Finance Score: -1
Governance Score: 6
Support Score: 12
  • Low unrestricted reserves: -2
  • Multiple Deficits: -2
  • Fundraising costs low: +3
  • Dynamic board: +3
  • Gender balanced board: +3
  • Overall weighted support: +12
Overall GiG Score: 17 ?

THE SOIL ASSOCIATION LIMITED

- Building public awareness about the benefits of organic food and farming through: education and public information; and public events programme.- Training and support for producers on organic practice.- Regional development programme to link producers to consumers at a local level.- Ensure the integrity of organic food by the continued development of organic standards.
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • The charity has received backing from multiple prominent grant makers recently
  • Spending has increased over the last 3 years relative to the previous period
  • Fundraising costs are low relative to funds raised
  • The Board appears to be well diversified in terms of gender and dynamic in terms of composition

Financial issues to consider:

  • Unrestricted reserves appear to be dangerously low at the latest year end
  • On several occasions in recent years income has been less than spending

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£18,548£20,760£-2,212£897£12,744£3,6632.13480
31/03/22£16,299£17,731£-1,432£737£14,963£4,5223.134315
31/03/21£23,385£16,058£7,327£613£16,381£3,8962.931315
31/03/20£15,004£16,530£-1,526£527£9,036£2,786230315
31/03/19£17,356£15,589£1,767£521£10,579£2,5241.926815
31/03/18£14,008£14,063£-55£659£8,811£2,1771.92530
31/03/17£16,824£12,945£3,879£597£8,867£2,12122450
31/03/16£12,577£14,480£-1,903£582£4,975£1,0470.92580
31/03/15£14,624£13,643£981£530£6,883£2,5712.32130
31/03/14£11,349£10,423£926£577£5,899£2,3162.71930
31/03/13£8,922£8,370£553£583£4,967£2,1453.11640
31/03/12£9,866£9,927£-61£245£4,409£1,9342.31820
31/03/11£11,416£11,390£27£410£4,472£1,88521850
31/03/10£11,843£12,119£-276£435£4,442£1,8501.81980
31/03/09£13,686£12,009£1,677£600£4,706£5360.52070
31/03/08£14,992£12,807£2,186£622£3,043£4070.42150
31/03/07£4,534£5,085£-550£634£862£6721.61950
31/03/06*£5,456£5,046£410n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/05£4,155£3,991£164n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/04*£3,944£3,932£12n/an/an/an/an/an/a

Financial Ratios
Fundraising Costs/Relevant Income: 5.1%
Fundraising Costs/Total Spending: 4.3%
Senior Staff Costs/Total Spending: 3%
Highest pay band: £90,000-£100,000
Liabilities/Assets: 38%
Liabilities/Income: 42%
Unrestricted Funds/Total Funds: 29%
Reserves/Spending: 2.1 months
Net Current Assets/Spending: 3 months
Quick Ratio: 0.8
Asset Split ?
Balance Sheet History
Established: 62 years
(78 years as a company)

www.soilassociation.org

sbartolomeu-rook@soilassociation.org

03003300100

Charity Commission for England and WalesCompanies HouseFacebookInstagramX
UN SDGs
?
Listed activities
  • Animals
  • Education/Training
  • Environment/Conservation/Heritage
GiG Classification
  • Land or water management
How it operates
  • Acts as an umbrella or resource body
  • Sponsors or undertakes research
Where it operates
  • Northern Ireland, Scotland, Throughout England And Wales,
Who it helps
  • Other Defined Groups
  • 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£3,225,901
National Lottery Community Fund£689,340
Samworth Foundation£561,490
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs£146,180
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months
To be used for
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to THE SOIL ASSOCIATION LIMITED
£350,000 25/04/2023
Towards core costs allowing the SA to provide support and advice to farmers seeking to produce more sustainably, to increase demand for sustainable food and to positively influence food and farming policy
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to THE SOIL ASSOCIATION LIMITED
£60,000 27/02/2023
Towards unrestricted core costs as a Cost of Living Uplift
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to THE SOIL ASSOCIATION LIMITED
£21,018 13/02/2023
Towards unrestricted core costs as a Cost of Living Uplift
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Soil Association - Farm Resilience Fund - Scale Up
£37,882 12/08/2022
To provide resilience support to farmers and land managers to help them prepare for, and adjust to, the Agricultural Transition by addressing the opportunities it presents and the impacts it could have. The project will also monitor the impact and ....more
Samworth Foundation - Environment
£330,000 29/06/2022
36
Funding is supporting work which advocates for agroecological farming that can deliver for climate, nature, and food security across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Garfield Weston Foundation - Multi-Year Grant (3 Years) award
£34,000 03/06/2022
36
Farmer Led Tree Revolution
Greenwood Place - Grant to Soil Association
£25,000 03/05/2022
Unrestricted funding
Samworth Foundation - Environment
£191,490 27/04/2021
To test, learn and pilot a new way of engaging their members (existing and potential) to increase the impact and effectiveness of their policy and campaigning work as part of their new 10-year strategy
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - Post-Covid Knowledge exchange in agriculture: Evaluating current practice and Co-designing a digital solution to connect farmers and the AKIS
£15,205 01/12/2020
Full Grant details (including summaries) can be found on the Gateway to Research website: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=84220
Samworth Foundation - Environment
£40,000 14/09/2020
Covid-19 Emergency Grant
Garfield Weston Foundation - Main Grants award
£30,000 04/09/2020
FABulous Farmers
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Soil Association
£675,457 07/07/2020
30
Towards core costs for the SA while it attempts to influence policy development in favour of agro-ecology and provides support to farmers to transition to less damaging methods of production.
National Lottery Community Fund - Sustainable Food Places - Covid 19 response
£689,340 03/07/2020
11
Soil Association will use funding to deliver a suite of activities as part of the Sustainable Food Places programme which aims provide additional support for approximately 45 food hubs across England. The support will ensure food reaches those who ....more
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Soil Association
£60,000 05/05/2020
6
towards unrestricted core costs as a COVID-19 Fast Response grant
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Grant Funding for Future Farming Resilience Project
£108,298 22/02/2020
Key objective: To provide resilience support to farmers and land managers to help them prepare for, and adjust to, the Agricultural Transition by addressing the opportunities it presents and the impacts it could have. The project will also monitor ....more
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Soil Association
£2,059,426 13/02/2020
48
Towards project costs for the continuation and development of the Sustainable Food Cities programme, in partnership with Sustain and Food Matters, over a further four years.
Thirty Percy Foundation - Grant to Soil Association
£50,000 12/12/2019
Supporting a coalition of organisations and experts (including IDDRI and The Soil Association) to develop a specific agroecology vision for the UK food system in coherence with the IDDRI ?Ten Years to Agroecology? study.
Samworth Foundation - Transition to Agroecology
£195,000 07/11/2019
36
To provide core costs funding to support policy work to campaign for a transition to agroecological farming and land use over the next 10 years.
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Soil Association
£553,652 05/11/2019
12
Towards the continuation and development of the Sustainable Food Cities programme over a further 12 months.
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - BRF
£52,217 08/10/2019
To raise awareness and encourage proactive engagement from the companies to ensure they are fully briefed and have taken positive action to be prepared for 31 October 2019. This will be achieved through holding events and to create literature to ....more
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - BRF
£15,244 08/10/2019
To raise awareness and encourage proactive engagement from the companies to ensure they are fully briefed and have taken positive action to be prepared for 31 October 2019. This will be achieved through holding events and to create literature to ....more
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - BRF
£52,217 08/10/2019
To raise awareness and encourage proactive engagement from the companies to ensure they are fully briefed and have taken positive action to be prepared for 31 October 2019. This will be achieved through holding events and to create literature to ....more
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - BRF
£15,244 08/10/2019
To raise awareness and encourage proactive engagement from the companies to ensure they are fully briefed and have taken positive action to be prepared for 31 October 2019. This will be achieved through holding events and to create literature to ....more
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - BRF
£52,217 08/10/2019
To raise awareness and encourage proactive engagement from the companies to ensure they are fully briefed and have taken positive action to be prepared for 31 October 2019. This will be achieved through holding events and to create literature to ....more
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - BRF
£15,244 08/10/2019
To raise awareness and encourage proactive engagement from the companies to ensure they are fully briefed and have taken positive action to be prepared for 31 October 2019. This will be achieved through holding events and to create literature to ....more
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - BRF
£52,217 08/10/2019
To raise awareness and encourage proactive engagement from the companies to ensure they are fully briefed and have taken positive action to be prepared for 31 October 2019. This will be achieved through holding events and to create literature to ....more
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - BRF
£15,244 08/10/2019
To raise awareness and encourage proactive engagement from the companies to ensure they are fully briefed and have taken positive action to be prepared for 31 October 2019. This will be achieved through holding events and to create literature to ....more
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - BRF
£15,244 08/10/2019
To raise awareness and encourage proactive engagement from the companies to ensure they are fully briefed and have taken positive action to be prepared for 31 October 2019. This will be achieved through holding events and to create literature to ....more
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - BRF
£52,217 08/10/2019
To raise awareness and encourage proactive engagement from the companies to ensure they are fully briefed and have taken positive action to be prepared for 31 October 2019. This will be achieved through holding events and to create literature to ....more
National Lottery Community Fund - Sustainable Food Places
£2,819,858 30/09/2019
60
Sustainable Food Places
Joseph Rowntree Foundation - Grant to Soil Association, The
£120,000 16/03/2019
36
Policy and public affairs programme
National Lottery Community Fund - Food Generations
£5,160,685 15/03/2019
47
Food Generations
Garfield Weston Foundation - Main Grants award
£25,000 25/01/2019
Innovative Farmers
Cumbria Community Foundation - Food For Life Programme Year 2
£12,268 07/11/2018
Food For Life Programme Year 2
Cumbria Community Foundation - Food For Life Programme Year 2
£12,268 07/11/2018
Food For Life Programme Year 2
National Lottery Community Fund - Food Connections: proposition and partnership development and codesign
£39,974 01/11/2018
2
Food Connections: proposition and partnership development and codesign
Friends Provident Foundation - The Soil Association Ltd-High-quality, sustainable food - available and affordable through new supply-chain models.
£69,600 11/09/2018
This project aims to address the issues of access to quality food and environmental sustainability within food supply-chains. We will research, co-design and develop innovative supply-chain solutions to ensure that high-quality, sustainably produced ....more
Guy's and St Thomas' Charity - Food for Life pilot
£276,465 04/07/2018
Co-design and pilot phase - Food for Life programme _x000D_ (Schools)
John Ellerman Foundation - Awareness raising around the use of agroforestry
£109,433 30/11/2017
24
Towards the costs of a national agroforestry programme to increase awareness and knowledge of agroforestry within the farming community.
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Soil Association
£20,000 24/01/2017
6
Towards the initial phase of the development of an independent Commission on Food that will aim to ensure that sustainable production and consumption feature in emergent UK food policy in the years ahead.
National Lottery Community Fund - Good Food Matters for Older People
£1,248,336 17/01/2017
36
An expansion of the Soil Association’s Food for Life programme, this project uses good food to reduce isolation and improve the nutrition and wellbeing of older people. Food for Life Better Care will work directly with older people to develop ....more
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Soil Association
£1,698,186 30/06/2016
36
Towards the cost of the continuation and development of the Sustainable Food Cities initiative (SFC).
National Lottery Community Fund - The Soil Association Limited Development Grant
£50,000 01/06/2016
3
This funding will be used to develop a project looking at community-led transformation of the food landscape across England and Scotland, addressing issues of malnourishment and isolation for older people. The development grant will be used to ....more
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Soil Association
£38,350 23/05/2016
12
Towards the costs of Science Feast, a programme of events run by Marketing Manchester, that aims to connect people to food as part of the Science in the City Festival 2016.
National Lottery Heritage Fund - Grant to The Soil Association
£57,400 29/06/2015
WW1 Food for Life
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Soil Association
£397,881 12/06/2008
36
Towards Core costs Towards developing membership to increase unrestricted core income.
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (12)
Current Trustees appointed
Gender Split

Age Range of Trustees: 51-80
  • ANDREW STANLEY BURGESS Appointed: 2019, Occupation: Managing Director
  • CAROLINE ANN MISSEN Appointed: 2021, Occupation: Consultant
  • DR ANTHONY BALLANCE Appointed: 2023, Occupation: Chief Strategy & Regulation Officer
  • JONATHAN WILLIAM SPENCER Appointed: 2020, Occupation: Consultant Ecologist
  • LAUREN ANNE BRYAN Appointed: 2023, Occupation: Director
  • MARTIN JOHN NYE Appointed: 2017, Occupation: Company Director
  • PHILIP EDWARD FEARNLEY Appointed: 2021, Occupation: Director
  • PROF ISABEL OLIVER Appointed: 2017, Occupation: Director Field Epidemiology Service Public Health
  • ROSEMARY ANNE RADCLIFFE Appointed: 2021, Occupation: Economist
  • RICHARD FRIEND ALLAN Appointed: 2023, Occupation: Lawyer And Farmer
  • SABINE VANDENBROUCKE Appointed: 2022, Occupation: Chief Operating Officer/Company Director
  • STEVEN LANCASTER LIZARS Appointed: 2021, Occupation: Banker
Legal constitution
  • Charitable company registered in England & Wales on 22/09/1962, number: 206862
  • Registered at Companies House on 03/05/1946, number: 00409726
Gift Aid
  • Registered with HMRC for Gift Aid
Fundraising Regulator
First registered: 09/01/2017, current status: Large charity (levy paid)
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
  • Investment
  • Paying staff
  • Risk management
  • Safeguarding policy and procedures
  • Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
  • Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
  • Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
  • Trustee expenses policy and procedures
  • Volunteer management
Filing Record
20 returns made; AR06: 1 days late, AR04: 1 days late,
Recent reorganisation events:
  • Asset transfer in from BUCKINGHAMSHIRE FOOD PARTNERSHIP CIO on 26/01/2024
Main office

SOIL ASSOCIATION
SPEAR HOUSE
51 VICTORIA STREET
BRISTOL
BS1 6AD

Objectives

(A) TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC BY PROMOTING A FULL UNDERSTANDING OF THE VITAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HEALTH OF THE SOIL, PLANTS, ANIMALS, PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT (B) TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC BY CARRYING OUT RESEARCH (AND DISSEMINATING THE RESULTS) INTO AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY PRODUCTION METHODS AND THE EFFECTS OF THESE METHODS ON THE QUALITY OF FOOD AND OTHER OUTPUTS ON HUMAN HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT (C) TO PRESERVE, CONSERVE AND PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT THROUGH THE PRUDENT USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES, INCLUDING BY THE PROMOTION OF ORGANIC AND SUSTAINABLE FARMING TECHNIQUES (D) TO PROMOTE AND ENHANCE HUMAN HEALTH THROUGH PROVIDING INFORMATION AND ADVICE IN RELATION TO HEALTHY EATING AND NUTRITION (E) TO PROMOTE HIGH STANDARDS IN THE CARE AND WELFARE OF FARM ANIMALS TO PREVENT CRUELTY TO AND SUFFERING BY FARM ANIMALS

Defined Area of Benefit:

NOT DEFINED

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales
360 Giving
Charizone

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