Trustees’ Annual Report for the period
From: 1 January 2024 to 31[st] December 2024
Charity name: OneZoom
Charity registration number: 1163559
Objectives and Activities
| SORP reference | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document |
Para 1.17 | To advance the education of the public in subjects of evolution, biodiversity and conservation of the variety of life on earth |
| Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in the accounts. |
Para 1.17 and 1.19 |
Our main activity is building and maintaining a scientifically accurate, educational, and visually appealing record of the tree of life that is easily accessible to the public online. We also collaborate with other organisations to support outreach exhibitions and events that benefit from use of our tree of life explorer. |
| Statement confirming whether the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit |
Para 1.18 | The Trustees have had due regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
| SORP reference | ||
|---|---|---|
| Policy on grant making | Para 1.38 | Grant making is not part of our core activities and consequently we do not have a formal policy on grants and deal with potential grant making opportunities on a case-by-case basis. |
| Policy on social investment including program related investment |
Para 1.38 | This does not form part of our activities. |
| Contribution made by volunteers |
Para 1.38 | The trustees themselves did substantive volunteer work done for OneZoom because they have the relevant knowledge and experience in biology computing, education and science outreach. In addition to David Ebbo, who was mentioned in the last reporting period, we now have two other volunteer developers: James Stout and Jared Khan. They have made contributions |
to our codebase that are publicly visible on GitHub and have also attended online meetings. Other
Achievements and Performance
| SORP reference | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole. |
Para 1.20 | We continued to receive financial support from the public via our leaf sponsorship funding model during the reporting period. Over the full year we received a total of £3164 through this channel (accounting for PayPal charges not accounting for additional gift aid that can be reclaimed). During this reporting period our biggest achievement was the lauch of our ‘tree tours’ feature which enables users to take an educational guided tour of our tree of life. Thanks to contributions from volunteers we also made incremental improvements across our codebase which improve user experience on our educational website. We have estimated the total number of web users at 120,000 over the reporting period. Unfortunately, issues with our user tracking system meant that this number cannot be recovered precisely for the reporting period but will be resolved fully during the next reporting period. Based on the tracking system data, approximately 48% of users were in the USA, 6% of users were based in the UK, 5% in China, 5% in Canda, 3% in Germany and the remainder spread across other countries. This pattern is similar to that from the previous reporting period. |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
| Achievements against objectives set |
Para 1.41 | Two key objectives were set for the CIO since its foundation, first to achieve sustainability through the leaf sponsorship scheme, and second to enhance our software enablingit to displaythe complete |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| tree of life for educational purposes. These objectives were met in the 2017 reporting period. Objectives since then have been to maintain what we have already set up and to increase the impact by encouraging broader use. During the present reporting period we have continued to maintain our resource and shown that our sustainability model of leaf sponsorship operates very successfully when enough users can be attracted to the site. Our emerging goals for the future are focused on i) further improvements to the website, particularly around illustrating evolutionary timescales and extinction ii) more tours around the tree including tours built by users iii) increased attention and reach of our work. |
||
|---|---|---|
| Performance of fundraising activities against objectives set |
Para 1.41 | We have not set formal objectives for fundraising because the leaf sponsorship model comfortably pays for running costs payable to third parties. Having concluded the work funded by our last grant during the present reporting period, we hope to secure another grant to help continue our work at some point during the next reporting period. |
| Investment performance against objectives |
Para 1.41 | We have no investments because the funds that would be available for this are negligible in size. For the funds available during this reporting period, it seemed more important to spend them on our charitable purpose and not take on additional risks. |
| Other | This has been an excellent year for the CIO because we completed the tree tours project. The popularity of our educational software has continued to hold strong. |
Financial Review
| Financial Review | ||
|---|---|---|
| Review of the charity’s financial position at the end of the period |
Para 1.21 | The CIO had funds of £9676.85 composed of £9288.21 (Triodos bank) and £ 388.64 (PayPal account) at 31 December 2023. All these funds are unrestricted. |
| Statement explaining the policy for holding reserves stating why they are held |
Para 1.22 | Reserves are required to meet future obligations and to support the growth of the CIO’s activities. This calendar year we have kept reserves to keep the CIO operational through a 12 month period. |
| Amount of reserves held | Para 1.22 | £1,000 |
| Reasons for holding zero reserves |
Para 1.22 | N/A |
| Details of fund materially in deficit |
Para 1.24 | N/A |
| Explanation of any uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern |
Para 1.23 | The CIO is dependent on obtaining third party support to develop and improve its products for public benefit. Thanks to the current efforts of volunteers the CIO can continue its core operations with a relatively small amount of ongoing funding. Total annual running costs remain under £1000 so we have held reserves to run for a further 12 months. |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
| The charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising) |
Para 1.47 | All of the CIO’s revenue during this reporting period has come from donations from individuals through the ‘sponsor a leaf’ campaign, which enables donors to be acknowledged on a unique leaf of our tree of life display as recognition for their donation. |
|---|---|---|
| Investment policy and objectives including any social investment policy adopted |
Para 1.46 | The CIO does not invest funds as the amounts available are small to justify the necessary research into ethical investments that would be compatible with our charitable aims. |
| A description of the principal risks facing the charity |
Para 1.46 | The potential risks to the CIO are loss of volunteer time, and loss of funds. Volunteer time is the more valuable at present, particularly that from software developers who perform skilled work that would be very expensive to replace with contractors or paid professionals. A secondary risk is running out of funds, however the CIO only requires minimal funding to pay for its essential operation of hosting the website, ongoing improvements and maintenance are less essential though still important. Since the last reporting period our volunteer base has grown and the volunteercommunityis drawingnear to a |
critical mass so one of the risk is now substantially reduced. In the short term we accept both risks. We do not provide a critical service upon which users are heavily dependent for their wellbeing: if either risk were to materialise, the worst case would be the loss of a free online resource. We have mitigated against both risks by releasing our software under a public license, which includes a failsafe. The failsafe specifies that if the CIO ceases to trade, our software becomes open source, meaning that other individuals or organisations would be able to use it for free to continue our work, should there be a sufficient demand. Other
Structure, Governance and Management
| Description of charity’s trusts: |
||
|---|---|---|
| Type of governing document | Para 1.25 | Foundation Constitution |
| How is the charity constituted? |
Para 1.25 | CIO - Foundation Registered 14 Sep 2015 |
| Trustee selection methods including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees |
Para 1.25 | Apart from the founding trustees, every subsequent trustee must be appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the Board. In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO. |
| Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements |
where relevant about: |
|---|---|---|
| Policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees |
Para 1.51 | We have not yet inducted new trustees since charity formation. One of the founding trustees and current chair has attended an extensive trustee leadership programme and an emerging chairs program run by Cause4. Another founding trustee has experience from being a trustee of another unrelated UK charity. |
| The charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works |
Para 1.51 | |
| Relationship with any related parties |
Para 1.51 | No relevant related-party relationships to report for this period |
| Other |
Reference and Administrative details
| Charity name | OneZoom |
|---|---|
| Other name the charity uses | |
| Registered charity number | 1163559 |
Charity’s principal address OneZoom Office 7 35-37 Ludgate Hill London EC4M 7JN
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 |
Trustee name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole year |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Yan Wong | ||||
| Prof James Rosindell | ||||
| Prof Luke Harmon | ||||
– Corporate trustees names of the directors at the date the report was approved
Director name
Name of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity
Trustee name Dates acted if not for whole year
Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others
Description of the assets held in this capacity Name and objects of the charity on whose behalf the assets are held and how this falls within the custodian charity’s objects Details of arrangements for safe custody and segregation of such assets from the charity’s own assets
Additional information (optional)
Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
| Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) | Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) | Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) |
|---|---|---|
| Type of adviser Name Address |
||
| Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information) |
Exemptions from disclosure
Reason for non-disclosure of key personnel details
Other optional information
Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s) Full name(s) Prof. James Lloyd Rosindell Position (eg Secretary, Chair Chair, etc) Date 13-October-2025
OneZoom
1163559
CC16a
Receipts and payments accounts
For the period 01-Jan-24 31-Dec-24 To from
Section A Receipts and payments
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sponsorship |
3,064 | - | - | 3,064 | 7,207 | ||||
| Interest | 59 | - | - | 59 | 121 | ||||
| Gift aid reclaimed | 1,186 | - | - | 1,186 | - | ||||
| UK onlinegivingfoundation | 100 | - | - | 100 | 453 | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 4,409 | - | - | 4,409 | 7,781 | ||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| Sub total | - | - | |||||||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
|||||||||
| 7,781 | |||||||||
Bank charges |
6 | 29 | |||||||
| Software development | 12,130 | 12,600 | |||||||
| Insurance | 468 | 450 | |||||||
| paypal charges | 110 | 208 | |||||||
| Accountingcharges | - | 1,020 | |||||||
| Brand registration renewal | - | 420 | |||||||
| Domain names costs Virtual address costs UX and graphic design Internet hosting **Sub total ** |
- | 728 | |||||||
| - | 360 | ||||||||
| 1,678 | 1,210 | ||||||||
| - | 1,300 | ||||||||
| 14,392 | 18,325 | ||||||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
|||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | |||||||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
|||||||||
| 18,325 | |||||||||
| - 9,983 | - 10,544 | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| 19,660 | 34,034 | ||||||||
| 9,677 | 23,490 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) Categories B1 Cash funds |
1 PayPal Tridos Account Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
Unrestricted funds to nearest £ 389 9,288 - 9,677 OK |
18/10/2025 Restricted funds Endowment funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - OK OK |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - |
| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets |
Signature Details Details Details Details |
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 JamesRosindell |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Date of approval | |||
| JamesRosindell | 19/10/2025 | ||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
18/10/2025
2