Finance Score: 3
Governance Score: 3
Support Score: 19
  • Low unrestricted reserves: -2
  • Strong growth: +2
  • Fundraising costs low: +3
  • Dynamic board: +3
  • Large volunteers +3
  • Overall weighted support: +16
Overall GiG Score: 25 ?

STUDENTS ORGANISING FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) is an educational charity created by students and staff at NUS in response to the climate emergency and ecological crisis. We support students to learn, act and lead for sustainability.
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • This charity has been successful in attracting volunteers relative to its size
  • The charity has received backing from multiple prominent grant makers recently
  • There has been strong growth in spending since inception
  • Fundraising costs are unusually low relative to funds raised
  • The Board appears to be dynamic in terms of composition

Regulatory & Governance issues to consider:

  • Over half the Board have joined recently

Financial issues to consider:

  • Unrestricted reserves appear to be dangerously low at the latest year end

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
30/09/23£2,716£2,090£626£18£1,553£2421.4521,767
30/09/22£1,788£1,418£370£2£927£2422351,345
30/09/21£1,404£1,103£301£0£557£2162.3327,665
30/09/20£1,244£1,082£162£0£162£1251.4191,250
Financial Ratios
Fundraising Costs/Relevant Income: 0.7%
Fundraising Costs/Total Spending: 0.8%
Highest pay band: Less than £60,000
Liabilities/Assets: 33%
Liabilities/Income: 28%
Unrestricted Funds/Total Funds: 16%
Reserves/Spending: 1.4 months
Net Current Assets/Spending: 9 months
Quick Ratio: 1.4
Asset Split ?
Balance Sheet History
Established: 5 years

www.sos-uk.org

hello@sos-uk.org

07738883451

Charity Commission for England and WalesFacebookInstagramXYouTube
UN SDGs
?
How you can help
Listed activities
  • Education/Training
  • Environment/Conservation/Heritage
  • General Charitable Purposes
GiG Classification
  • Environment conservation & animal welfare advocacy
How it operates
  • Provides advocacy/advice/information
  • Provides services
Where it operates
  • Northern Ireland, Scotland, Throughout England And Wales,
Who it helps
  • Children/Young People
  • 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
Esmee Fairbairn£604,596
OVO Foundation£348,850
Friends Provident Foundation£150,000
Garfield Weston Foundation£97,500
J J Charitable Trust£69,962
Joseph Rowntree Foundation£50,000
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs£48,426
The Blagrave Trust£35,000
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months
To be used for
The EQ Foundation - Grant to STUDENTS ORGANISING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
£5,000 23/02/2024
Big Give Christmas Challenge 2023
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to STUDENTS ORGANISING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
£88,992 21/02/2024
12
Towards project costs for Farming for Carbon & Nature evaluation and next steps: an innovative programme to support an agroecological farming transition within and beyond the tertiary education ....more
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to STUDENTS ORGANISING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
£239,000 09/11/2023
Towards project costs of the RACE Report: transparency and accountability reporting for the UK environment sector, creating the impetus to go further and faster on diversity and inclusion
J J Charitable Trust - To deliver engagement with senior decision-makers and regulators in university education
£24,500 10/10/2023
To deliver engagement with senior decision-makers and regulators in university education
J J Charitable Trust - PR and influencing campaign
£25,462 10/10/2023
Towards its PR and influencing campaign
Garfield Weston Foundation - Multi-Year Grant (3 Years) award
£97,500 12/05/2023
36
Climate Action Plans and rewilding pathfinders
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to STUDENTS ORGANISING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
£13,216 20/02/2023
Towards unrestricted core costs as a Cost of Living Uplift
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to STUDENTS ORGANISING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
£5,923 06/02/2023
Towards unrestricted core costs as a Cost of Living Uplift
The Grocers' Charity - 2023 Grant Academy Awards - Teach The Future
£500 23/11/2022
to support youth
OVO Foundation - Climate Changers - Students Organising for Sustainability UK
£348,850 22/11/2022
This grant will be used to deliver SOS-UK's 'Teach the Teacher' programme, supporting students to run training sessions for their teachers on different climate issues and how climate education can be ....more
Gower Street - EFN Rapid Response Fund
£5,000 19/10/2022
Track Changes project
J J Charitable Trust - For the 1.5 Degrees league table, on the condition that marketing and PR are the focus for the campa
£20,000 09/06/2022
For the 1.5 Degrees league table, on the condition that marketing and PR are the focus for the campaign.
The Grocers' Charity - 2022-Teach the Future
£6,000 29/04/2022
Towards programme costs of organising campaigns to improve the English education system around the climate emergency and ecological crisis. It supports school pupils to run campaigns, and it ran a ....more
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - NEIRF2102CLAIM1b STUDENTS ORGANISING FOR SUSTAINABILITY UK
£24,952 01/04/2022
The funding will be used to develop a broad range of projects that deliver environmental benefits while also demonstrating a wide range of innovative approaches to generating revenues from ecosystem ....more
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - NEIRF2102CLAIM2 STUDENTS ORGANISING FOR SUSTAINABILITY UK
£23,473 01/04/2022
The funding will be used to develop a broad range of projects that deliver environmental benefits while also demonstrating a wide range of innovative approaches to generating revenues from ecosystem ....more
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to STUDENTS ORGANISING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
£59,225 23/03/2022
18
Towards project costs bringing Green 2.0 to the UK to catalyse the sustainability sector into action on race equity
Friends Provident Foundation - Students Organising for Sustainability- Invest for Change: universities leading a transformational shift in responsible
£150,000 01/03/2022
24
We want to mobilise student power and university influence to drive transformative change in the finance sector. Over two years, we will focus on three areas of significant impact identified by our ....more
Gower Street - Teach for the Future continuation
£5,000 25/01/2022
PR support for the second phase of work on govt climate strategy
Gower Street - Teach for the Future continuation
£20,000 17/11/2021
Phase 2 of influencing DFE
Paul Hamlyn Foundation - COP26 Education Minister's Summit: Creating productive dialogue for climate education
£10,000 24/08/2021
5
Students Organising for Sustainability UK (SOS-UK) is a student-led education charity focusing on sustainability, with work spanning issues of social justice and wellbeing. This grant supports ....more
The Blagrave Trust - Teach The Future continuation of funding
£25,000 16/03/2021
To support Teach The Future’s campaign to ensure that the climate justice is taught and taught well in UK schools.
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK)
£198,240 26/02/2021
36
Towards core costs repurposing university offset money to support farmers in capturing carbon, improving soils and bringing back nature
Mark Leonard Trust - Phase 2 of SOS’s work
£15,000 25/02/2021
Towards phase 2 of SOS’s work
Paul Hamlyn Foundation - Teach the Future
£16,500 01/09/2020
Students Organising for Sustainability UK (SOS-UK) is a student-led education charity focusing on sustainability. This grant supports the development of SOS-UK's 'Teach the Future' campaign, a ....more
Joseph Rowntree Foundation - Grant to Students Organising for Sustainability UK
£50,000 10/07/2020
12
Core costs and the Teach the Future Campaign
The Blagrave Trust - Teach the Future
£10,000 27/03/2020
Teach the Future campaign - policy and influence work
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (10)
Current Trustees appointed

  • AMIRA CAMPBELL Appointed: 2024
  • CAROLE PARKES Appointed: 2022
  • EMMA DE SARAM Appointed: 2023
  • HARRIET WILLIAMS Appointed: 2022
  • HAZEL NORMAN (Chair) Appointed: 2023
  • KOLAWOLE SAMUEL OLURE Appointed: 2024
  • LUDOVICO CAMINATI Appointed: 2023
  • SARANYA THAMBIRAJAH Appointed: 2024
  • SCARLETT WESTBROOK Appointed: 2023
  • SERENE ESURUOSO Appointed: 2022
Legal constitution
  • Charity registered in England & Wales on 20/06/2019, number: 1184011
Gift Aid
  • Registered with HMRC for Gift Aid
Policies in force
  • Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
  • Campaigns and political activity 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
  • 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
4 returns made; all on time
Main office

c/o NUS Charity
Merseyway Innovation Centre
21-23 Merseyway
Stockport
SK1 1PN

Objectives

TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND THE CONSERVATION, PROTECTION, AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT SO AS TO FURTHER THE PROTECTION OF THE WORLD'S NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, INCLUDING BY REDUCING AND MAKING SUSTAINABLE THE USE OF ENERGY AND WATER AND ENSURING THE PRUDENT USE OF NATURAL AND HUMAN-MADE RESOURCES FOR PUBLIC BENEFIT.SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT MEANS “DEVELOPMENT WHICH MEETS THE NEEDS OF THE PRESENT WITHOUT COMPROMISING THE ABILITY OF FUTURE GENERATIONS TO MEET THEIR OWN NEEDS.”

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales
360 Giving

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