTHERWISE OBTAIN THROUGH LACK OF MEANSII) THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION AMONGST PERSONS RESIDENT OR WORKING IN THE BENEFIT AREAIII)THE ADVANCEMENT OF SUCH OTHER CHARITABLE PURPOSES AS ARE BENEFICIAL TO THE PERSONS RESIDENT OR WORKING IN THE BENEFIT AREA

Defined Area of Benefit:

CITY OF CARLISLE AND THE SURROUNDING DISTRICT ADMINISTERED BY THE COUNCIL OF CARLISLE, ALLERDALE BOROUGH COUNCIL, COPELAND BOROUGH COUNCIL AND ANY OTHER PART OF CUMBRIA

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales
360 Giving

Tips for Selecting Charities

Which areas of philanthropy are most effective?
The text of this post is taken from an article on the Effective Altruism forum. It suggests that you can achieve the most impact by supporting causes that fight extreme poverty, improving animal welfare....more
Our Top Tips for Philanthropy
Here are some ideas to help you gain more satisfaction from your philanthropy and confidence that the causes you have selected are impactful. Engage your brain, as well as your heart You....more
How to become a Philanthropist
In this Blog we outline a strategy to help people who are new to philanthropy and for those who feel dissatisfied with the impact they are having. Effective philanthropy is immensely rewarding for donors,....more

Giving is Great