2025-10-31-accounts

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1 NOVEMBER 2024 – 31 OCTOBER 2025
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Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2024-25 SHAPING THE STORY OF OUR FUTURE

Heard Organisation Limited is a charity registered in England and Wales (1165237) and a limited company (06624806).

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS | 2024-25

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS | 2024-25

Our vision

A future where our media and culture are abundant with stories that move us towards a more equitable and sustainable world.

Our mission

We improve how stories about complex issues are told in media and popular culture. We do this by collaborating with journalists, creatives and organisations. We use research about how people make sense of stories, and co-create with people who have lived experience.

Our charitable objects

Te promotion of equality and diversity for the public benefit by:

• a. Advancing education and raising awareness in equality and diversity, particularly in respect of communities which are under-represented or misrepresented in the media.

• b. Promoting activities to foster understanding between people from diverse backgrounds by enabling access to and effective use of a range of media tools, skills and technology.

• c. Cultivating a sentiment in favour of equality and diversity by working with and training the non-profit sector and media industry.*

• We are reviewing our charitable objects in 2026 in line with transitioning to our new strategy, to ensure good practice in governance. The objects above are current at time of publishing this report and have guided our work in Heard’s past financial year 2024-25, as covered in this report.

Contents

Introduction from our chair		04
Introduction from our co-CEOs		06
**Our impact **		08
Timeline		10
Looking forward: our strategy 2026–2030		12
**Our Programmes **		14
Climate Stories Tat Work	16
Children’s Palliative Care	18
All About Trans	20
Youth Media	22
Economy	24

Sharing our approaches and deepening our impact	Sharing our approaches and deepening our impact	26
Laying foundations for the years ahead information		30
**Team **		32
Finances & statutory information		34
Legal and administrative information	35
Trustees’ report	36
Statement of trustees’ responsibilities	41
Independent auditor’s report	42
Financial statements	44
Balance sheet	45
Statement of cashflow	46
Notes to the financial statements	47

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Introduction from our chair

Alice Sachrajda Chair of the board of trustees

The stories we tell shape what people believe is possible. Right now, there is a real tension at the heart of public life: the urgency of the challenges we face - social, political, environmental - alongside a media environment that too often makes those challenges feel insurmountable rather than solvable.

However, stories, when crafted with care, can move people from fear and apathy towards belief and action. Heard exists to make that happen, equipping the media, charity and creative sectors with the research, tools and relationships they need to tell stories that expand possibility rather than deepen despair.

It is a testament to the dedication and expertise of the Heard team that, in a challenging environment, we continue to build strong relationships with our funders. This has enabled us to secure both ongoing and new funding for our programmes and core work. Alongside careful management of costs, we have maintained four months of unrestricted reserves in line with our policy, ensuring stability as we look ahead.

I have long admired Heard’s unique position at the intersection of narrative research, media and social change. If we want to see deep and lasting change in the world we need to acknowledge the tremendous power of culture in shaping our values and beliefs. I have spent many years cultivating work in this space and I see Heard as a deeply influential, collaborative and thoughtful player.

The board was excited to play an active role in shaping our new five-year strategy, convening at the outset of the strategic review, and coming together again once the team had developed a substantive draft to stress-test and refine. I’m proud that this process also gave us the chance to define values that genuinely feel ours. We’ve also formally adopted the co-CEO model, which reflects both our organisational values and the complementary strengths of Nathalie and Sophie.

Taking on the role of Chair feels both a privilege and a responsibility, one made easier by inheriting such strong foundations.

Those foundations were built in no small part by Biz (K Biswas) and Nina Spataru, whose leadership as our previous co-Chairs helped shape our strategy, fundraising, strengthen Heard’s role in the field of popular culture and social change, and embed a commitment to racial justice at the heart of our work. I’m deeply grateful for everything they contributed.

This year, Heard’s work reached a combined audience of 23.2 million people across the BBC, Sky, Apple TV and Channel 4. The team trained 1,445 media and charity professionals and supported 93 people with lived experience to shape more authentic stories.

None of this work would be possible without the commitment and support of our funders, thank you for the trust you place in us.

None of this work happens without people who care deeply about getting it right. My thanks go to Nathalie, Sophie, the trustees and the whole Heard team for their creativity, rigour and warmth. I am excited to take on the role of Chair as we implement our new strategy and I look forward to everything we will build together.

Alice Sachrajda

Chair of the board of trustees

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Introduction from our co-CEOs

We have spent the best part of two decades at the forefront of these approaches, with the good fortune of learning alongside some inspiring peers. With a sudden pique in interest in the type of work we do, we recognise we have a responsibility to share what we know, to support those newer to these approaches. This means, for example, working with peers in the field to illuminate what ‘narrative change’, ‘framing’ and ‘popular culture for change’ really mean; and sharing our learning about the contexts and ways in which they can have most impact.

The timing is opportune. The past year saw us nearing the end of our 2021-25 strategy cycle, and readying ourselves for the next chapter of Heard. We have spent the past year laying the foundations for the years ahead, as you will see on the pages ahead: making our monitoring, evaluation & learning (ME&L) more robust than ever before; exploring exciting new partnerships to reach audiences of millions; collaborating and sharing learning; strengthening our organisation and sustainability; and ultimately, kicking off our strategy development process, to define our direction over the next half-decade.

The past year has felt like something of a tipping point for Heard’s work – and for the wider field of narrative change. The runaway successes of TV shows like ‘Adolescence’ and ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’ have led to a blossoming of interest from charities and impact-focused leaders. Of course, we have long known that media and popular culture stories are an incredible spark for change – this is why we do the work we do. But we also know that shifting public mindsets in the longterm is more complex work than any single story can achieve.

Narrative change requires sustained and joined-up approaches across ecosystems. It must be underpinned by credible research into mindsets and by framing principles, to ensure stories and communications move the hearts and minds of the public at scale, in the ways intended. This work is most meaningful and enduring when it is co-created with people with lived experience – in ways that enable agency and avoid exploiting trauma.

Shaping stories that reach millions

We have most impact by shaping moments that reach millions. So in the past year, we doubled down on our popular culture and media work – with a particular focus on TV, journalism and ‘trusted messengers’ (actors, musicians, celebrities and other influencers who reach mass audiences through their personal platforms).

We ramped up our collaborations with writers, producers and commissioners across TV series and documentaries, radio, podcast, digital and campaigns. We sparked and helped to shape stories that are more engaging, authentic and impactful. These stories were shared across major global media platforms, including the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky, NOW TV, Apple TV and ABC. Collectively, these stories have reached a combined audience of more than 23 million.

People with lived experience remained central to our work – as they have been since Nathalie founded our charity, 18 years ago. Shaped by our networks and co-creation approaches, our collaborations with people with direct experience of injustices and marginalisation continued to produce stories that strengthened the depth, credibility and engagement of the shows we worked on.

We continued to share our learning. We trained creative teams at Paramount and Channel 5 and led workshops at Edinburgh TV Festival. Meanwhile, Nathalie delivered her first ever TEDx talk to a sold-out London audience. The talk, ‘Why stories of trauma don’t create change’, has now been watched 25,000+ times.

Laying the foundations for our next chapter

To future-proof the organisation, we made a number of intentional choices to embed sustainability into Heard’s foundation.

• We adopted a co-CEO model as a way to share responsibility and ensure resilient and sustainable leadership.

• We redefined our organisational values to guide our decision-making now and in the future.

• We trialled a four-day working week, testing what a more condensed and more efficient working week could look like.

• We shored up our enabling functions to ensure our core is strong: hiring a new senior finance manager, promoting internally to fill our new operations manager role, and continuing our partnership with people & culture consultancy TING.

• We hired new creative talent to bolster our work in TV.

• We started to collaborate and share our learnings across our different programmes, to enable a more intersectional and joinedup approach.

• We deep-dived our theory of change after redesigning our approach to evaluation, bringing the programmes & delivery team into this work to ensure we can be clearsighted about which activities do (and don’t) lead to the outcomes we set out to achieve.

These shifts were not without complexity. But together, they taught us important lessons about collaboration, highlighted where we needed to tighten delivery, and helped us focus more clearly on what matters most strategically.

What we’ve learnt and where Heard’s story goes next

Over the past decade in particular, our projects have shown that framing can shape storylines, influence production choices and support more constructive public understanding. The question for this next chapter is no longer whether it works – but how we scale the approach, build the capacity of others, and help embed these practices within the media itself.

As we look ahead, building on what we have already achieved, we see the next five years as an evolution. We have gathered the data we need and reflected together to help us understand what we want to carry forward and let go of. We are confident that the systems put in place this year will enable us to continue our work with care and creativity.

We recognise this is a collective effort; we are part of an ecosystem. We feel clear about the role we need to fulfil, to complement and add value alongside the expertise of our peers. We are deeply grateful to our amazing team and trustees, incredible partners, funders and wider network, whose ongoing efforts, commitment and collaboration make all of this possible.

We can’t wait for what’s next.

Nathalie McDermott and Sophie Hobson Co-CEOs

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Our impact

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Timeline 1 November 2024 – 31 October 2025

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Looking forward: our strategy 2026–2030

We kicked off our strategy development process in the financial year this report covers, completing it shortly afterwards. We are excited to share here the outline of our new five-year strategy, which has been informed by all the learning from the past year and previous years.

Overview of our ambitions

From 2026 to 2030, Heard will help shape stories anchored in framing research that reach a combined audience of 150 million across UK media and popular culture. These stories will improve how complex and contested social issues are understood, and support more informed, constructive public debate.

We will focus on where narratives have the greatest reach, anchoring our work in both research and lived experience. We will explore how to connect narratives across issues.

We will continually evaluate and share what we learn, so others can take joined-up, practical approaches to narrative change – meaning better storytelling becomes the norm.

Our three goals 2026-2030:

ANCHOR media & popular culture stories in framing research.

Over this strategy cycle, we will embed framing into media and cultural stories that reach millions, making them more impactful, engaging and authentic. Building on what we have proved works in practice, we will move from doing this in a small number of projects to developing it as a core organisational strength.

BRIDGE issues through connected narrative approaches.

Heard will move beyond approaching narrative change in ‘siloed’ issue areas. Instead, we will champion and design narrative approaches that bridge across related issues. This work will help others move towards narrative approaches and storytelling that better reflects real life and supports collective change. We will prioritise depth over breadth, focusing our resources on a limited number of connected narratives where we can add unique value.

CO-CREATE approaches with people with lived experience.

Heard will build on our recognised expertise in ethical collaboration with people with lived experience – moving from consultation on individual projects to co-creation of narrative approaches as standard across our work. We will continue to explore and model how cocreation can be done safely and meaningfully. We will share our standards, practices and learning openly. By doing so, we aim to embed stronger co-creation practice across the third sector, media and creative industries, setting clear expectations for what good looks like, and helping to shift how stories are made.

We look forward to sharing our new strategy in full in 2026 via Heard.org.uk

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Our programmes

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Climate Stories Tat Work Shifing climate apathy and anxiety to belief, agency and action

Our Climate Stories That Work programme exists to show that climate change solutions are in our grasp.

Highlights

This programme was co-founded by framing expert Nicky Hawkins who saw that the climate crisis was often presented as distant, complex and overwhelming, leading to fatalism - a sense that we can’t change outcomes or influence the future. This programme aims to change that.

• Media pilot success: 14 media outcomes, reaching a potential 22.5 million. 29 media climate consultations delivered.

Through bespoke workshops and in-depth consultations led by brilliant consultants, we equip cultural influencers, media platforms and screenwriters with emotionally resonant, researchbacked insights and creative tools to tell climate stories that move audiences.

• Sky, NBC Universal, Channel 4, Warner Bros Discovery, BBC, ITV, UKTV Paramount Global & Channel 5. Including 2 major UK soaps and 1 BAFTA-, Emmy- and Oliver award-winning actor.

Over time, these stories collectively shift climate apathy and anxiety to belief, agency and action.

• 283 media creatives, 351 impact & charity sector professionals trained

Highlights

Innovating in our approach

We brought more TV talent into our in-house team and evolved our approach to working with the media. Our consulting projects and training helped us understand how we can best engage with broadcasters, platforms and creatives.

Heard’s six evidence-backed climate framing principles:

Among Heard’s collaborations with popular culture teams, our climate work is particularly effective. In the past year, our climate team delivered 29 consultations to media and popular culture teams. Our efforts generated 14 media outcomes: TV shows or other media stories using our climate framing principles. These stories reached a combined audience of 22.5 million.

1. Make it doable: show that change is possible

2. Focus on the big things and how we can change them

3. Normalise action and change: highlight what people are already doing

4. Connect the planet’s health with our own health

On screen and on set

1. Emphasise responsibility to young people and future generations

Following a series of consultations, two major UK soaps integrated climate and nature directly into their storylines. Vegan narratives, electric vehicle story arcs and wider sustainability themes have become part of how characters and worlds are written, including one with an average audience of three million viewers per episode.

1. Keep it down to earth: avoid jargon and inaccessible language

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Both shows have incorporated renewable energy, recycling points and electric vehicles on set, which appear in multiple episodes, subtly normalising more sustainable choices to the audience.

What we learnt

Deeper engagement after training

Our foundational climate principles are accessible and impactful. But we can have more impact through ongoing engagement, after sharing these principles. We are now developing post-training structures (like a follow-up consultancy), to help sustain the relationship with production teams, talent and partners.

Talent

We held a 1:1 climate narrative framing session with a BAFTA-, Emmy- and Olivier-award-winning actor, alongside preparing bespoke briefing materials ahead of their interview at the Allied Irish Banks Sustainability Conference. The resulting message emphasised momentum and systemic change, reaching an audience of 700 and thousands more tuning in online.

Tailored workshops lead to greater impact

There’s no one-size-fits-all model. Impactful collaboration requires trust, flexibility and sensitivity to each team’s process. This means broadcasters value bespoke, hands-on sessions that engage directly with producers, writers and creatives working on specific shows. Tailored engagements have led to a more creatively fulfilling experience and to stronger uptake of our framing tools.

Training

We trained 283 creatives and 351 sector professionals, using our six evidence-backed climate framing principles. A highlight was leading a session with Paramount and Channel 5 discussing how sustainability can be embedded into stories to create real change. Over 80 creatives attended, spanning storytellers in media, production and broadcast.

‘It felt like you sowed seeds not only for this series, but for the future, too.’

– sustainability lead of a major broadcaster after a workshop with Heard

Testimonials

‘This was a terrific, eye-opening presentation. Beforehand, I believed that wedging climate change into a story would end up as preachy, or all doom-and-gloom. The team from Heard changed my mind. They provided succinct, fact-based and creative arguments on how to infuse stories with positive and relatable depictions of climate change.’

Funder thank you

Our Climate work is funded by Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Gower Street, Climate Change Collaboration and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. We are so grateful to our funders for their continued commitment and support.

– a writer from a returning BBC Drama series after a workshop with Heard

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Children’s Palliative Care Changing the way people think, feel and talk about this vital field of care

Our Children’s Palliative Care (CPC) programme helps children facing medical uncertainty – and their families – have the best possible quality of life together. From diagnosis to bereavement, dedicated teams ensure children get to be children first, experiencing comfort, connection and joy.

Highlights

Over £1m raised for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice from a campaign rooted in Heard’s framing principles.

The dominant stories about children’s palliative care focus on end-of-life and challenges, missing the full picture of what this care truly offers.

664 voluntary and healthcare professionals trained.

Instead, Heard challenges common misconceptions and humanises experiences of children’s palliative care – by helping others share stories that show complexity, compassion, joy and grief. We support families and professionals working across media, charities and healthcare to build their communication confidence, so they can shift mindsets around these vital services.

Heard’s three evidencebacked CPC principles:

1. Show how children’s palliative care is at its best

Ultimately, this leads to a shift in public understanding: reducing fear and isolation; improving access to support; and helping to secure the investment needed for high-quality care.

1. Show how children get to be children

2. Focus on the quality and range of relationships that make for great care

Highlights

National charity fundraising campaigns

Noah’s Ark

Since 2021, Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice has embedded Heard’s CPC framing principles across their entire internal and external strategy, including their fundraising campaigns. In October 2025, the charity’s ‘From That Moment’ campaign raised over £1m, exceeding their target. Over 2,000 people donated. Since adopting the principles across the organisation, they have raised £4m annually.

Haven House

Similarly, children’s hospice Haven House raised £190,000 in one evening after showing the film ‘Through Their Eyes’, created on a budget of £9,000. The film brings Heard’s framing principles to life, ‘showing how children get to be children’ by sharing everyday life at Haven House hospice through the eyes of six-year-old Charlie and his older brother, Dylan.

Testimonials

‘The Heard team put an extraordinary briefing together for us, providing a wealth of information about children’s palliative care and its spiritual dimension. Most importantly, it gave us the opportunity to meet ‘real people’ who knew this field first-hand. The session inspired me to develop a documentary idea for BBC Radio 4 and possibly other outlets.’

‘It is refreshing to share a different take on hospice care. It was very intentional for us, and we had to break a few boundaries to get the idea signed off, but we are very happy with the outcome. The feedback has been phenomenal, with responses saying they’ve never seen hospice care represented this way before. We think ‘Through Their Eyes’ reframes the public’s perception of end-of-life care.’ – Teena Antoniou, head of marketing & communications, Haven House

– Kristine Pommert, head of radio,

‘Collaborating with Heard on our research bid didn’t just strengthen the submission – it transformed it. More importantly, the partnership reshaped how we routinely speak about children’s palliative care, giving us a clearer, more compassionate language that is already influencing our clinical practice and research’ – Dr. Karen Shaw, research psychologist, University of Birmingham

Training and networks

Through our training workshops, we equipped 664 professionals across the voluntary and healthcare sectors with the practical framing tools needed to embed narrative change principles in their everyday practice.

‘Being part of the network has enabled me to process my own experiences, gain confidence with telling my story, and also my daughter’s story. The work the network is doing to challenge misconceptions around children’s palliative care is essential, and it is a privilege to be part of it.’

To ensure accurate and sensitive representation of children’s palliative care, we hosted 10 sessions, convening eight media professionals with members from our lived experience Spokesperson Network.

– Dan McEvoy, spokesperson network member

What we learnt

2. Partner with news producers shaping narratives across multiple formats

1. Early leadership buy-in enables lasting change

Our impact is dependent on equipping organisations with the tools and confidence they need to lead narrative change themselves. To ensure that our work is embedded as a longterm strategic commitment and not viewed as a one-off communications project, we need to engage leaders early – to embed our work across whole organisations. Collective impact comes from alignment and repetition.

To shift narratives around children’s palliative care with the wider public, we’ve realised we need to focus on news and current affairs. We will prioritise working with producers in long-term roles, who have the ability to influence output across channels and programmes.

Our Children’s Palliative Care work has been made possible through the generous support of our funder True Colours Trust.

Funder thank you

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All About Trans Reflecting the joy, love, creativity and resilience of trans lives

Heard’s All About Trans programme exists to tell stories that reflect the real lives of trans people – lives that are full of joy, love, creativity and resilience.

Inaccurate and harmful narratives about the trans community distort the public’s understanding of trans, non-binary and gender-questioning people. We help shape more authentic, nuanced and human trans stories. We do this by working directly with our 37 All About Trans network members; and collaborating with media professionals from across soaps, dramas and news media.

Highlights

Highlights

Podcast script consultation

The script of the four-part ‘British Scandal’ podcast series about trans activist, actress, and model April Ashley MBE was shaped by our team, in collaboration with members of the All About Trans network.

• Script consultation for ‘British Scandal’ podcast: a four-part series telling the story of activist, actress and model April Ashley MBE.

• Former network member Paris Lees’ critically acclaimed memoir adapted into BBC drama ‘What It Feels Like For A Girl’.

Throughout the series, which was a Samizdat Audio production for podcast studio Wondery, April is portrayed as strong, courageous, and deeply human. Her transness plays an important part in her story, but it is handled with respect and depth – presenting her as far more than her trans identity alone.

• Formed the Gendered Intelligence Coalition.

‘I really enjoyed working on this interaction because of the content and the determination of the client to maintain positive representation and accuracy. It was also fab to work with Heard’s programme manager, who was so helpful and supportive throughout … with their knowledge and support, along with the support of the producer, we were able to be heard and our points acknowledged.’ – Eva Echo, All About Trans network member who collaborated with us on the ‘British Scandal’ script.

All About Trans network: shaping careers and cultural change

Paris Lees was a founding member of All About Trans and one of the early contributors we supported as part of our work to transform media narratives about trans lives. Through media consulting, connections and collaboration, we helped build the foundations of her public voice and profile. Paris went on to become a Vogue columnist and BBC Radio 1 and Channel 4 presenter, and this year her critically acclaimed memoir was adapted into the BBC drama ‘What It Feels Like For A Girl’.

Network members Eva Echo and Freddy McConnell worked with The Deadline on this article titled: ‘J.K. Rowling: Warner Bros. Discovery & BBC Accused Of Betraying DEI Policies By Backing ‘Harry Potter’ Author Amid Trans Rights Row’.

To help enrich Queer AF Podcast’s ’Back when boys, played girls, pretending to be boys’ episode, we connected the publication with the Globe Theatre, following our work on a production there in 2022. It was one of the best performing episodes of the season.

Training

Testimonials

We delivered 13 training sessions with media and creative professionals, including journalists, podcast producers and publicists. We also supported 20 people with lived experience through peer groups, training and media briefings, equipping them to engage safely and confidently with the media.

‘The participants were willing to offer insights which have given me a far broader perspective on the challenges facing the trans community in the UK today. I feel better informed and also more empowered to write about this respectfully.’

– media professional, following an interaction with an All About Trans network member

Co-created the Trans Rights Coalition

To move towards a more united approach, in March 2025 we brought together 20 representatives from organisations across the trans rights sector to discuss what collective action could look like. In September 2025, we built on this discussion and co-created the Trans Rights Coalition, in partnership with Gendered Intelligence, with seven organisations.

‘To be heard and acknowledged, whilst having my expertise respected, was incredibly empowering and also made me realise that we do have allies in the media who are willing to ensure there is accurate storytelling and representation.’

– Eva Echo, All About Trans network member, following an interaction with a media professional

What we learnt

1. Shared learnings across programmes

By sharing and applying learnings across programmes, we can maximise our impact and ensure that resources are used effectively and responsibly. For example, our All About Trans team was inspired by how our Children’s Palliative Care team structured their spokesperson network, collaborated with the sector and ran their sessions. Together, we reflected on what worked and what didn’t, and how collective impact theory can underpin approach. This led to rich learning for shaping the next phase of our All About Trans programme.

‘With the way the world seems currently, and only being subjected to negative narrative on trans people via the media – it can leave you feeling helpless or overwhelmed. So it was fantastic to come together and feel like there is work happening, there is a way to communicate effectively, and actually I feel inspired. I will be using the guidelines in my everyday at work.’

• Ash Palmisciano, actor and network member, following an interaction with a media professional

2. Lived experience helps uncover our gaps in our thinking

Funder thank you

We recognise that we have gaps in our understanding when it comes to the lived experiences of trans people. This makes the All About Trans network central to shaping our work and means we invest significant time in understanding the individual needs of everyone involved. We are also constantly asking for feedback to challenge our assumptions and improve our own practice. We ensure the voices of people with lived experience are not just included, but centred.

Our All About Trans programme is funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Mewburn Ellis. Our sincere thanks to our funders for their continued trust, partnership and support.

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Youth Media Creating stories where our differences are celebrated and normalised

Highlights

• We listened to our network of young people with lived experience of migration to evolve our Media Movers programme into a new programme: Youth Media.

Evolving our programme: from Media Movers into Youth Media

Launched in August 2025, our Youth Media programme builds on the learning from our Media Movers programme, which supported young people from migration backgrounds to engage safely and effectively with the media. This foundation of previously established relationships and learnings helps us to launch the programme with prior insights, trust and practical experience.

What we learnt from Media Movers

1. Migration is rarely understood as a broader human experience. It is instead viewed through a narrow, often inaccurate lens, influenced by headlines and political narratives.

2. Effective storytelling should focus on lived experience rather than representation alone. Stories need to centre the multilayered identities of young people – including migration, diaspora, faith and culture – rather than reducing them to single issues or stereotypical narratives.

Programme set up: building a strong foundation

To support the early-stage development of this programme, we focused on building youth-sector partnerships, starting conversations with eight organisations. We also started to have exploratory conversations with creatives and commissioners, focused on improving representation within youth media.

We delivered a Shifting Media Narratives workshop at the Justice Together conference, attended by 22 people. We also delivered two days of training with charity Hestia, which has a focus on antitrafficking. All participants (100%) reported increased confidence in communicating strategically and safely to the media about trafficking and modern slavery.

• We delivered two training days for experienced ambassadors of charity Hestia – 100% left feeling more confident communicating strategically and safely.

Our Youth Media programme exists to ensure children from migration backgrounds and racialised communities see themselves authentically represented in the media they engage with.

We help shape stories where our differences are celebrated and normalised – stories that centre the multilayered identities of young people, including migration, diaspora, faith and culture – rather than reducing them to single-issue or stereotypical narratives.

As extremism, racism and anti-migration rhetoric continue to rise, the stories that young people engage with matter more than ever. When the diversity of society is normalised in the media that young people watch and enjoy, it helps expand how we view the world. This reduces fear of the ‘other’ and supports the development of empathy and respect from an early age.

Funders thank you

Our new Youth Media programme is funded by Barrow Cadbury Trust and Rayne Foundation. Thank you for believing in us and our shared vision.

‘Honestly life-changing; immensely happy with what I learned. I also found the experience very inspiring.’

– training participant with lived experience.

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Economy Shifing cultural perceptions of the economy across popular culture

What we learnt

Te programme so far

Connect early and share resources to amplify impact

We began work on this programme in March 2025, with a literature scan of existing new economy research and framing insights. We have identified a network of people with lived experience of economic injustice. They will help us identify the frames and metaphors that can be used in content and stories that reach millions, helping ordinary people understand and talk about how our economy could work better for us all.

If we work together and share our knowledge and resources, we can accelerate our impact. We are excited to be part of a learning cohort convened by our funder, Friends Provident Foundation. This means we are regularly connecting and collaborating with other grantees working in a similar ecosystem, including Poverty Truth Network, The Equality Trust and Rethinking Economics. Together with two of our lived experience consultants, we were invited to join the Poverty Truth Network’s annual gathering to share learning and build community. We left feeling immense hope for this work.

We recognise that current economic design contributes to multiple forms of systemic inequity and climate destruction – for example, through a relentless pursuit of short-term profit growth and extractive consumerism. Yet there are many leaders, governments and organisations who support and are working towards economic approaches that work better for people and planet.

Our new Economy programme explores how we can shift public mindsets about the economy – to understand that different approaches are possible, and that we all have agency over how our economy is designed.

We are building on our learning from almost a decade of experience in working on poverty and financial hardship (through our previous programme, Talking About Poverty). We are now bringing this learning together with framing research, and co-creating our approaches with consultants with lived experience of economic injustice. Together, we will create relatable, down-to-earth ways of talking about the economy, so change feels accessible. We will help media and popular culture creators bring these stories to life, so they can shift the mindsets of millions.

Funder thank you

Our Economy programme is funded by the Friends Provident Foundation. Thank you for your backing and commitment to help us get this programme off the ground.

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Sharing our approaches and deepening our impact

Designed for teams with limited budgets, the course shows how to communicate about social and environmental issues in ways that build understanding, support long-term change, and avoid fear-based or divisive storytelling. The course introduces the core principles of framing and narrative change, with practical applications across campaigns, fundraising, internal communications and leadership.

Communication Tat Works

The course consists of one core programme, structured across three chapters:

How was the course developed?

1. The Power of Words and Stories

For years, Heard delivered the majority of our work as in-person training for charities and campaigners. But we often had more demand for our training than we had capacity to deliver; and the cost of in-person training was a barrier for smaller charities and freelancers. Many organisations and individuals told us they needed this type of learning, but they would benefit from more affordable and/or flexible training.

1. Facts, Fear and Feelings

2. The Three Golden Rules

The course was developed over two years, building on Heard’s extensive experience delivering in-person training and advisory work.

The online format supports different learning styles, combining short videos with practical exercises, reflection and real-life examples. A downloadable workbook supports learning throughout. The course is self-paced and takes six hours to complete. Participants get independent access for six months, allowing time to revisit materials and apply learning in their own work.

At the same time, demand for practical narrative change skills has grown. Particularly for people working with limited budgets, across high-pressure, complex issues – where it really matters.

So in September 2025, we adapted our Communication That Works to become an online course. Our intention is to remove the barriers to learning our approaches: making our training more accessible, more flexible and accessible to many more people.

Pilot phase

In autumn 2024, we piloted three versions of the training:

What is Communication Tat Works?

1. A general course for charity communications professionals

Communication That Works is a self-paced online training course for people working in charities, social and environmental justice, campaigning and communications – including communications managers, leaders and freelancers.

1. A poverty-focused course for people and organisations communicating on poverty

2. A migration-focused course for people and organisations communicating on migration

The poverty and migration-focused courses were both co-designed and co-facilitated with lived experience consultants, ensuring the training was grounded, relevant and informed by real insight.

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Across the two-year pilot, the training was completed by 71 participants. The pilots enabled us to test and refine the content, structure and learning outcomes.

‘Te course has been profoundly informative and impactul, not only in reshaping my approach as a communications professional, but also in influencing how I think about and discuss social issues in all areas of my life.’

Across poverty and migration-focused pilots, 80–100% of participants increased their understanding of framing and narrative change and their confidence in communicating with impact.

‘The course has been profoundly informative and impactful, not only in reshaping my approach as a communications professional, but also in influencing how I think about and discuss social issues in all areas of my life.’ - course participant

– Fern Bain Smith, Marylebone Project

What we learnt?

1. Online delivery requires realistic staff capacity Although the pilot online course was designed to reach more people, it initially required more staff time than in-person delivery, due to participant recruitment and marking answers. We learnt that, to scale this learning in a sustainable and manageable way, we need more automation in assessments (i.e. how answers are marked).

2. Flexible, self-paced learning works best Participants preferred learning at their own pace. Although the pilot began as a hybrid model, feedback led to the rollout of a fully self-led online version, which recognised that hybrid formats don’t suit everyone.

2. Lived experience strengthens quality and relevance

5. Recruitment partnerships increase reach and diversity

Co-designing the training with people with lived experience enriched the programme. Our lived experience facilitators shaped content throughout, resulting in two pivotal new sections and deeper insight. This approach remains central to the future delivery of the course.

The courses supported by partner networks had higher rates of engagement. Future course delivery should use consistent recruitment partnerships, alongside a standardised application process, with monitoring questions to support participant diversity.

3. Accessibility must be intentional, not reactive

6. Charging improves retention

Feedback highlighted gaps in accessibility, particularly for blind or partially sighted participants. While some adjustments were made at the time, they were insufficient. Future training will be reviewed through an accessibility lens from the outset.

The free pilot courses experienced higher drop-off rates. Feedback indicates that charging increases participant commitment, with most willing to pay between £250-£500. However, smaller charities required lower price points. Future pricing will need to balance accessibility with retention.

What’s next?

• Expand reach to more charities, freelancers and campaigners

We want to help shift narratives in scalable, sustainable and joined-up ways. Our Communication That Works course provides one lever towards achieving this.

• Gather deeper impact data on how learning is applied in practice

• Explore issue-specific extensions or companion modules

As the course continues to evolve, we are interested in exploring how we can:

• Continue to refine content based on feedback

Sharing our learning with the sector and beyond

We know that to be able to shift narratives at scale, beyond the projects and organisations we work with directly, we need to share our learnings with organisations working across the media and wider sector ecosystem.

Highlights

As a team we engaged in 17 speaking engagements, which reached an in-person audience of 2,500+.

In January 2025, our founder and co-CEO Nathalie McDermott took to the stage to deliver her first ever TEDx talk ‘Why stories of trauma don’t create change’, to a sold-out audience of 1,300. In it, she explored a pattern many of us working in campaigning, storytelling and journalism will recognise: a harmful over-reliance on stories of trauma; and what we can do instead, to share stories that create greater impact. Now watched over 25,000 times, the talk has gone on to spark many conversations beyond that room. For example, Nathalie was invited back by TEDx London to share her reflections on the impact of Netflix hit ‘Adolescence’ in a TEDxLondon panel.

Other members of our team also took to the stage throughout the year, speaking at a number of events and conferences. Co-CEO Sophie Hobson spoke to 600 senior leaders at Holland & Barrett, suggesting our approaches are gaining interest and appeal beyond just the impact ecosystem.

Meanwhile, our climate team built creative connections and shared our approaches at the Edinburgh TV Festival and the Sheffield DocFest.

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Laying foundations for the years ahead

We know that to do our work well, over a long period of time, we need to build organisational resilience and work at a sustainable pace. Below we explore the ways we strengthened Heard, to help us prepare for the years ahead – and to lay the foundations for our next strategic chapter.

1. Co-CEO model

To deliver our work and empower our team, we need grounded, supported leadership.

In January 2025, our founder Nathalie McDermott returned from her sabbatical and joined Sophie Hobson as co-CEO – marking a new chapter in Heard’s leadership.

Sophie, previously our acting CEO and director of communications and engagement, joined Nathalie in a new leadership model, reflecting Heard’s collaborative ethos and promoting our commitment to shared accountability, wellbeing and balance.

Our values

We are brave. We think big because we know real change takes time. We take bold, ambitious steps forward to further our impact. We make space for difficult conversations and reflection.

We care for people. We create spaces where people feel safe, seen and heard. We support each other with compassion. We prioritise wellbeing, including our own. We practice boundaries, nurture our resilience, and intentionally find joy.

We are collaborative. We believe that collaboration sparks ideas, deepens understanding and drives impact. We bring together diverse perspectives, skills and experiences to build more inclusive and effective solutions. We share our learning to further narrative change approaches.

We nurture creativity. We stay playful, curious and open-minded. We make space for experimentation and play to the creative strengths of partners and collaborators.

We listen. We listen to the people who are usually least heard. We support them to speak out, lead and take ownership. We know when to lean into our own experiences, when to lead and when to step aside. We stay accountable to the impact of our actions, not just our intentions.

What we learnt

1. Find the version that works for your organisation – the four-day work week can be structured in many different ways, and every organisation is different. There is no one size fits all approach, so take the time to work out what fits best for your needs.

2. Work smarter not harder – the trial forced us to reevaluate our systems. It helped question what’s necessary and what’s not to deliver our work, pushing us to be more efficient with time and resources.

3. Transitions don’t happen overnight – there will undoubtedly be roadblocks along the way and all of this takes time. The prolonged trial period meant we could explore if this significant shift actually worked for us, before committing to it.

What we learnt

1. Two heads are better than one – shared leadership has helped reduce pressure, widen perspective and build resilience. Being a charity CEO is an enormous privilege, but it’s well documented that it can often feel lonely and burdensome. Two heads mean that we can share the responsibility of the best ways to create change while supporting our team. Decisions are shared and assumptions are challenged – reducing risk and increasing impact.

2. There’s always an adjustment period – as with any new way of working, the new leadership model required patience and flexibility from both the co-CEOs and also our wider team.

3. Communication has to be excellent – from coordinating diaries and communicating capacity, to giving candid feedback – open and honest communication is essential.

2. Redefining our organisational values

Through a collaborative process involving team, trustees and our lived experience networks, we redefined our organisational values. Our updated values act as the principles we come back to when we are unsure how to move forward. They guide all of our strategic decisionmaking, as well as recruitment, policy and organisation culture.

3. Four-day work week trial

Rest and a healthy work-life balance is something we truly value at Heard. A well-rested and fulfilled team is also a productive and happy team.

Following a staff consultation on how to create a more anti-oppressive culture that centres wellbeing, we started our four-day work week trial in July 2025, which saw us condense our hours from 35 to 32, across Monday to Thursday.

The eight-month trial will be independently evaluated by Autonomy. So far, it has surfaced useful reflections and actions for how we can realise greater efficiencies, collaboration and productivity. The trial will finish in early 2026, and informed by the independent evaluation, the board will decide whether to permanently embed this way of working.

Regardless of the decision, it has been a huge learning curve for us in terms of efficiency and living our values.

4. Strengthening our team & skills

To strengthen our TV sector knowledge and industry connections, a key area of focus moving forward, we created two new roles with specialisms in TV and talent, hiring people directly from the TV industry.

To ensure our day-to-day operations ran smoothly, we were thrilled to welcome Moira Williams to oversee finance and support governance – she brings +25 years’ charity finance expertise. We also promoted Jay Davis to operations manager, recognising the importance of strong enabling functions to free up capacity and find efficiencies across the organisation.

We continued our HR partnership with Peninsula and people & culture consultancy TING, to continue building strong team relationships and culture.

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Executive team TEAM Nathalie Sophie Melissa McDermott Hobson Murdock Founder & Co-Chief Co-Chief Head of Executive Officer Executive Officer Programmes & Impact

Team

Aimee Consiglia Aishah Andrea Chiara Emily Conway Siddiqa Suwito Varè Horton Senior Programme Senior Programme Programme Senior Senior Manager Manager Coordinator Programme Communications Children’s Palliative Care Climate Stories across all Manager Manager That Work Children’s (joined June 2025) programmes (joined November 2025) and Economy Palliative Care

Grace Jay Makaela Moira Siobhán Hetherington Davis Lewis Williams Williams-Mourgue Programme Manager Operations Programme Manager Finance Manager Programme Manager Climate Stories That Work Manager All About Trans and (joined April 2025) Climate Stories That Work (joined August 2025) Youth Media (joined July 2025)

Tanicha Zino Zoë Toro-Oloto Akaka Speekenbrink Programme Coordinator Senior Programme Senior Programme Climate Stories That Manager Manager Work Economy Youth Media

(left January 2026)

Consultants

----- Start of picture text -----
Nicky Paige Tara Tracy
Hawkins Wilson Kerr-Elliott Rennie
----- End of picture text -----

Trustees

Alice Biz Bilaal Carrie-Ann Eva Sachrajda (K Biswas) Tariq Wade Gandhi Chair Chair Trustee Trustee Trustee (appointed (resigned (appointed (appointed (appointed 21.01.26) 17.03.2026) 16.07.2025) 16.12.2024) 27.11.2025)

Ewan Kai Nicole Nina Princess Bennie Grygier Lai Spataru Ashilokun Trustee Trustee Trustee Co-chair Trustee (resigned (appointed (resigned 27.11.2025) 12.12.2024) 30.04.2025)

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Finances & statutory information

Legal and administrative information

Charity number (England and Wales) 1165237

The Green House Cambridge Heath Road London United Kingdom E2 9DA

Company number

06624806

Auditors

Bankers

Insignis

Sedulo Audit Limited 5th Floor Walker House Exchange Flags Liverpool Merseyside United Kingdom L2 3YL

The Co-operative Bank

8 Devonshire Square London EC2M 4YJ

Delf House Skelmersdale WN8 6GH

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT

(INCLUDING DIRECTORS’ REPORT)

For the year ended 31 October 2025

For Heard Organisation Limited (Formerly On Road Limited)

The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 October 2025.

Public benefit

The Trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the Trust’s aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. In particular, the Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the charity’s governing document, the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” and the Charities SORP “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)”.

Financial review

The results for the year show a deficit of £184,829 (2024: surplus of £311,739). The deficit on restricted funds arose due to grant funding for several programmes being received during the previous financial year, with the expenditure relating to these projects being expended in this financial year.

Objectives and activities

Heard Organisation Limited is required by charity and company laws to act within the objects of its Memorandum of Association, which are as follows:

Heard’s total income in the year was £929,081, a decrease of 35.5% from the previous year (2024: £1,412,680). The drop in income is due to several large multi – year grants being paid in the prior year. The charity’s main source of income continues to be from grants received from charitable trusts and foundations: 2025 £883,810 (2024: £1,344,680). Earned income from training and research work reduced to £17,051, a decrease of 61% from the previous year (2024: £44,343).

The promotion of equality and diversity for the public benefit by:

• Advancing education and raising awareness in equality and diversity, particularly in respect of communities which are under-represented or misrepresented in the media.

• Promoting activities to foster understanding between people from diverse backgrounds by enabling access to and effective use of a range of media tools, skills and technology

• Cultivating a sentiment in favour of equality and diversity by working with and training the voluntary sector and the media industry.

We reduced our focus on earned income in 2024-25 to focus on programme deliverables and rethink our approach to earned income In the years ahead, we will prioritise growth in earned income in order to diversify Heard’s funding base.

Reserves policy

The board has set a reserves policy that requires reserves to be maintained at a level that ensures that Heard’s core activity could continue during a period of unforeseen difficulty. A proportion of reserves is maintained in a readily realisable form. The calculation of the required level of reserves in an integral part of the organisation’s planning, budget, and forecast cycle.

Our total expenditure in the year was £1,113,910 (2024: £1,100,941). We increased expenditure on fundraising using the designated funds to help secure grant funding in a very competitive environment.

The policy considers:

Reserves

• Risks associated with each stream of income and expenditure being different from that budgeted.

At the year-end restricted reserves stood at £391,960 (2024: £586,648) and unrestricted reserves at £386,843 (2024: £376,984). Free reserves held were £301,660 (2024: £306,738), representing unrestricted funds excluding those held in tangible fixed assets or designated for specific purposes.

• Planned activity level.

• Organisation’s commitment.

For 2025-26, the board agreed that the most appropriate level reserves is an amount that equates to between three (£225,000) and six (£450,000) months running costs for the organisation. Running costs include salaries (excluding freelancers), rent and overheads. Heard’s current level of reserves is within the target range, representing 4 months.

The trustees decided to designate a further £63,415 taking total designated funds to £79,600 (2024: £62,000); Of this £79,600, £36,600 (2024: £35,000) is for investment in Heard’s fundraising capacity, £13,000 (2024: £27,000) for external consultancy work and £30,000 (2024: £nil) for income generation.

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Major risks

The trustees have a risk management strategy which comprises:

• Quarterly review of a risk register noting risks the charity may face and outlining mitigating actions being taken.

• Processes that allow the trustees oversight over mitigating actions implemented by the staff team to reduce likelihood of risks occurring.

• Procedures designed to minimise the negative impact on the charity should those risks materialise.

The major risks the Trust currently faces and mitigation are:

• Continuing risk to our grant income due to uncertainties in the future. Therefore we have set up designated reserves in order for us to support and develop the charities activities and fundraising.

• Cyber-security - Recently there has been growing awareness of the risk posed to charities and other sectors from data breaches, primarily due to phishing attacks, that result in financial loss or reputational damage. We have cyber security insurance in place, and our IT company pick up any suspicious activity and work with us to ensure protection measures are in place and kept up to date.

Plans for the future:

Our 2026–2030 strategy sets out a focused plan to strengthen Heard’s role as a catalyst for fairer, more accurate and humane storytelling across the media ecosystem. Over the next five years we will deepen our work with communities most affected by misrepresentation, expand partnerships with journalists, producers and sector leaders, and invest in programmes that shift narratives from harm and stigma toward dignity, agency and systemic understanding.

We will build our research and insight function to evidence what drives narrative change in practice, translate learning into practical tools for the media and civil society, and embed a clearer pathway from participation to influence for the people and organisations we support.

Alongside this, we will strengthen organisational resilience by diversifying our income with a particular emphasis on growing unrestricted income and applying insights from our recently commissioned earned income report to develop our training and advisory offer, broaden our customer base, and reduce dependency on shortterm programme funding.

This strategy balances ambition with discipline: targeting fewer, higher-impact programmes, investing in our people and partnerships, and ensuring Heard remains equipped to deliver meaningful, measurable change in a volatile external environment.

Going concern

The trustees have prepared cash flow forecasts for a period of at least 12 months from the date of approval of these financial statements (“the going concern period”). These forecasts considered the risks to the charity’s business model, particularly the reliability of Heard’s fundraising forecasts and costs increases due to inflation and analysed how those risks might affect the charity’s financial resources or ability to continue operations over the going concern period. Their planning processes, including financial and cash flow projections, has considered alternative scenarios and they expect to be able to match potential shortfalls of income with a reduction in cost as Heard receives most of its income at the start of projects.

The trustees believe that Heard holds sufficient free reserves to provide cover for any unexpected changes in income and expenditure to allow time to adjust the charity’s cost base and continue activities. The charity’s management team and trustees continually monitor the charity’s actual and forecasted financial performance and manage the finances accordingly.

Consequently, the trustees have concluded that there are no material uncertainties that could cast significant doubt over the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for at least 12 months from the date of approval of the financial statements, and therefore, have prepared the financial statements on a going basis.

Structure, governance and management

The charity is controlled by its governing document, Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 19 June 2008, and constitutes a limited company limited by guarantee as defined by the Companies Act 2006. It is also registered as a charity with the Charity Commission.

Anyone over the age of 18 can become a member of the Company and there are currently six members. Each member promises, if the company is dissolved while they are a member or within twelve months they cease to be a member, to contribute such sum (not exceeding £10) as may be demanded of them towards the payment of the debts and liabilities of the Company and the costs charges and expenses of winding up, and the adjustment of the rights of the contributories among themselves.

The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:

A Sachrajda - Chair (Appointed 21.01.26) N Spataru (Resigned 30 April 2025) K Grygier (Resigned 27 November 2025) P Ashilokun

E Bennie

K Biswas (Resigned 17 March 2026) N C Lai (Appointed 12 December 2024) C-A Wade (Appointed 16 December 2024) B Tariq (Appointed 16 July 2025) E Gandhi (Appointed 27 November 2025)

Recruitment and appointment of trustees

As set out in the Articles of Association the chair of trustees is nominated by the elected trustees. Trustees are elected by the members of the charitable company attending the Annual General Meeting and serve for a period of three years. The trustees have the power to co-opt up to two further members to fill specialist roles. All members are circulated with invitations to nominate trustees prior to the AGM advising them of the retiring trustees and requesting nominations for the AGM. When considering co-opting trustees, the board has regard to the requirement for any specialist skills needed.

Organisational structure

The board of trustees, which can have up to 15 members administers the charity. The board meets on a quarterly basis. A chief executive is appointed by the trustees to manage the day-to-day operations of the charity. To facilitate effective operations, the Chief Executive has delegated authority, within terms of delegation approved by the trustees, for operational matters including finance, employment and project-specific related activity.

The key management personnel who make up the Executive Team are:

Nathalie McDermott – Founder and coCEO

Sophie Hobson – co-CEO

Melissa Murdock - Head of Programmes and Impact

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STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES

Induction and training of trustees

New trustees undergo an orientation that covers:

• Their legal obligations under charity and company law

• Charity Commission guidance on public benefit

• The memorandum and articles of association

• The committee and decision-making processes

• Heard’s business plan and recent financial performance of the charity

During the induction day, they meet key employees and other trustees. Trustees are encouraged to attend appropriate external training events where these will facilitate the undertaking of their role.

Auditor

In accordance with the company’s articles, a resolution proposing that Sedulo Audit Limited be reappointed as auditor of the company will be put at a General Meeting.

Disclosure of information to auditor

Each of the trustees has confirmed that there is no information of which they are aware which is relevant to the audit, but of which the auditor is unaware. They have further confirmed that they have taken appropriate steps to identify such relevant information and to establish that the auditor is aware of such information.

The trustees’ report was approved by the Board of Trustees.

A Sachrajda - Chair Date: 04/05/2026

The trustees, who are also the directors of Heard Organisation Limited for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.

In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;

• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

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INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT

Opinion

Other information

We have audited the financial statements of Heard Organisation Limited (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 31 October 2025 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Sheet, the Statement of Cash Flows and Notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

The Trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

In our opinion the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 October 2025, and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

Basis for opinion

• the information given in the Trustees’ report (incorporating the Directors’ report) for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s Responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

• the Trustees’ report (incorporating the Directors’ report) has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of our knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Directors’ report.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate. Our evaluation of the Trustees’ assessment of the entity’s ability to continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting included critical reviews of budgets and forecasts provided.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• adequate accounting records have not been kept by the charitable company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

• the charitable company’s financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• certain disclosures of Directors’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

• the Trustees were entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies’

regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the Directors’ report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the Trustees’ responsibilities statement included in the Trustees’ Annual Report, the Trustees (who are also the Directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the Trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the Trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of noncompliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The specific procedures for this engagement and the extent to which these are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

• Obtaining an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks that the entity operates in, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a direct effect on the financial statements;

• Enquiry of management to identify any instances of known or suspected instances of fraud;

• Enquiry of management and those charged with governance around actual and potential litigation and claims;

• Reviewing legal and professional nominal accounts to identify any potentially undisclosed litigations or claims;

• Enquiry of management about any instances of noncompliance with laws and regulations;

• Reviewing the design and implementation of control systems in place.

• Testing the operational effectiveness of the controls;

• Performing audit work over the risk of management override of controls, including testing of journal entries and other adjustments for appropriateness;

• Evaluating the business rationale of significant transactions outside the normal course of business;

• Reviewing accounting estimates for bias;

• Reviewing minutes of meetings of those charged with governance; and

• Reviewing financial statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website.

This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of this report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Katelyn Dutton ACA (Senior Statutory Auditor)

For and on behalf of Sedulo Audit Limited, Statutory Auditor Chartered Accountants

605 Albert House

• 256-260 Old Street

London

EC1V 9DD

United Kingdom

Date: 04/05/2026

Sedulo Audit Limited is eligible for appointment as auditor of the charitable company by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.

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TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS | 2024-25

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Statement of Financial Activities Incorporating an income and expenditure account

For the year ended 31st October 2025

Unrestricted Funds 2025 Notes £ Income from� Donations and �egacies 3 232,589 �haritable activities 4 17,051 Investments 5 17,594 Other 5 626 Total 267,860 Expenditure on� �aising �unds 6 35,198 Charitable activities 7,8 226,632 Total Expenditure 261,830 Net Income and movement in funds 9 6,030 Transfer between funds 3,829 Reconciliaiton of Funds� Total funds brought forward 376,984 Fund Balances at 31 October 2025 19,20 386,843	Restricted Funds 2025 £ 661,221 - - - 661,221 - 852,080 852,080 -190,859 -3,829 586,648 391,960	Total 2025 £ 893,810 17,051 17,594 626 929,081 35,198 1,078,712 1,113,910 -184,829 - 963,632 778,803	Unrestricted Funds 2024 £ 219,059 44,343 7,498 - 270,900 3,475 199,634 203,109 67,791 - 309,193 376,984	Restricted Funds 2024 £ 1,141,780 - - - 1,141,780 - 897,832 897,832 243,948 - 342,700 586,648	Total 2024 £ 1,360,839 44,343 7,498 - 1,412,680 3,475 1,097,466 1,100,941 311,739 - 651,893 963,632

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

The notes on pages 49to 61 form part of these financial statements.

BALANCE SHEET

As at 31st October 2025

2025 Notes £ Fixed assets� Tangible assets 14 5,583 Total fixed assets 5,583 Current assets� Debtors 15 22,322 �ash at bank and in hand 791,800 Total current assets 814,122 Liabilities� �reditors� Amounts falling due within one year 16 40,902 �reditors� Amounts falling due after one year - Net current assets 773,220 Total net assets 778,803 The funds of the charity� �estricted income funds 19 391,960 �nrestricted funds 20 386,843 Total charity funds 21 778,803

2024 £ 8,246 8,246 76,296 934,877 1,011,173 55,787 - 955,386 963,632 586,648 376,984 963,632

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 with respect to accounting records and the preparation of financial statements. These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

The financial statements were approved by the trustees on 04/05/2026

A Sachrajda

Chair

Company registration number 06624806 (England and Wales)

The notes on pages 49to 61 form part of these financial statements.

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TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS | 2024-25

Statement of Cashflows

For the year ended 31st October 2025

HEARD ORGANISATION LIMITED

STATEMENT OF CASH FLO�S FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

2025 Notes £ Net cash provided by/(used in) operating activities 26 -158,973 Cash flows from investing activities: �urchase of tangible fixed assets -1,698 Investment income received 17,594 Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities 15,896 Change in cash and cash e�uivalents in the reporting period -143,077 Cash and cash e�uivalents at the beginning of the reporting period 934,877 Cash and cash e�uivalents at the end of the reporting period 26 791,800

2024 £ 128,268 -7,856 7,498 -358 127,910 806,967 934,877

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended 31st October 2025

1. Accounting policies

Charity information

Heard Organisation Limited is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is The Green House, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9DA, United Kingdom.

1.1 Accounting convention

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity’s governing document, the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” and the Charities SORP Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing theiraccounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

1.2 Going concern

The trustees have prepared cash flow forecasts for a period of at least 12 months from the date of approval of these financial statements (“the going concern period”). These forecasts considered the risks to the charity’s business model, particularly the reliability of fundraising forecasts and costs increases due to high inflation, and analysed how those risks might affect the charity’s financial resources or ability to continue operations over the going concern period. Their planning processes, including financial and cash flow projections, has considered alternative scenarios and they expect to be able to match potential shortfalls of income with a reduction in cost as the charity receives most of its income at the start of projects.

The trustees believe that the charity holds sufficient free reserves to provide cover for any unexpected changes in income and expenditure to allow time to adjust the charity’s cost base and continue activities. The charity’s management team and trustees continually monitor the charity’s actual and forecasted financial performance and manage the finances accordingly. Consequently, the trustees have concluded that there are no material uncertainties that could cast significant doubt over the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for at least 12 months from the date of approval of the financial statements, and therefore, have prepared the financial statements on a going basis.

1.3 Charitable funds

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.

Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the management committee for particular purposes.

Transfers from restricted to unrestricted funds are made when the expending of the funds has fulfilled the terms of the restriction.

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Notes to the Financial Statements

1.9 Financial instruments

The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

For the year ended 31st October 2025

Accounting policies (continued)

1.4 Income

Grant income is recognised when the charity is legally entitled to it after any performance conditions have been met, the amounts can be measured reliably, and it is probable that income will be received.

Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.

Service income is recognised when the service has been carried out by the charity. If a service has been invoiced in advance, income is deferred until the work has been completed.

Investment income is interest on funds held in deposit and is included in the year in which it is receivable and when the amount can be measured reliably.

1.5 Expenditure

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement, and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.

Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges are allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.

1.6 Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses. All assets costing more than £500 are capitalised and valued at fair value.

Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:

Fixtures and fittings	33% on cost
Computers Telephones	33% on cost 50% on cost

The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.

1.7 Impairment of fixed assets

At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).

1.8 Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other shortterm liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. 48 Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.

Financial instruments are recognised in the charity’s balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

Basic financial assets

Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.

Basic financial liabilities

Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.

Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

Derecognition of financial liabilities

Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.

1.10 Employee benefits

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits..

1.11 Retirement benefits

Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.

2 Critical accounting estimates and judgements

In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.

The main form of financial risk faced by the charity is the volatility in equity markets and investment markets due to wider economic conditions.

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TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS | 2024-25

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended 31st October 2025

3. Income from donations and legacies

Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2025 2025 £ £ Donations and gifts 10,000 - Grant income 222,589 661,221 232,589 661,221 Grants A B Charitable Trust 25,000 - Barrow Cadbury Trust - 25,500 Funder does not want to be Identified - - CAF Keystone Fund - - Calouste Gulbunkian Foundation - 40,000 Children Investment Fund Foundation - 176,722 Climate change Collaboration - 51,000 Comic Relief 95,000 - Esmee Fairbairn - 67,600 Friends Provident - 40,850 Gower Street 50,000 - John Ellerman Foundation - - Joseph Rowntree Foundation - 20,115 Murmur - -5,572 Oak Foundation 8,589 - Paul Hamlyn Foundation 44,000 50,000 Rayne Foundation - 30,000 The Lankelly Chase Foundation - - The True Colours Trust - 160,595 Trussell Trust - - The Wellcome Foundation - 4,411 222,589 661,221	Unrestricted funds 2025 £ 10,000 222,589	Restricted funds 2025 £ - 661,221	Total 2025 £ 10,000 883,810 893,810 25,000 25,500 - - 40,000 176,722 51,000 95,000 67,600 40,850 50,000 - 20,115 -5,572 8,589 94,000 30,000 - 160,595 - 4,411 883,810	Unrestricted funds 2024 £ 16,159 202,900	Restricted funds 2024 £ - 1,141,780	Total 2024 £ 16,159 1,344,680 1,360,839 28,900 24,000 50,989 40,000 40,000 419,053 45,000 110,000 - - - 26,000 47,935 24,157 7,900 70,000 - 155,933 246,725 8,088 - 1,344,680
	232,589	661,221		219,059	1,141,780
				25,000 - - 40,000 - - - 110,000 - - - - - - 7,900 20,000 - - - - -	3,900 24,000 50,989 - 40,000 419,053 45,000 - - - - 26,000 47,935 24,157 - 50,000 - 155,933 246,725 8,088 -
	222,589	661,221		202,900	1,141,780

4. Income from charitable activities

Training income �esearch income Total	Unrestricted funds 2025 £ 626 - 626	Restricted funds 2025 £ - - -	Total 2025 £ 626 - 626	Unrestricted funds 2024 £ 25,320 19,023 44,343	Restricted funds 2024 £ - - -	Total 2024 £ 25,320 19,023 44,343

5. Income from investments

Interest income Other Income	Unrestricted funds 2025 £ 17,594 626 18,220	Restricted funds 2025 £ - - -	Total 2025 £ 17,594 626 18,220	Unrestricted funds 2024 £ 7,498 - 7,498	Restricted funds 2024 £ - - -	Total 2024 £ 7,498 - 7,498

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended 31st October 2025

6. Expenditure on raising funds

�undraising costs	Unrestricted funds 2025 £ 35,198 35,198	Restricted funds 2025 £ - -	Total 2025 £ 35,198 35,198	Unrestricted funds 2024 £ 3,475 3,475	Restricted funds 2024 £ - -	Total 2024 £ 3,475 - 3,475

7. Expenditure on charitable activities

DIRECT COSTS �undraising Grant �xpenditure Trustee �xpenses Annual �eport Delivery of charitable activity �alaries SUPPORT COSTS �ent and �ates Insurance �rinting, postage � �tat �arketing Telephone IT �ontractors �undries �taff Training �ank �harges �alaries �� Other �taff �osts �egal �ees Audit � Accountancy Accountacy and payroll Travel expenses Depreciation	Fundraising £ 35,198 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 35,198	Trading Activities £ - - - - 3,551 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3,551	Grant Delivery £ - 307,929 - - - 432,858 11,554 56 689 5,888 385 2,411 8,125 1,487 1,599 782 52,442 5,340 2,004 26 - 5,383 1,268 1,355 841,580	Charitable Activities £ - - - - - - 25,649 124 1,529 6,412 854 5,351 18,037 3,301 3,550 1,736 116,419 11,854 4,451 58 - 11,950 2,815 3,007 217,099	Governance £ - - 129 2,248 - - - 304 - - - - - - - - - - - - 13,800 - - - 16,481	2025 Total £ 35,198 307,929 129 2,248 3,551 432,858 37,204 484 2,218 12,300 1,239 7,762 26,162 4,789 5,149 2,518 168,861 17,194 6,455 84 13,800 17,333 4,083 4,361 1,113,910	2024 Total £ 3,475 383,883 2,405 1,878 - 442,959 36,005 1,264 1,788 - 1,116 10,477 3,650 3,255 4,552 1,933 156,573 3,106 4,265 - 9,500 22,292 1,515 5,050 1,100,941

Governance Costs

Group �osts of meetings Trustees� Insurance Annual �eport Audit �ees	Unrestricted funds 2025 £ 129 304 2,248 13,800 16,481	Restricted funds 2025 £ - - - - -	Total 2025 £ 129 304 2,248 13,800 16,481	Unrestricted funds 2024 £ 2,405 - 1,878 9,500 13,783	Restricted funds 2024 £ - - - - -	Total 2024 £ 2,405 - 1,878 9,500 13,783

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TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS | 2024-25

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended 31st October 2025

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended 31st October 2025

Remuneration of key management personnel

8. Auditor’s remuneration

----- Start of picture text -----
|||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Unrestricted|Restricted|Total|Unrestricted|Restricted|Total| |funds|funds|funds|funds| |2025|2025|2025|2024|2024|2024| |£|£|£|£|£|£| |Auditors fee|13,800|-|13,800|9,500|-|9,500| |13,800|-|13,800|9,500|-|9,500|

----- End of picture text -----

9. Net Income For Te Year

This is stated after charging�

----- Start of picture text -----
|||| |---|---|---| |2025|2024| |£|£| |Depreciation|4,361|5,050| |Auditors remuneration�| |Audit fees|13,800|9,500| |Other assurance services|-|6,000|

----- End of picture text -----

10. Trustees Remuneration and Expenses

None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration or benefits from the charity during the year for their role as Trustees.

£NIL expenses (2024: £NIL) were paid to to the trustees.

The cost of Trustees’ indemnity insurance of £304 (2024: £NIL) was borne by the charity.

During the year 1 trustee carried out work and was paid £80 for their services as a speaker at a staff skill share talk.

2024: 1 trustee carried out work and was paid £210 for their services relating to programme support. This service was provided before they were appointed as a trustee.

----- Start of picture text -----
|||| |---|---|---| |Group|2024|2025| |£|£| |�ages and �alaries|491,701|499,023| |�ocial security and other taxes|53,585|49,391| |�ension|54,246|53,305| |599,532|601,719|

----- End of picture text -----

�edundancy payments totalled £Nil during the year (2024� £Nil).

The number of employees whose annual remuneration was more than £60,000 is as follows�

----- Start of picture text -----
|||| |---|---|---| |2024|2025| |No|No| |£70,001 to £80,000|1|1|

----- End of picture text -----

The charity considers its key management personnel to compromise the Trustees (who are not remunerated) and the co CEO’s and the Head of Programmes and Impact (who are remunerated).

The remuneration of key management personnel was as follows:

----- Start of picture text -----
|||| |---|---|---| |2025|2024| |£|£| |Aggregate compensation|191,823|108,564|

----- End of picture text -----

The average monthly number of staff employed during the year was as follows�

----- Start of picture text -----
|||| |---|---|---| |Total|Total| |2025|2024| |No|No| |Office staff|13|14|

----- End of picture text -----

All employee time was involved in providing either support to the governance of the charity or support to charitable activities.

13. Taxation

The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes .

14. Fixed Assets

----- Start of picture text -----
||||| |---|---|---|---| |Fixtures �| |Fittings|IT E�uipment|TOTAL| |COST| |At 1 November 2024|9,651|21,529|31,180| |Additions|-|1,698|1,698| |Disposals|2,715|8,748|11,463| |At 31 October 2025|6,936|14,479|21,415| |DEPRECIATION| |At 1 November 2024|7,717|15,217|22,934| |�harge|1,062|3,299|4,361| |Disposals|2,715|8,748|11,463| |At 31 October 2025|6,064|9,768|15,832| |Net Boo� �alue| |At 31 October 2025|872|4,711|5,583| |At 31 October 2024|2,060|6,186|8,246|

----- End of picture text -----

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Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended 31st October 2025

15. Debtors

Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Deferred income Retirement benefit schemes Trade debtors Other debtors �repayments and accrued income Total Trade �reditors �ocial �ecurity and other taxation Accruals Other creditors Deferred Income Total Other deferred income Deferred income is included in the financial statements as follows� Deferred income is included within� �urrent liabilities Movements in the year� Deferred income at 1 November 2024 �eleased from previous periods �esources deferred in the year Deferred income at 31 October 2025 Defined contribution schemes �harge to profit or loss in respect of defined contribution schemes	2025 £ 98 2,379 19,845 22,322 2025 £ 3,647 17,899 13,755 5,600 - 40,902 2025 £ - 2025 £ - 13,410 -13,410.00 - - 2025 £ 53,305	2024 £ 1,002 2,379 72,915 76,296 2024 £ 7,856 12,332 17,543 4,646 13,410 55,787 2024 £ 13,410 2024 £ 13,410 187,351 -187,351.00 13,410 13,410 2024 £ 54,246

16. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

17. Deferred income

18. Retirement benefit schemes

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund.

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended 31st October 2025

19. Restricted Funds

The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.

Balance at Programme Funder 1 Nov 2024 £ All About Trans Paul Hamlyn Foundation 42,110 Esmée Fairbairn Foundation - Angles John Ellerman Foundation 4,035 Barrow Cadbury Trust - Rayne Foundation - Children's Palliative Care The True Colours Trust 95,136 Climate Children's Investment Fund Foundation 201,300 Climate Change Colaboration 24,451 Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 40,000 Wellcome Trust - Murmur 6,972 Economy Friends Provident Foundation - Media Movers Barrow Cadbury Trust - Funder wishes not to be identified 21,006 Poverty Trust For London 4,288 Joseph Rowntree Foundation - Lankelly Chase Foundation The Lankelly Chase Foundation 147,350 Core Esmée Fairbairn Foundation - 586,648 Representation and Diversity in Children's Media	Balance at Programme Funder 1 Nov 2024 £ All About Trans Paul Hamlyn Foundation 42,110 Esmée Fairbairn Foundation - Angles John Ellerman Foundation 4,035 Barrow Cadbury Trust - Rayne Foundation - Children's Palliative Care The True Colours Trust 95,136 Climate Children's Investment Fund Foundation 201,300 Climate Change Colaboration 24,451 Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 40,000 Wellcome Trust - Murmur 6,972 Economy Friends Provident Foundation - Media Movers Barrow Cadbury Trust - Funder wishes not to be identified 21,006 Poverty Trust For London 4,288 Joseph Rowntree Foundation - Lankelly Chase Foundation The Lankelly Chase Foundation 147,350 Core Esmée Fairbairn Foundation - 586,648 Representation and Diversity in Children's Media	Incoming resources £ 50,000 52,600 - 12,500 30,000 160,596 176,722 51,000 40,000 4,410 -5,000 40,850 13,000 - - 20,115 - 15,000	Outgoing resources £ -66,706 -5,237 - -2,012 -6,035 -209,112 -357,428 -25,883 -27,982 -4,410 -1,400 -31,336 -13,000 -6,935 -4,288 -15,937 -63,878 -10,500	Refunded £ - - - - - - - - - - -572 - - - - - - -	Movement in funds £ 20,000 - -4,035 - - -1,545 - - - - - - - -14,071 - -4,178 - -	Balance at 31 Oct 2025 £ 45,404 47,363 - 10,488 23,965 45,075 20,594 49,568 52,018 - - 9,514 - - - - 83,472 4,500
	586,648	661,793	-852,080	-572	-3,829	391,960

This programme received grant funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to tell stories that reflect the real lives of trans people. By working directly with our 37 All About Trans network members and collaborating with media professionals from across soaps, dramas and news media, we help shape more authentic, nuanced and human trans stories.

• All About Trans

This programme received funding from the John Ellerman foundation to support people who have lived through sexual and domestic abuse to tell their stories effectively and engage with media professionals in a safe and boundaried way.

• Angles

• Representation This programme, funded by Barrow Cadbury Trust and Rayne Foundation, exists to ensure children and Diversity in see themselves authentically represented in the media they engage with - creating stories where our Children’s Media differences are celebrated and normalised.

Children’s Funded by the True Colours Trust, our Children’s Palliative Care team supports families and professionals Palliative Care working across media, charities and healthcare, to build their communication confidence so they can shift limiting mindsets around these vital services.

• Climate

Funded by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Wellcome, Climate Change Collaboration, Murmur and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Heard’s climate team exists to show that climate change affects everyone and that solutions are in our grasp. Through bespoke workshops, in-depth consultations and strategic collaborations, the climate team equips cultural influencers, media platforms and screenwriters with emotionally resonant, research backed insights and creative tools to tell climate stories that move audiences.

Economy Funded by Friends Provident Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, our Economy programme exists to shift public attitudes to help create global and local economies that work for people and planet, not just profit.

Media Movers Funded by Barrow Cadbury Trust, Media Movers is a programme for young people from migrant backgrounds who are passionate about influencing media representaion of migration.

Poverty Funded by Trust for London and Joseph Rowntree Foundation we support people with first-hand experience of poverty or being on a low income to do safe and effective media work.

Funding was received by Lankelly Chase Foundation to fund the Head of Programmes and Impact

• Lankelly Chase Foundation

Funding was received from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to improve the well being of staff, volunteers, or trustees Further funding was received to pay tfor income generation consultancy.

• Core

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TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS | 2024-25

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS | 2024-25

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended 31st October 2025

19. Restricted funds (continued)

19. Restricted funds (continued)
Programme Funder All About Trans Paul Hamlyn Foundation Angles John Ellerman Foundation Children's Palliative Care The True Colours Trust Climate Children's Investment Fund Foundation Climate Change Colaboration Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Gower Street Murmur Media Movers Barrow Cadbury Trust Funder wishes not to be identified Roddick Foundation Poverty Trust For London Joseph Rowntree Foundation Lankelly Chase Foundatio The Lankelly Chase Foundation Food Bank Trussell Trust Core Tudor Trust AB Charitable Foundation	Balance at 1 Nov 2023 £ 51,965 - 75,291 -21,635 29,040 - 35,000 8,013 37,048 24,500 50,910 10,000 33,571 - 5,667 3,330	Incoming resources £ 50,000 26,000 246,725 419,053 45,000 40,000 24,157 24,000 50,989 - 47,935 155,933 8,088 3,900	Outgoing resources £ -59,855 -21,965 -226,880 -196,118 -49,589 -35,000 -17,185 -32,013 -67,031 -24,500 -46,622 -57,935 -42,154 -8,088 -5,667 -7,230	Balance at 31 Oct 2024 £ 42,110 4,035 95,136 201,300 24,451 40,000 - 6,972 - 21,006 - 4,288 - 147,350 - - -
	342,700	1,141,780	-897,832	586,648

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended 31st October 2025

20. Unrestricted funds

The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.

Designated funds �undraising 4D�� �valuation �trategy �valuation �� support for 4D�� Income Generation General funds	Balance at Incoming Outgoing 1 Nov 2024 resources resources Transfers £ £ £ £ 35,000 - -34,950 36,550 8,000 - -3,750 - 10,000 - -1,250 - 9,000 - -5,865 -3,135 - - - 30,000 314,984 267,860 -216,015 -63,415 376,984 267,860 -261,830 -	Movement in funds £ - - - - - 3,829 3,829	Balance at 31 Oct 2025 £ 36,600 4,250 8,750 - 30,000 307,243 386,843

The trustees decided to designate a further net sum £63,415. With the continuing risk to the charity’s grant income due to uncertainties in the future, a sum of £36,550 was designated for in Heard’s fundraising capacity and a sum of £30,000 was designated for income generation, via transfers into those respective designated funds from unrestricted general funds. A sum of £3,135 was transferred back into unrestricted from the ‘HR support for 4DWW’ designated fund.

PRIOR YEAR

PRIOR YEAR
	Balance at	Incoming	Outgoing		Balance at
	1 Nov 2023	resources	resources	Transfers	31 Oct 2024
	£	£	£	£	£
Designated funds
�undraising	20,000	-	-	15,000	35,000
4D�� �valuation	-	-	-	8,000	8,000
�trategy �valuation	-	-	-	10,000	10,000
�� support for 4D��	-	-	-	9,000	9,000
�apital �xpenditure	5,000	-	-	-5,000	-
General funds	284,193	270,900	-203,109	-37,000	314,984
	309,193	270,900	-203,109	-	376,984

The trustees decided to designate a further net sum of £37,000. Continuing from the previous year , a sum of £35,000 was designated for Heard’s fundraising capacity and £27,000 for external consulatancy to support the 4DWW trial and the development of a new 3 year strategy. A sum of £5,000 was transferred back into unrestricted from the ‘capital expenditure’ designated fund.

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TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS | 2024-25

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS | 2024-25

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended 31st October 2025

21. Analysis of net assets between funds

22. Operating Leases Due less than one year Due after one year Tangible Assets �urrent assets PRIOR YEAR Tangible Assets �urrent assets/(liabilities)	Total Total 2025 2024 £ £ 25,762 10,321 88,022 - 113,784 10,321 Unrestricted Restricted Total 2025 2025 2025 5,583 - 5,583 381,260 391,960 773,220 386,843 391,960 778,803 Unrestricted Restricted Total 2024 2024 2024 8,246 - 8,246 368,738 586,648 955,386 376,984 586,648 963,632	Total Total 2025 2024 £ £ 25,762 10,321 88,022 - 113,784 10,321 Unrestricted Restricted Total 2025 2025 2025 5,583 - 5,583 381,260 391,960 773,220 386,843 391,960 778,803 Unrestricted Restricted Total 2024 2024 2024 8,246 - 8,246 368,738 586,648 955,386 376,984 586,648 963,632
		10,321

23. Related party transactions

During the year, £80 (2024: £150) was paid to Kuntal Biswas, Trustee and Co-Chair at the charity, for his services as a speaker at a staff skill share talk.

During the year, £NIL (2024: £210) was paid to K Grygier, Trustee at the charity, for his services relating to programme support. This service was provided before he was appointed as a trustee. During the year, £304 was paid for trustee indemnity insurance. There were no amounts owing or owed at the year end.

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended 31st October 2025

25. Members’ liability

The charitable company is limited by guarantee and does not have share capital. In the events of a winding up, each of the members undertakes to contribute an amount not exceeding £10.

26. Reconciliation of net income/(expenditure) to net cash flow from operating activities

Net movement in funds Depreciation charges (Gains)/ losses on revalued fixed assets Dividends, interest and rents from investments (Increase)/ decrease in debtors Increase/ (decrease) in creditors Increase/ (decrease) in deferred income Net cash used in operating activities	2025 £ -184,829 4,361 - -17,594 53,974 -1,475 -13,410 - 158,973	2024 £ 311,739 5,050 - -7,498 -16,368 9,286 -173,941
		128,268

27. Post Balance Sheet Events

At the date of final approval of these financial statements by the Trustees, no events had occurred since the balance sheet date of 31 October 2025, that would warrant adjustment or additional disclosure in these financial statements.

24. Pensions

24. Pensions
Defined contribution schemes	2025	2024
�harge to profit or loss in respect
of defined contribution schemes	54,246	53,305

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund.

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TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTSTRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS | 2024-25 | 2024-25

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• Heard Organisation Limited The Green House

• 244-254 Cambridge Heath Road Bethnal Green, London, E2 9DA

• 02035596762

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