Finance Score: 5
Governance Score: 2
Support Score: 12
  • Strong growth: +2
  • Multiple Deficits: -2
  • Future income +5
  • No PartB
  • Dynamic board: +3
  • Mainly male board: -1
  • Large volunteer base +3
  • Overall weighted support: +9
Overall GiG Score: 19 ?

BLIND IN BUSINESS TRUST

We provide a Training Service for blind and sight impaired teenagers to support them towards employment. We offer a comprehensive Employment Service helping school leavers, undergraduates and graduates into employment throughout the United Kingdom. We also support families, employers and professionals in all aspects of education. All with the theme of raising confidence and aspirations.
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 and there are significant future grants due to be received
  • There has been strong growth in spending over the last 5 years
  • The Board appears to be dynamic in terms of composition

Regulatory & Governance issues to consider:

  • The Board is predominantly male

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£399£335£64n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/23£251£295£-45n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/22£220£256£-36n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/21£230£262£-33n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/20?£276£258£18n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/18£250£199£51n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/17£182£194£-12n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/16£224£235£-12n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/15£209£214£-5n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/14£186£202£-16n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/13£241£260£-19n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/12£241£240£1n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/11£277£252£25n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/10£329£250£79n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/09£225£254£-29n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/08£231£221£10n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/07£190£269£-79n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/06£198£240£-42n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/05£273£218£56n/an/an/an/an/an/a
31/03/04£247£197£50n/an/an/an/an/an/a

Highest pay bracket: less than £60,000
Established: 32 years

www.blindinbusiness.org.uk

info@blindinbusiness.org.uk

02075881885

Charity Commission for England and WalesFacebookX
UN SDGs
?
Listed activities
  • Disability
  • Economic/Community Development/Employment
  • Education/Training
  • General Charitable Purposes
GiG Classification
  • Blind people
How it operates
  • Other charitable activities
  • Provides advocacy/advice/information
  • Provides human resources
  • Provides services
Where it operates
  • Northern Ireland, Scotland, Throughout England And Wales,
Who it helps
  • Children/Young 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
City Bridge Trust£227,275
National Lottery Community Fund£85,138
Vision Foundation£75,000
Garfield Weston Foundation£25,000
The Clothworkers Foundation£10,000
DCMS£9,550
The Grocers' Charity£5,000
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months
To be used for
National Lottery Community Fund - Advancing Abilities
£9,980 18/09/2023
Blind in Business Trust will use a £9980 grant to offer supervised work placement opportunities for blind and visually impaired young people aged 13 to 16 in Cardiff. Bydd Blind in Business Trust yn defnyddio grant £9980 i gynnig cyfleoedd ....more
City Bridge Trust - Grant to Blind in Business Charitable Trust
£165,375 24/06/2023
36
£165,375 over three years (3 x £55,125), towards 100% of the salary costs of a full-time Employment Manager (£33,075) and full-time Employment Co-ordinator (£22,050).
The Clothworkers Foundation - Grant to Blind in Business Charitable Trust
£10,000 09/05/2023
0
Purchase of IT equipment for a charity which works with the visually impaired in London
National Lottery Community Fund - Brunch & Learn
£10,000 04/11/2022
This project will run face to face and remote 'brunch and learn' sessions for blind and sight impaired young people aged 13-16 throughout London. The project will support 50 young people with weekly sessions discussing issues relating to sight loss ....more
Vision Foundation - School Leaver Programme
£35,000 26/09/2022
24
We plan to help NEET people aged 17 upwards within the M25 into their first job, supporting their employers to retain them. We plan to give them intensive one to one support, training, in all aspects of the recruitment process, making them job ....more
National Lottery Community Fund - Role Models
£10,000 25/07/2022
Blind in Business Trust will pair sight impaired young people aged 13-16 in regular mentoring sessions in Cardiff with adult professionals who are blind or sight impaired. The sessions will increase participants' aspirations for future career ....more
The Grocers' Charity - 2022-Blind in Business Trust
£5,000 16/03/2022
Towards core costs to provide 5 visually impaired people in the City training to develop career plans, raising their confidence and giving them the skills to gain employment.
Vision Foundation - Employment Service
£20,000 09/03/2022
24
We wish to help sight impaired people from all London boroughs into employment, helping 10 people per year over 2 years, aged under 25. (20 people in total over 2 years) We plan to do this work by intensively offering one-to-one support from ....more
Vision Foundation - Resilience Funding. Support of sight loss charities core funding or current projects affected by the COVID pandemic and asscociated economic crisis.
£5,000 09/03/2022
6
In support of sight loss organisations based and working in London. This funding supports the sight loss sector’s continued adaptation and recovery during the protracted pandemic and the current economic crisis. Open primarily to charities whose ....more
National Lottery Community Fund - Local Family Networking
£5,800 16/12/2021
The Blind in Business Trust in north Belfast is using a £5800 grant to bring together 30 families of young people aged 13-16 who are blind or sight impaired. The project will support the families to build peer support networks make friends and ....more
Co-Operative Group - Grant to Blind in Business
£1,919 23/10/2021
We would use the funds to buy technology for blind people to use in our office, where we would train them until they secured work. This would help blind people in the City of London into good jobs.
Garfield Weston Foundation - Main Grants award
£25,000 24/09/2021
Blind in Business
National Lottery Community Fund - Online Work Placements
£10,000 17/09/2021
The funding will be used to provide online and face to face work experience placements for blind and sight impaired young people. The project will help participants to identify what support they will require from their employer to enable them to ....more
WCIT Charity - Grant to Blind in Business
£2,000 01/09/2021
Funding for technology for blind people to use in order to find work.
National Lottery Community Fund - Homework Club
£10,000 01/07/2021
Blind in Business Trust will establish a homework club for blind or visually impaired young people aged 13-16 in Cardiff with a grant of £10000.
City Bridge Trust - Grant to Blind in Business Charitable Trust
£10,000 30/11/2020
0
DCMS - Coronavirus Community Support Fund
£9,550 18/09/2020
"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
City Bridge Trust - Grant to Blind in Business Charitable Trust
£41,400 02/09/2020
towards the cost of developing the awareness of employers and online recruitment organisations, in an increasingly digitally focussed world (includes home-working) of the needs of blind people and the temporary provision of IT software to support a ....more
National Lottery Community Fund - COVID-19 Homework Club
£9,417 16/06/2020
12
Blind in Business Charitable Trust based in south Belfast is using a £9417 grant to help blind and visually impaired young people aged 13-15 complete homework tasks in preparation for returning to school. The sessions are taking place via telephone ....more
Vision Foundation - The funding is for staff to support people back to work who have been directly unemployed due to Covid-19.
£10,000 09/06/2020
The funding is for staff to support blind and partially sighted people back to work who have been directly unemployed due to Covid-19. This work will be done remotely to abide by social distancing rules. (Covid-19 response grant)
National Lottery Community Fund - COVID-19 - Wales Support
£10,000 08/06/2020
12
Blind in Business Charitable Trust will use £10000 support blind partially sighted and disabled children and young people in Cardiff by providing emotional support and personal development activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bydd ....more
National Lottery Community Fund - COVID-19 Scotland Support
£9,941 05/06/2020
12
This group will use the funding to support blind and visually impaired young people in sharing their isolation stores and experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown and beyond. The pilot project will target families in Edinburgh with around 50 young ....more
City Bridge Trust - Grant to Blind in Business Charitable Trust
£10,500 09/04/2020
A one-off, unrestricted grant of £10,500, equivalent to one regular quarterly payment for the organisations current grant.
Vision Foundation - Employment support
£5,000 11/03/2020
To enable Blind in Business to offer employment support to blind and partially sighted people
National Lottery Community Fund - Confidence for the Future
£10,000 12/06/2019
12
Project Summary :_x000D_ Blind in Business Charitable Trust will help blind and visually impaired young people in Cardiff improve their confidence and future education and employment prospects. This grant for £10,000 will fund staff costs, travel ....more
Vision Foundation - Supporting unemployed undergraduates and graduates into employment
£15,000 05/06/2019
12
To provide unemployed visually impaired undergraduates and graduates with employment support.
National Lottery Community Fund - Sight Direction
£10,000 31/05/2019
12
The project aims to teach new skills, raise confidence and increase the employability for young people who are blind and visually impaired. The funding will be used to provide work placements for young people.
Garfield Weston Foundation - Multi-Year Grant (2 Years) award
£40,000 16/04/2019
24
Core Costs
City Bridge Trust - Grant to Blind in Business Charitable Trust
£84,000 31/01/2019
24
£84,000 over two further years (2 x £42,000) for the full-time cost of the Employment manager and a contribution towards Life Coaching to support Blind and Visually Impaired Young Londoners (aged 16-25) into employment.
Co-Operative Group - Grant to Blind in Business
£3,054 19/11/2018
We want to run training days for blind people to help them become employable. Funds will cover accommodation and travel.
Garfield Weston Foundation - Main Grants award
£20,000 14/11/2017
Core costs
The Clothworkers Foundation - Grant to Blind in Business Charitable Trust
£8,000 01/11/2017
purchase of IT and furniture equipment for a charity which works with visual impaired persons' in London
National Lottery Community Fund - BVI Gaming and Virtual Reality Workshops
£9,960 19/07/2017
12
This project will offer an introduction to gaming and virtual reality workshops for blind and visually impaired young people, in order to increase social interaction, reduce isolation and promote equal opportunities.
The Rayne Foundation - Grant to Blind in Business Charitable Trust
£20,000 14/03/2016
24
Towards the salary of the Employment Co-ordinator in order to reach and help more blind graduates find good jobs.
John Ellerman Foundation - Core costs towards salary
£81,000 28/01/2016
36
Towards core costs, specifically the salary of an Employment Services Coordinator to support blind and partially sighted graduates to secure high quality jobs.
City Bridge Trust - Grant to Blind in Business Charitable Trust
£98,700 26/11/2015
36
£98,700 over three years (3 x £32,900) towards the salary costs of a full-time Employment Manager and a full-time Life Coach Manager.
National Lottery Community Fund - Seeing Ability
£10,000 25/06/2014
12
Not Available
National Lottery Community Fund - Avoiding Isolation
£10,000 18/04/2013
12
This is a project by a charity in the City of London. The group will use the funding to provide opportunities for blind children to office based training and development. This will increase the childrens skills, confidence and aspirations through ....more
National Lottery Community Fund - 'Accessible Life' - Learning the advantages for technology
£10,000 11/08/2011
12
This is a project by a charity in the City of London. The group will use funding to run a series of workshops to train blind children throughout England to use current and new technologies. This will enable beneficiaries to be aware of the ....more
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to Blind in Business
£75,000 06/08/2008
36
Towards Project costs Towards the salary and costs of a project worker to give blind school leavers the confidence and skills to find work.
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (7)
Current Trustees appointed
Gender Split
Based on 6/7 persons

  • ALEX HANNIGAN-TRAIN Appointed: 2024
  • DANIEL CHARLES HARTLAND Appointed: 2023
  • DANIEL SMITH Appointed: 2018
  • JANE CATHRAL (Chair) Appointed: 2021
  • ROBERT KELLER Appointed: 2019
  • RUPERT TIMOTHY MARKS Appointed: 2023
  • STEVE NORTON
Legal constitution
  • Charity registered in England & Wales on 16/06/1992, number: 1011957
Gift Aid
  • NOT 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
  • 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
20 returns made; all on time
Main office

MBX 102
690 London Road
GRAYS
Essex
RM20 3LD

Objectives

THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION AND FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC BENEFIT AND IN PARTICULAR THE RELIEF AND EDUCATION OF THE VISUALLY HANDICAPPED BY IMPROVING AND ASSISTING IN AND BY THE USE AND APPLICATION OF ADAPTED OR SPECIALIST COMPUTER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE AND OTHER TECHNOLOGY OR TO OR FOR THE BENEFIT OF SUCH OTHER EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE OBJECTS AND PURPOSES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM OR IN ANY OTHER PART OF THE WORLD AS THE TRUSTEES SHALL IN THEIR DISCRETION THINK FIT

Defined Area of Benefit:

UNITED KINGDOM OR IN ANY OTHER PART OF THE WORLD

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales
360 Giving

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