NATIONAL PARK CITY FOUNDATION
ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024 Registered Charity number 1173267 Charitable Incorporated Organisation
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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Registered Name: National Park City Foundation, also known as National Park City (NPC) and London National Park City (LNPC)
Registered Charity number 1173267
Contact details: Email hello@nationalparkcity.org or visit
www.nationalparkcity.org
Trustees holding office during the year:
Luis Alvarado Martinez (resigned 30 November 2023)
Alison Barnes
Emily Brennan
David Cope
Joanna de Jong
Navdeep Singh Deol (Chair)
Claire Eagle
Eilish Kavanagh (Treasurer)
Emily Hamilton (resigned 30 November 2023)
Lucy Livesley
Melissa Miners
Tim Webb
Management:
Mark Cridge (Executive Director)
Registered office:
1 Therapia Road, London SE22 0SF
Bank:
CAF Bank Limited, 25 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4JQ
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STRUCTURE AND GOVERNANCE
Governance and Management
The National Park City Foundation is registered as a charitable incorporated organisation, under a constitution which governs its activities.
The Trustee Board currently consists of 10 members with two vacancies, and is Chaired by Navdeep Singh Deol.
This past year has been transformational for the charity as it secured significant multi-year grant income for the first time, expanded the staff team, took on its first shop-front premises in London, and expanded the wider National Park City family with five new cities nominated to become National Park Cities in the coming years.
We secured new four year grants from the National Lottery Community Fund’s Reaching Communities programme in December 2023, and from the City Bridge Foundation in June 2024 providing around £200,000 of secured income each year. Along with two active crowdfunders, individual donations, and further support from Pentland Brands, Natural England, the GLA, New Forest National Park Authority and in-kind donations from JCDecaux and Astop Limited we go into the next financial year with a stable income platform to build from.
For Southampton National Park City we have employed a Coordinator on their behalf, and we provide further support including Financial and HR management on behalf of the volunteer team in Southampton.
We continue to rely on the goodwill and enthusiasm of volunteers to deliver many of our successes. We are immensely grateful to all of them, in all the roles they play – especially our 150 volunteer Rangers who continue to lead impactful work across London.
We’re grateful to the National Park City teams around the world, especially Brenton Grear and Sheryn Pitman in Adelaide, Scott Martin and the team in Chattanooga, Christelle Blunden and the team in Southampton, Joost Barendrecht and Tom Rozendal and the team in Breda, and the whole volunteer group in Glasgow, and especially to Dom Hall who stepped down as Convenor this year.
We continue to extend our commitment to diversity and inclusion, and we explicitly operate as an anti-racist organisation. We have submitted our staff and Trustee diversity data to the RACE Report for 2023 which seeks to address the under-representation of minority ethnic people in the environmental sector. We record full diversity data for our staff, Trustees and volunteer Rangers to help us identify where we need to improve how we represent the communities we serve.
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Charitable Objectives
The objects of the Foundation are:
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To promote for the benefit of the public the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment of Greater London having aesthetic, architectural, historic, scientific or educational interest;
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To advance the education of the public in the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment of Greater London;
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To advance the education of the public in the heritage and culture of Greater London;
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To promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of Greater London the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation for the public at large in the interests of social welfare and with the object of improving the condition of life of the said inhabitants; and
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To promote for the benefit of the public the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment of other cities and urban centres by promoting the National Park City learnings, practice and status to other cities.
Public benefit statement
The charity Trustees have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers or duties. The Trustees also ensure the programme of activities is always in line with the charity’s objectives and aims.
Risk Statement
The Trustees have taken into account guidance available from the Charity Commission, reviewed the risks faced by the Foundation and have put in place policies and procedures to address and mitigate those risks to an acceptable level.
Whilst recent fundraising has been successful given the ongoing uncertainties from the economic, cost of living and energy crises, the Trustees still consider the main risk to the charity to be the ability to raise funds to develop its role, capacity and future activities. As a result, Trustees will continue to focus on identifying new fundraising opportunities, whilst carefully expanding the scope and reach of our activities in London, other cities in the UK, and supporting the growth of the National Park City movement internationally.
The charity has increased its overheads and related costs by taking on a physical office space, however this is mitigated as the space is provided rent and rate free on a meanwhile basis.
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TRUSTEE’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
The Trustees present their report and the financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2024.
Aims
The Foundation aims to grow and expand the National Park City movement, directly stewarding and leading the London National Park City movement, providing direct support to Southampton National Park City, and supporting the establishment of emerging, nominated and existing National Park Cities around the world.
All National Park Cities commit to five key principles:
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To be inspired and guided by the Universal Charter of National Park Cities, to contribute to its future development and uphold the spirit and values of the movement.
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To act as a member of the National Park City Family, sharing learning, practices, ideas and resources with people in other National Park Cities.
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To join in with joint National Park City campaigns and projects, where appropriate.
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To support emerging, nominated and established National Park Cities in their journeys.
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To share annual updates and experiences on our progress with the public and members of the National Park City Family.
Principal activities
During the year to 30 June 2024 the Foundation focused on:
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Fundraising activities to secure new grant income, individual donations, corporate partnerships, and limited contract income.
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Growing and supporting our volunteer Ranger community in London.
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Marketing and campaigning activity for London National Park City.
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Establishing our first pop-up visitors centre at 109 Fleet Street, London.
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Carrying out public engagement activity for London’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy in conjunction with the Greater London Authority.
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Directly supporting the development of the Southampton National Park City campaign.
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Conducting the peer assessment for the Dutch city, Breda in its application to become the third National Park City.
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Supporting National Park City campaigns in Glasgow, Rotterdam, and Chattanooga and other emerging cities.
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Five years of London National Park City
It is five years since London became the world’s first National Park City following 5 years of campaigning culminating in the official ceremony in City Hall on Monday 22nd July 2019, where the Mayor of London and dozens of representatives of international bodies, grassroots organisations, and civil society came together to sign the Charter for London National Park City.
In this our fifth year we are entering an important new phase of activity, with a renewed commitment to deliver upon the shared commitments and ambitions outlined in our Charter. We are on a much more stable footing with new funding, a talented staff team being assembled, and the continuing support of our wonderful volunteer Rangers, Trustees and other supporters.
Much of the last year has been spent establishing this secure platform, and putting in place our new operating strategy. This has set the stage for a broader and deeper partnership for London National Park City to be established and activated over the next three years focused on expanding the effectiveness and value of our volunteer Ranger community, working with community partners and local authorities in key London Boroughs, and more explicitly sharpening our focus around engaging the public in Local Nature Recovery within their own communities.
In the background we have put in place a robust suite of digital tools and resources to better allow collaboration and connection amongst our community members in London and elsewhere. This has included our free online meeting place at community.nationalparkcity.org , along with an entirely new nationalparkcity.london website. This has been enhanced with our new CRM, email list service, HR and Finance tools, and a significant investment in supporting the growth of our social media and email subscription lists – together this now means we are better able to support and grow a larger online community of supporters, linked to our core in-person activities in neighbourhoods around London.
We also worked closely with Natural England to support their first Happier Outdoors Festival, and set up their own online community at happieroutdoors.london modelled on our main community site.
Do London Differently
We continued to support our successful #DoLondonDifferently campaign from last summer which was graciously supported with in-kind media space from JCDecaux. This template of celebrating the grassroots heroes making London greener, healthier and wilder within their own communities, will continue to shape our ongoing marketing and campaigning activity.
Pop-up Visitors Centre
We opened our first ever pop-up visitors centre at 109 Fleet Street in January. Thanks to the support of Astop, a fellow charity who specialises in securing free space for good causes, we have taken over a high-profile shop-front a stone's throw from St Paul’s. Just as you would when you visit a traditional National Park, our ‘visitors centre’ is intended as a window on all of the activities, places to visit, and things that you can do within London National Park City.
In the first six months we ran over fifty events, with festival weeks for Repair Week, Unlock London,
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The Great Big Green Week, Grow Urban Festival, and the Blossom Festival with the National Trust. We’ve made the space freely available for any community group who’d like to make use of it, and we hosted numerous Ranger meet-ups and events. Whilst this pop-up has been gifted to us on a ‘meanwhile basis’ meaning we can be given one-months notice at any time, our experience so far indicates that having one or more such community spaces in London will be an ongoing part of our way of working.
Local Nature Recovery
Through the latter half of the year we began working with the Greater London Authority (GLA) in identifying how best to conduct public engagement with London’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy. The GLA is the responsible body for preparing the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for London over the next two years, and this work will be delivered through collaboration with each of London’s 33 Boroughs and other statutory agencies, along with civil society and community groups across the city. Our initial work has focused on mapping out the keystone partners in each Borough, and we are continuing to work on deeper engagements with a number of priority boroughs including Hounslow and Barking & Dagenham.
More generally we’re centring nature recovery at a local level through all of our work, as a focus for our future Ranger activity – especially as we recruit new Rangers in each borough, and how we establish and develop our Partnership for London National Park City. This is inline with our clearer focus for the charity and a rearticulation of our Charter where our emphasis is primarily on the half of London which isn’t yet green and wild.
Growing the National Park City family
Following London in 2019, and Adelaide in 2021, we’re expecting the third National Park City to be Breda in the Netherlands before the end of 2024. Having worked with the volunteer team Breda Staad in een Park Foundation and the Municipality of Breda over the past two years, and the submission of Breda’s portfolio application, the Foundation undertook Breda’s peer review assessment in May. The peer review team comprised representatives from World Urban Parks, Salzburg Global Seminar, the National Park City Foundation, Nature Desks, Earthwatch, and London National Park City Rangers. A final decision is pending, however Breda is well placed to fully join the National Park City family.
Our International Steering Group with representatives from World Urban Parks, Salzburg Global Seminar, and National Park City Foundation continue to support our emerging and nominated cities as they prepare their own full applications. Within the next 12 months we expect Chattanooga National Park City, Southampton National Park City, and possibly one or two others to apply.
In the UK and Ireland our London team have been working with Southampton and Glasgow to support their campaigns, along with ongoing campaigns in Cardiff, and interest in Belfast, Dundee, Sheffield, Bristol, Chester and Plymouth.
Our Founding Trustee and Chair of our International Steering Group Alison Barnes, joined Scott Martin from Chattanooga, along with Sheryn and Brenton from Adelaide, and other National Park City movement members at the Joint International Congress World Urban Parks & Parks and Leisure
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Australia 22-26 October to present a delegate session on NPC, chairing the final plenary of the Congress and presented a celebratory art piece from London to Adelaide, created by our Ranger Alisa Ruzavina, to formally welcome Adelaide as the second National Park City family. We hope that this is the start of a new tradition as each new National Park City is welcomed by the previous city to attain the designation.
Entering our next five years
Following this important preparatory year we enter the next five year period of London National Park City with confidence, and the resources we need to more fully activate our movement in London and beyond.
We intend to fulfil one of the early initiatives from the original Greater London National Park City Proposal to establish a broader partnership for London National Park City, to more fully involve the hundreds of community groups, environmental organisations, art, culture, sport, government, and business partners in delivering the ambitions set out in our Charter.
We’ll be mapping and sharing places to visit, things to do, volunteering opportunities, and ways to get involved across London. We’ll expand our Rangers programme borough by borough, with a more explicit focus on peer learning and collaboration – especially around local nature recovery. We’ll soon be launching our In Good Company programme for businesses, extending the invite for more organisations and individuals to commit to supporting our Charter. And our State of the National Park City report shall be released in the Autumn.
Around the UK we’ll continue to directly support the cohort of National Park Cities to complete their journey, and support cities around the world in their journeys as we work towards at least 25 nominated and established cities by the end of 2025.
We’re well placed to realise more cities where people, places and nature are better connected, and to fully deliver against the promise of the Charter for National Park Cities.
Our supporters
Our thanks goes to:
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Our thousands of supporters and National Park City Makers in London, Adelaide and around the world.
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Our many new individual donors, many of whom contributed for the first time this year through our Crowdfunders.
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All Trustees, past and present, especially to Emily Hamilton and Luis Alvarado who resigned during the year
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Our 150 volunteer London National Park City Rangers
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Other people who volunteer their time to the National Park City movement, especially to Dan Raven Ellison and to Steve Pocock, without whom there would be no National Park
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City movement
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Our partners at World Urban Parks and Salzburg Global Seminar and everyone who works on promoting National Park Cities around the world, especially Neil McCarthy, Dominic Regester, and Jennifer Dunn.
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Elected representatives in London for their continued support for London National Park City, including the Mayor Sadiq Khan, and all the officials who support in Boroughs and the Greater London Authority
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Everyone who shares our vision of greener, healthier and wilder cities, and who becomes a National Park City Maker in everything they do.
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FINANCIAL REVIEW
The Foundation’s financial report for the year to 30 June 2024 is on Page 12. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements and the requirements of the Constitution.
Funding Sources
The Trustees thank all funders and donors for their support and generosity.
This year the total income was £201,220 (2022/23: £86,633). We received grants and donations of £198,217 (2022/23 86,611) of which £155,000 (2022/23 £28,394) were restricted grants, including £125,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund.
Expenditure
During the year, the main costs were establishing and building our core staff and infrastructure.
Expenditure in the year was £178,467 (2022/23 £152,319). During the year we increased the number of staff from 3 to 6, including a Partnerships Manager and two part-time Communications Managers. We continued to invest in the London Ranger Programme and also employed a member of staff to develop Southampton National Park City campaign, supported by a grant from the New Forest National Park.
Other expenditure during the year included general IT and administration costs.
Reserves
The fund balance on 30 June 2024 was £102,360 of which £46,297 was unrestricted (2022/23 £79,607, of which £70,935 was unrestricted).
Our reserves policy is set to enable expansion and long term sustainability, and the Trustees aim to hold a minimum of 6 months of committed expenditure in unrestricted reserves.
Unrestricted reserves at the end of the year represented 7.8 months of 2023/24 unrestricted expenditure, being above the 6 months target of the reserves policy. The Trustees are satisfied that this level meets the foundation’s requirements.
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Independent Examiner's Report to the trustees of the National Park City Foundation
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the charity for the year ended 30 June 2024.
Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner
As the charity’s trustees of National Park City Foundation, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).
Having satisfied myself that the accounts of National Park City Foundation are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act, I report in respect of my examination of your charity’s accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’). In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.
Independent examiner’s statement
Since the National Park City Foundation gross income is more than £25,000 your examiner needs to be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the National Park City Foundation as required by section 130 of the Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Sarah Welsh
23 December 2024 Date
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NATIONAL PARK CITY FOUNDATION
Receipts and Payments for the 12 months to 30 June 2024
| 30 June 2024 | 30 June 2023 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restricted | Unrestricted | Total | Total | |
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Receipts: | ||||
| Grants | 155,000 | - | 155,000 | 28,394 |
| Donations | 43,217 | 43,217 | 58,046 | |
| Other income & Interest | - | 3,003 | 3,003 | 193 |
| 155,000 | 46,220 | 201,220 | 86,633 | |
| Payments: | ||||
| Salary costs | 81,793 | 39,886 | 121,679 | 109,568 |
| Project costs | 16,077 | 7,195 | 23,273 | 17,512 |
| Events & materials | 15,572 | 15,572 | 13,332 | |
| Admin & IT costs | 9,124 | 6,825 | 15,949 | 11,907 |
| Volunteer expenses | 1,472 | 1,472 | - | |
| Trustee expenses | 522 | 522 | - | |
| Contribution to core | 615 | (615) | 0 | - |
| 107,609 | 70,858 | 178,467 | 152,319 | |
| Net Receipts/(Payments) | 47,391 | (24,638) | 22,753 | (65,686) |
| B/Fwd funds | 8,671 | 70,935 | 79,607 | 145,293 |
| C/Fwd funds | 56,063 | 46,297 | 102,360 | 79,607 |
Statement of Assets and Liabilities at 30 June 2024
| 30 June 2024 | 30 June 2023 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restricted | Unrestricted | Total | Total | |
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Cash Funds: | ||||
| CAF Bank | 56,063 | 46,297 | 102,360 | 79,586 |
| PayPal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| Total cash | 56,063 | 46,297 | 102,360 | 79,607 |
| Total Assets | 56,063 | 46,297 | 102,360 | 79,607 |
| Liabilities: | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Net Assets and Liabilities | 56,063 | 46,297 | 102,360 | 79,607 |
The Trustees declare that they approved the Trustees Report on the 12[th] September 2024. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
Navdeep Singh Deol Eilish Kavanagh Chair Treasurer
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