4
**Trustees' Annual Report for the period**
||Period start date|Period start date|||Period end date||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**From**|Day
1|Month
April|Year
2024|**To**|Day
31
Month
March|Year
2025|
## Section A Reference and administration details
**Charity name**
The Spark Foundation
**Other names charity is known by**
||**Other names charity is known by**|**Other names charity is known by**|**Other names charity is known by**|**Other names charity is known by**|**Other names charity is known by**|**Other names charity is known by**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Registered charity number (if any)** 1097058
**Charity's principal address** Hugh House
Hugh Place
Faversham, Kent
**Postcode**
**ME137AD**
~~——~~||||||
||**Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**||**Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**||||
||**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|||**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year**|**Name of person (or body) entitled**
**to appoint trustee (ifany)**|
|1|DannyChesterman|Chair|||||
|3|Sheila Patel||||||
|4|TraceySorrell||||||
|5|KirstyGinn||||||
|6|James Whitton|Treasurer|||||
|7|CathyWalker||||||
|8|Adam Brankin||||||
9
**Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)** ~~—~~ **Name Dates acted if not for whole year Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) Type of adviser Name Address Independent Examiner** Mrs Jennifer 29 Cherry Orchard, Chestfield, Whitstable, Kent CT5 Sherwood FCA 3NH **Bankers** Charities Aid CAF Bank Ltd, 25 Kings Hill Avenue, West Malling, Kent Foundation ME19 4TA **Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)** ~~===~~ **TAR** 1 October 2025
October 2025
**Section B**
**Structure, governance and management**
## **Description of the charity’s trusts**
Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) How the charity is constituted
Trust Deed
Charitable Trust
(eg. trust, association, company) Interviewed by Chair and appointed by Board decision Trustee selection methods
(eg. appointed by, elected by)
## **Additional governance issues (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant, about:
- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
Potential Trustees are invited to attend a meeting of the existing Trustees before a decision is made on appointment so that both parties can be satisfied that the appointment is appropriate.
We have a document describing Trustee duties responsibilities.
The Board reviews annually risks and actions to mitigate them.
- the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
- relationship with any related parties;
- trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
## **Section C Objectives and activities**
The Spark Foundation is a charity, formed in 2003, which gives small grants (up to £700) to young people up to the age of 25 who are, or have been, **in care** , and live in England or Wales. Our aim is to enable them to have the same chances as everyone else.
The Objects of the Trust are:
- (a) to relieve young people who are homeless or in financial need
**Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document**
- (b) to relieve young people who are suffering from mental or physical sickness;
- (c) to advance the education of young people;
- (d) to promote the training of young people who through their social and economic circumstances are unable to obtain employment;
- (e) to provide facilities for the leisure time occupation of young people in order to improve their conditions of life and develop their physical, mental and spiritual capacities that they may grow to full maturity as individuals and members of society
by providing them with grants or loans in cash or in kind or in such other ways as the trustees in their absolute discretion think fit
**TAR**
2
October 2025
The Foundation made 165 individual grants (amounting to £61,250 in total in 2024) compared to 175 (amounting to £70,648) in the previous year 2023. The successful applicants came from all parts of England and Wales. The number of applications received again rose sharply from 338 in 2023 to 401 in 2024. As in the previous year, our income was not sufficient to meet all applications even where they met our tight criteria. We took a difficult decision to cease giving debt relief in an effort to slow the rise in applications. To keep within our means, we had to turn down 233 (compared to 161 in 2023). The average grant fell to £370, down from £404 (in 2023).
Applications were received for a variety of needs. For example, for young people who have left care, the Foundation provided key goods such as washing machines and beds. Grants were also given for a wide variety **Summary of the main** of other needs, for example, laptops, driving lessons, training courses. **activities undertaken for the** Grants were mainly given to young people in the age ranges 16 – 20 and **public benefit in relation to** 21 – 25. **these objects (include within this section the statutory** By the time of our Trustee meeting in March 2025 we were ready to **declaration that trustees have** transition to a new electronic process for making and determining **had regard to the guidance** applications. This was achieved with minimal disruption thanks to **issued by the Charity** invaluable help from a system developer who offered his services at a **Commission on public** hugely discounted cost. **benefit)** The Foundation’s application process asks for the applicant’s age, gender, nationality and ethnicity and whether or not the applicant has a disability. This information does not have to be supplied for an application to be considered. We have also started monitoring the asylum seeker status of applicants who have been in care in the UK. Developments in our web-based system now enables the Foundation trustees to review all this information on a continuous basis. The Foundation treats all applicants equally regardless of nationality, religion or ethnic background. The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the requirements of section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit. Benefits are in the form of grants and nearly 100% of the Foundation’s annual expenditure relates to grant payments.
## **Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include further statements, where relevant, about:
- policy on grantmaking;
- policy programme related investment;
- contribution made by volunteers.
**TAR**
3
October 2025
Section D Achievements and performance **Summary of the main** As usual, the main achievement was in giving out over 95% of our **achievements of the charity** income in grants, whilst continuing to manage a high number of **during the year** applications with a minimal administrative cost (less than 5% of income). This is all achieved through the voluntary services of a small Board of Trustees and a part time administrator. During the year we were fortunate in receiving a small grant from the Worshipful Company of Marketers which enabled us to start work with the Big Picture Film Charity on the production of a promotional video (completed in summer 2025). We also commenced a complete redesign of our website so that it is more appealing to potential partners and donors, and easier to navigate for applicants.
|**Section E**
**Financial review**|**Section E**
**Financial review**|
|---|---|
|**Brief statement of the**
**charity’s policy on reserves**
**Details of any funds materially**
**in deficit**||
||The policy of the Trust is to maintain enough money in our accounts to
cover expenses and a buffer of £2000 towards grants in the next quarter.|
||None|
**TAR**
4
October 2025
## **Further financial review details (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant about:
- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
- how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
- investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
Since 2014 the main donor to the Foundation has been the Tunstall Jubilee Foundation (TJF). The Foundation would like to record its thanks to TJF for this funding. It was agreed with TJF that the Foundation would submit an application for funding in January each year. This enables the Foundation to plan its grant giving for the next financial year.
- During the year we made a number of applications to grant making charities, One of these, the Albert Hunt Foundation, was successful and we were delighted to receive £5,000 into our funds from them, with encouragement to apply again in 2025/26. This grant offset the temporary cessation of another regular donor who was unable for business reasons to make a contribution in 2024/25
It is clear that economic uncertainty and a rising cost of living continues to impact on the most vulnerable. Spark is therefore continuing to explore other complementary funding sources.
The Spark Foundation does not rent premises but it does pay a small amount for administration support. As in previous years, almost all The Foundation’s expenditure is in the form of grants.
The Foundation has a grant making policy and this is reviewed annually
## **Section F Other optional information**
## **Section G Declaration**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
## **Signature(s)**
||**s trustees**||
|---|---|---|
||||
|**Full name(s)**
**Position (eg Secretary, Chair,**
**etc)**
**Date**|Daniel|Chesterman|
||Chair||
||5 Dec 2025||
**TAR**
October 2025
5
|**The Spark Foundation**|**The Spark Foundation**|**The Spark Foundation**||||||**1097058**|**1097058**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Section A Receipts and payments**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Endowment**
**funds**
**Total funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**
**to the nearest £**
**to the nearest £**
**to the nearest £**
**A1 Receipts**
**Receipts and payments accounts**
01/04/2024
31/03/2025
**To**
**For the period**
**from**
ee||||||||||||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**
**CC16a**||
|Donations and gifts
**5,200**||**2,500**|**2,500**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**7,700**|**7,700**||**5,051**|**5,051**|
|Grants
**57,200**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**57,200**|**57,200**||**55,000**|**55,000**|
|Investment income
**394**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**394**|**394**||**426**|**426**|
|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|
|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|
|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|
|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|
|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_
**62,794**||**2,500**|**2,500**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**65,294**|**65,294**||**60,477**|**60,477**|
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Total receipts_**
**62,794**
**2,500**
**-**
**65,294**
**60,477**
**A3 Payments**
————_~~——~~||||||||||||||
|Administration fees
**2,660**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**2,660**|**2,660**||**2,380**|**2,380**|
|Bank charges
**60**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**60**|**60**||**60**|**60**|
|Printing, postage and stationary costs
**179**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**179**|**179**||**195**|**195**|
|Independent Examination fees
**325**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**325**|**325**||**315**|**315**|
|Website and data protection costs
**602**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**602**|**602**||**232**|**232**|
|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|
|Grants awarded
**55,708**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**55,708**|**55,708**||**72,928**|**72,928**|
|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|
|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|
|**_Sub total_ 59,534**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**||**59,534**|**59,534**||**76,110**|**76,110**|
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Total payments_**
**59,534**
**-**
**-**
**59,534**
**76,110**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**3,261**
**2,500**
**-**
**5,761**
**- 15,633**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**- -**
**-**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**1,266**
**- -**
**1,266**
**16,899**
**_Cash funds this year end_**
**4,527**
**2,500**
**- 7,027**
**1,266**
———_—~~——~~—
======>||||||||||||||
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
02/12/2025
1
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
CAF Cash account
CAF Gold account
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Signature|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**145**
**2,500**
**4,382**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**4,527**
**2,500**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Current value**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Current value**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**When due**
**(optional)**
Date of
approval|
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
02/12/2025
2
CHARITY COMMISSION
FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
Independent examiner's
report on the accounts
Section A
Independent Examiner's Report
Report to the trusteesl
members of
2n)e
The Spark Foundation
On accounts for the year
ended
31 March 2025
Charity no
(if any)
1097058
Set out on pages 1- 5 Trustees Report
1- 2 Receipts and Payments account
'ud
,?1 shtset51
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above
charity ("the Trust") for the year ended 3110312025.
Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation
basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Ad
2011 ('the Act.)
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out
under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I
have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Comrnission
under sects'on 145(5)(b) of the Act.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have
come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me
cause to believe that in, any matenal respect..
accounting records were not kept in accordance 1th section 130 of
the Act or
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection
wth the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a
proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Independent
examinerfs statement
Date:
Signed:
3 OEC 2025
Name:
Mrs Jennifer Shep4vood FCA
Relevant professional
qualification(s) or body
(if any):
ICAEW- Chartered Accountant
Address:
29 Cherry Orchard.
Chesffield, miltStable
Kent, CT5 3NH
IER
October 2018
,eCtion B
Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concem (see CC32,
Independent examination of charity accounts. directions and guidance for
examiners).
Nothing to report
Give here brief details of
any items that the
examiner wishes to
disclose.
IER
October 2018