Finance Score: 0
Governance Score: 9
Support Score: 12
  • Strong growth: +2
  • Multiple Deficits: -2
  • No PartB
  • Good trustee age range: +3
  • Dynamic board: +3
  • Gender balanced board: +3
  • Large volunteer base +3
  • Overall weighted support: +9
Overall GiG Score: 21 ?

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY BLIND ASSOCIATION

The Charitys objective and its principal activity are to support people with a visual impairment in the County of Northumberland to enable increased independence and to help them fulfil their potential.
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • This charity has been successful in attracting volunteers relative to its size
  • There has been strong growth in spending over the last 5 years
  • A significant proportion of recent income was derived from major grant makers including the Government
  • The Board appears to be well diversified in terms of age and gender and dynamic in terms of composition

Regulatory & Governance issues to consider:

  • Over half the Board have joined recently

Financial issues to consider:

  • On several occasions in recent years income has been less than spending
  • 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
31/03/24£406£325£82n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/23£320£262£58n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/22£165£187£-21n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/21£229£170£59n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/20?£85£137£-52n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/18£155£184£-29n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/17£209£185£24n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/16*£186£216£-30n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/15£283£330£-47n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/14£338£360£-21n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/13£345£341£3n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/12£379£360£19n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/11£356£323£33n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/10£296£301£-5n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/09£403£363£40n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/08£295£319£-24n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/07*£311£302£9n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/06£286£261£25n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/05£295£335£-40n/an/an/an/an/an/a

Highest pay bracket: less than £60,000
Established: 21 years

www.ncba.org.uk

ruth.speirs@ncba.org.uk

01670514316

Charity Commission for England and WalesCompanies HouseFacebookX
UN SDGs
?
Listed activities
  • Disability
GiG Classification
  • Blind people
How it operates
  • Provides advocacy/advice/information
  • Provides buildings/facilities/open space
  • Provides human resources
  • Provides services
Where it operates
  • Northumberland,
Who it helps
  • Elderly/Old People
  • People With Disabilities

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
National Lottery Community Fund£210,975
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland£110,042
DCMS£29,000
Masonic Trust£15,000
Community Foundation Tyne & Wear & Nthmbrlnd£14,897
Garfield Weston Foundation£10,000
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months
To be used for
National Lottery Community Fund - Keep in Touch through Tech Clubs
£10,000 14/07/2023
The funding will enable a Digital Inclusion Tutor to support blind and partially-sighted people to make full use of technology enabling them to connect to the wider world and reduce isolation.
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - Grant to Northumberland County Blind Association
£2,500 12/01/2023
Volunteer expenses for the transport service
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - Grant to Northumberland County Blind Association
£1,500 10/11/2022
Costs of providing free hot food to older blind and visually impaired people in northumberland during the winter 2022/23
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - Grant to Northumberland County Blind Association
£5,094 08/09/2022
Continued employment of a part-time café supervisor for its chatter box café in morpeth
Masonic Trust - MCF Small Grant
£15,000 28/07/2022
Unrestricted core funding for small charities
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - Grant to Northumberland County Blind Association
£9,700 21/07/2022
Improving the opportunities to access support services for older, visually impaired people living in rural areas of northumberland
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - Grant to Northumberland County Blind Association
£49,198 30/06/2022
24
Salary costs for a "get active" co-ordinator for visually impaired older people in northumberland over two years
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - Grant to Northumberland County Blind Association
£10,000 19/05/2022
Supporting blind and visually impaired people living in berwick
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - A grant to Northumberland County Blind Association
£9,104 17/03/2022
Salary costs for the Low Vision Coordinator supporting vulnerable people with sight impairments across Northumberland
National Lottery Community Fund - Client Connect
£10,000 05/11/2021
The project will use the funding to continue providing a one-to-one telephone support service for visually impaired people in Northumberland. This aims to reduce isolation while improving wellbeing and quality of life.
National Lottery Community Fund - NCBA Seeing It My Way
£171,000 18/08/2021
The project will use the funding to work collaboratively with other organisations to reach as many people in Northumberland living with sight loss or at risk of developing sight loss allowing them to keep those affected better informed and wired ....more
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - A grant to Northumberland County Blind Association
£10,000 29/07/2021
Salary costs for the Chief Officer
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - A grant to Northumberland County Blind Association
£2,000 22/07/2021
The organisations charitable activities
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - A grant to Northumberland County Blind Association
£4,946 24/06/2021
Salary costs for a part time coffee shop assistant to provide a drop in coffee shop for visually impaired and older people
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - A grant to Northumberland County Blind Association
£6,000 20/05/2021
Salary costs for a Low Vision Coordinator 2 days per week
Community Foundation Tyne & Wear & Nthmbrlnd - volunteer coordination support in North Northumberland
£4,897 10/12/2020
volunteer coordination support in North Northumberland
DCMS - Coronavirus Community Support Fund
£29,000 03/07/2020
"The fund aims to:1) To reduce closures of essential charities that provide essential services to vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 crisis by ensuring they have the financial resources to operate, thereby reducing the burden on public ....more
Community Foundation Tyne & Wear & Nthmbrlnd - Supporting the additional salary costs of the chief officer who is responsible for the service and a contingency fund for equipment for clients being supported during the Covid-19 pandemic
£5,000 05/06/2020
Supporting the additional salary costs of the chief officer who is responsible for the service and a contingency fund for equipment for clients being supported during the Covid-19 pandemic
Garfield Weston Foundation - Main Grants award
£10,000 05/06/2020
"Transforming the lives of people with sight loss in Northumberland"
Community Foundation Tyne & Wear & Nthmbrlnd - the additional salary costs of the chief officer who is responsible for the service and a contingency fund for equipment for clients being supported during the Covid-19 pandemic
£5,000 04/06/2020
the additional salary costs of the chief officer who is responsible for the service and a contingency fund for equipment for clients being supported during the Covid-19 pandemic
National Lottery Community Fund - NCBA Action Response.
£10,000 30/04/2020
9
The funding will be used to provide one to one telephone support and ‘COVID-19 Action Packs’ with audio and information books for visually impaired people in Northumberland. The aim is to support people during the current COVID-19 pandemic to ....more
National Lottery Community Fund - Pathway to Independence
£9,975 11/12/2019
12
The funding will be used to redesign the charity's delivery model, improve communications, and provide telephone and face to face support for visually impaired people. The aim is to improve participants' confidence, wellbeing and independence.
Co-Operative Group - Grant to Social Eyes Ponteland
£3,016 15/11/2019
We want to hire a minibus, to help us take blind and partially sighted local residents on days out.
Co-Operative Group - Grant to Ashington Blind Club
£3,745 15/11/2019
We want to provide transport to bring blind and partially sighted people to our group and for days out.
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - The core costs of supporting visually impaired people in Northumberland
£5,000 16/10/2019
The core costs of supporting visually impaired people in Northumberland
Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland - Recruiting and training a team of locally based volunteers to expand our service in the North Northumberland area
£9,752 08/10/2019
Recruiting and training a team of locally based volunteers to expand our service in the North Northumberland area
Community Foundation Tyne & Wear & Nthmbrlnd - Towards Sounds like good communication
£3,950 13/09/2016
Towards Sounds like good communication
National Lottery Community Fund - KEY COMMUNICATION
£495,921 20/08/2013
60
This is a continuation and expansion of a previous BIG funded project delivered by Northumberland County Blind Association (NCBA) which aims to provide social inclusion and equality for visually impaired people. The project will improve ....more
National Lottery Community Fund - SocialEyes
£199,406 11/02/2010
35
The funding will enable the continuation and expansion of a pilot project based in Morpeth, Northumberland to provide improved support and rehabilitation to vision impaired people (VIP) living in the county. The project will support people to get ....more
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (8)
Current Trustees appointed
Gender Split

Age Range of Trustees: 32-79
  • ALISTAIR ROBERT WADE Appointed: 2021, Occupation: Retired
  • GEOFF BUSHELL Appointed: 2023, Occupation: Project Management Consultant
  • JACK MOFFAT Appointed: 2022, Occupation: Unemployed
  • JENNIFER D'ALTON Appointed: 2024, Occupation: Retired
  • JULIE LEDDY Appointed: 2023, Occupation: Operations Manager
  • MALA JANES Appointed: 2017, Occupation: Retired
  • RICHARD D'ALTON Appointed: 2024, Occupation: Production Manager
  • SUSAN MARY TAYLOR (Chair) Appointed: 2021, Occupation: Retired
Legal constitution
  • Charitable company registered in England & Wales on 27/02/2004, number: 1102386
  • Registered at Companies House on 30/05/2002, number: 04451537
Gift Aid
  • Registered with HMRC for Gift Aid
Policies in force
  • Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
  • Complaints handling
  • Complaints 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
  • 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; AR16: 1 days late, AR07: 44 days late,
Main office

REIVER HOUSE
STAITHES LANE
MORPETH
NORTHUMBERLAND
NE61 1TD

Objectives

1.1 TO PROMOTE ANY CHARITABLE PURPOSE FOR THE BENEFIT OF (AND WORK WITH OR FOR) THE VISUALLY AND SENSORILY IMPAIRED INHABITANTS OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND ITS SURROUNDING AREAS BY PROVIDING GOODS, SERVICES AND FACILITIES IN THE INTERESTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE AND INDEPENDENCE WITH THE OBJECT OF IMPROVING THE STANDARD AND QUALITY OF LIFE FOR THE SAID INHABITANTS;TO ESTABLISH AND BUILD, AND TO MAINTAIN AND MANAGE, ONE OR MORE RESOURCE CENTRES FOR ACTIVITIES PROMOTED BY THE CHARITY AND ITS CONSTITUENT BODIES IN FURTHERANCE OF THE ABOVE OBJECTIVES

Defined Area of Benefit:

NORTHUMBERLAND

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales
360 Giving

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