Overall GiG Score: 23 ?
Finance Score: 3
Governance Score: 6
Support Score: 14
  • Low unrestricted reserves: -2
  • Strong growth: +2
  • Fundraising costs low: +3
  • Good trustee age range: +3
  • Dynamic board: +3
  • Grant maker support: +14

THE NATIONAL LITERACY TRUST 

We are an independent charity that transforms lives through literacy. We improve reading, writing, speaking and listening in communities where poverty is on the increase and literacy levels are low. Our research and analysis make us the leading authority on literacy and drive our interventions. Our work is focused on critical moments in literacy development when we can make the greatest impact.
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • There has been strong growth in spending over the last 5 years
  • There have been no material income shortfalls in recent years
  • Fundraising costs are low relative to funds raised
  • 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 dynamic in terms of composition

Financial issues to consider:

  • Unrestricted reserves appear to be dangerously low at the latest year end
Established: 17 years

www.literacytrust.org.uk

contact@literacytrust.org.uk

02075871842

Charity Commission for England and WalesCompanies HouseFacebookInstagramX
UN SDGs
?

Financial Data ?

Income & Spending ?
Sources of Income ?
Y/E Income
£k
Spending
£k
Surplus/
Deficit
Fundraising
Cost £k
Total
Funds £k
Unrestricted
Funds £k
Mths
Rsrvs
Staff Volun-
teers
31/03/23£10,529£10,938£-409£948£4,345£7730.8145640
31/03/22£9,067£7,243£1,824£801£4,754£7361.2112620
31/03/21£7,084£6,387£696£771£2,930£4330.8109462
31/03/20£6,282£6,085£196£825£2,233£900.2108403
31/03/19£5,314£4,654£659£755£2,037£2400.667403
31/03/18£4,164£3,798£366£649£1,378£1810.6530
31/03/17£3,134£3,450£-315£555£1,107£2821480
31/03/16£3,948£3,864£84£515£1,422£2370.7480
31/03/15£3,759£3,144£616£527£1,377£2601430
31/03/14£2,915£2,971£-56£579£761£1970.8350
31/03/13£2,347£2,251£95£275£817£2151.1300
31/03/12£2,077£2,014£63£204£721£2781.7300
31/03/11£2,267£2,423£-156£165£659£3651.8310
31/03/10£2,504£2,470£34£152£815£3511.7320
31/03/09£3,583£3,714£-131£117£781£3911.3330
31/03/08£2,786£2,408£378£89£912£2601.3290

Financial Ratios
Fundraising Costs/Relevant Income: 9.4%
Fundraising Costs/Total Spending: 8.7%
Senior Staff Costs/Total Spending: 5%
Highest pay band: £100,000-£110,000
Liabilities/Assets: 22%
Liabilities/Income: 12%
Unrestricted Funds/Total Funds: 18%
Reserves/Spending: 0.8 months
Net Current Assets/Spending: 5 months
Quick Ratio: 3.7
Asset Split ?
What it does
  • Arts/Culture/Heritage/Science
  • Economic/Community Development/Employment
  • Education/Training
Who works here?
  • 145 employees
  • 640 volunteers
Who it helps
  • Children/Young People
  • Other Charities Or Voluntary Bodies
  • The General Public/Mankind
How it operates
  • Acts as an umbrella or resource body
  • Makes Grants to Organisations
  • Provides advocacy/advice/information
  • Sponsors or undertakes research
Where it operates
  • Scotland, Throughout England And Wales,

Who's supporting them? ?

Donations from Grant Makers ?

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

Major supporters in last 5 years
Esmee Fairbairn£350,000
The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington£310,000
Paul Hamlyn Foundation£270,000
Rothschild Foundation£202,000
National Lottery Community Fund£149,886
Dulverton Trust£137,118
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months
To be used for
Community Foundations for Lancashire & Merseyside - Blackpool Literacy Champions
£30,613 13/07/2023
NLT are asking for a grant of £94,969.35 over two years to build a network of volunteer Literacy Champions in Blackpool. They have a target of 40 volunteers across the town who in turn will work ....more
National Lottery Community Fund - Peterborough Literacy Hub
£149,886 06/07/2023
The funding will be used to develop and expand the service providing literacy skills to disadvantaged children and young people. The project aims to develop skills to enable children and young people ....more
Walcot Foundation - Early Words Together in Lambeth
£20,000 16/03/2023
Early Words Together offers English language development and well-being support to 50 families with children under 5 who are refugees, asylum seekers or have fled violence, including those escaping ....more
Rothschild Foundation - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£12,000 01/03/2023
Cost of living supplementary grant
Dulverton Trust - #iwill Youth Literacy Champions in North Yorkshire
£37,545 19/10/2022
#iwill Youth Literacy Champions in North Yorkshire
Dulverton Trust - TOTs in the UK 2022
£30,000 08/06/2022
TOTs in the UK 2022
The Foyle Foundation - Learning (MGS)
£43,000 21/04/2022
to develop a Literacy Champions programme that will train and develop a network of community volunteers in Stoke-on-Trent
Garfield Weston Foundation - Multi-Year Grant (3 Years) award
£50,000 03/12/2021
Read North East
Rothschild Foundation - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£180,000 17/11/2021
New Chapters - creative writing for self-expression and well-being for young people in custody and in the community
Dulverton Trust - Early Words Together in Manchester
£69,573 09/06/2021
Early Words Together in Manchester
Rothschild Foundation - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£10,000 24/03/2021
12
Broadcast of 4 audio books to potentially 80,000 people across the prison estate, and delivery of a book club to 2,300 participants in 3 adult prisons and 2 young offender institutions in ....more
Sir George Martin Trust - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£2,500 07/12/2020
Core costs for Youth Welfare & Education
Sir George Martin Trust - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£2,500 07/12/2020
Core costs for Youth Welfare & Education
Department of Health - (NCT) National Literacy Trust
£79,606 28/08/2020
Grant funding to members of the Health and Wellbeing Alliance for priority project work in support of DHSC, NHS England and Improvement and PHE strategic priorities.
DCMS - Coronavirus Community Support Fund
£99,882 05/08/2020
"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 ....more
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£50,000 05/05/2020
6
towards unrestricted core costs as a COVID-19 Fast Response grant
The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington - COVID19 Rapid Response Fund Grant to National Literacy Trust
£10,000 01/05/2020
12
To support children and young people from low-income families who do not have access to the internet and computers by providing printed copies of the organisation's Family Zone packs.
Walcot Foundation - Early Words Together for two-year-olds facing disadvantage in Streatham
£23,200 17/03/2020
12
Early Words Together for two-year-olds facing disadvantage in Streatham
Garfield Weston Foundation - Main Grants award
£50,000 13/03/2020
Read North East
The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£300,000 11/02/2020
36
Get Islington Reading - building a reading community, inspiring young people to develop and sustain a love of reading by connecting schools and public libraries, focusing on the critical transition ....more
Harpur Trust - National Literacy Trust
£21,523 03/12/2019
12
Early Words Together at 2 and 3 in Bedfordshire
The Clothworkers Foundation - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£15,000 07/11/2019
purchase of IT and AV equipment for a charity which works with disadvantaged young people nationally
Paul Hamlyn Foundation - Young City poets
£270,000 14/10/2019
34
To support a creative writing programme bringing together local poets, arts and cultural organisations and teachers in three cities in England.
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£300,000 30/04/2019
36
Towards unrestricted core costs to strengthen and scale locally-led literacy campaigns and programmes across the UK by linking them in a national best practice network, and creating accredited ....more
The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£302,744 08/03/2019
36
Early Words Together for London, to give early years children the literacy skills to succeed in life
J J Charitable Trust - Literacy for Life
£633,000 19/12/2018
Towards the second, roll-out phase of Literacy for Life.
National Lottery Community Fund - National Literacy Trust Hubs
£342,802 28/09/2018
36
The group will set up Literacy Hubs in Nottingham and Peterborough, which will provide a range of activities for children and parents to raise literacy levels and promote the importance of literacy. ....more
Sport England - Storienteering
£492,852 03/09/2018
35
Funding under Sport England's Families Fund funding programme for a Revenue project titled Storienteering. This project lists its main activity as Multi-Skill Coaching
Department for Education - Early Years Voluntary and Community sector grants (EY VCS Grants)
£27,906 01/04/2018
Priority 1: Closing the Disadvantage Gap at age 5 to increase awareness of the home learning environment, of existing entitlements for disadvantaged families and support to school and childminder ....more
Department for Education - Early Years Voluntary and Community sector grants (EY VCS Grants)
£129,324 01/04/2018
Priority 1: Closing the Disadvantage Gap at age 5 to increase awareness of the home learning environment, of existing entitlements for disadvantaged families and support to school and childminder ....more
Department for Education - Early Years Voluntary and Community sector grants (EY VCS Grants)
£184,043 01/04/2018
Priority 1: Closing the Disadvantage Gap at age 5 to increase awareness of the home learning environment, of existing entitlements for disadvantaged families and support to school and childminder ....more
Comic Relief - Rugby Reading Champions
£98,836 24/01/2018
30
The National Literacy Trust’s Rugby Reading Champions is a literacy programme for children aged 9-13 delivered by rugby coaches. It uses the motivational power of Rugby Union, players and coaches ....more
Dulverton Trust - Early Words Together with EAL families
£72,664 24/10/2017
Early Words Together with EAL families
Dulverton Trust - Literacy Champions
£50,000 25/02/2014
Literacy Champions
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£554,104 18/09/2013
Towards salary and project costs to pilot and test a new multi-agency model to improve literacy amongst disadvantaged learners, capitalising on existing local infrastructure in three geographic areas.
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£7,500 08/03/2011
Towards salary costs for a programme involving social marketing to improve attitudes towards reading and raise literacy rates amongst people from deprived backgrounds.
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£25,000 15/09/2009
24
Towards Project costs Towards the salaries of the corporate relationship manager and web development manager working on a project to improve attitudes towards reading and raise literacy standards.
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to National Literacy Trust
£90,000 25/09/2008
36
Towards Project costs Towards the salaries of the project director and the information and communication officer.
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (10)
Current Trustees appointed
Gender Split

Age Range of Trustees: 42-62
  • JOANNA PRIOR (Chair) Appointed: 2022, Occupation: Managing Director
Legal constitution
  • Charitable company registered in England & Wales on 03/10/2006, number: 1116260
  • Registered at Companies House on 05/06/2006, number: 05836486
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
  • 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
  • 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
16 returns made; all on time
Main office

NATIONAL LITERACY TRUST
1ST FLOOR
68 SOUTH LAMBETH ROAD
LONDON
SW8 1RL

Objectives

TO ADVANCE PUBLIC EDUCATION IN READING, WRITING AND OTHER LITERACY SKILLS.

Defined Area of Benefit:

UNDEFINED. IN PRACTICE, NATIONAL.

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales
360 Giving
CharityBase
Authorised officials of this charity can add information to this page (including a Donate Now button) for no cost

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