2025-03-31-accounts

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2025 Annual Report

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Charity number

1187714

01	Reference and
	administrative details
02-10	Trustees’ annual report
11	Independent
	examiner's report
12	Statement of
	financial activities
12	Balance sheet
13	Statement of cash flows
14-20	Notes to the
	financial statements

Trustees

Asha Allen (Chair) Claire Marshall (resigned 5th September 2025) Lauryn Mwale

Principal Office

63-66 Hatton Garden Fifth Floor, Suite 23 London, EC1N 8LE

Independent Examiner

Jason Foxwell FCCA FCIE 12 Hillbourne Road, Poole, BH17 7JB

Bankers

Virgin Money 117 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, G2 7ER

Registered Charity Number 1187714

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

The Trustees present their annual report together with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2025.

Leadership transition and internal challenges

The past year has been one of tremendous change, reflection, review and transition for the charity. The biggest change is that the founder and CEO of Glitch stepped down and left the charity in December 2024. During the former CEO’s tenure, Glitch mainstreamed the conversation around tech-facilitated gender-based violence, specifically online abuse, across the UK and Europe, ensuring it gained exposure and focus in digital and technology policy.

In August 2024, the former CEO hired tèmítópé lasade-anderson as Deputy Director. Unfortunately, between September and December, there were several issues raised to the Board of Trustees regarding the running of the charity under the then CEO. As a result of these issues and others, several staff and long-term contractors exited the charity between May 2024 and October 2024.

In January 2025, the Board of Trustees appointed tèmítópé as Glitch’s new Executive Director. tèmítópé brings over a decade of experience from roles at Digital Action, Mozilla Foundation, and Whose Knowledge? as well as research expertise as an Arts and Humanities Council-funded PhD candidate at King’s College London, researching Black women’s digital intimacy.

Looking forward with an updated strategy

Starting her tenure as Executive Director, tèmítópé’s focus has been to review operational and organisational performance, policies and priorities. The charity’s mission has been refreshed to be more explicit on who our focal population (Black women and gender-expansive people) are, and to better reflect that the focus of work is broader than tech-facilitated gender-based violence, which was the sole remit at the charity’s founding. Prior to the appointment of tèmítópé, Glitch previously summarised its strategy using pillars - ‘Awareness, Advocacy, Action and Anchor.’ But this does not now accurately reflect the organisational strategy and team structure under new leadership. We’re excited about the approach tèmítópé has taken to strengthen Glitch’s advocacy under a new strategy. We have three areas of work which make up our advocacy work plan:

1. Mitigating

Mitigation for Glitch reflects the reality of the current context of platform and AI governance. Despite an increase in regulatory efforts to control emerging technologies and social media platforms, they are still responsible for facilitating social and individual injustices, and private tech companies and governments have little to no accountability, resulting in reduced access to safety and redress for our focal population. Our work in this strand is around technology platform accountability through policy influencing.

2. Organising

The organising strand is where our programmes (charity service delivery) work sit. It also includes our emerging and one-off ecosystem collaborations, campaigns and engagements, via coalition and campaigning tactics. Part of our organising work means we engage in activities that support movement building and resistance related to specific cultural, political, and social contexts and realities where we can add value from our niche and Black feminist tech policy expertise.

3. Imagining

To ‘imagine otherwise’ is to “to remake the world. [Because] some of us have never had any other choice”. We see this as a radical approach — importantly grounded in Black feminist thought— to consider alternative ways of being/living with technology. What would it look like for internet technologies to uphold human rights, be ethical and just, and be used for community, connection and equity?

The M-O-I framework further shapes the specific aims of our advocacy work for 2025-2028, which make up our theory of change:

tèmítópé's leadership is one that is feminist, inclusive, caring and accountable. Her aim is to imbue organisational practices with a transformative justice and radical Black feminist ethos. As a result, she and the team have revised our values. They are: Accountable, Black feminist, Care-full, Radical and Thoughtful. We’re particularly proud of how we’ll seek to embed the value of ‘care-full: we take care of each other — leading with a caring mindset and behaviour in our work’ at Glitch moving forward.

A major change in terms of staff policies has been in the inclusion of a wellbeing benefit, drawing from a restricted grant that all permanent staff who have passed probation can avail of. This benefit allows staff to be reimbursed for occupational health, co-working space, or therapies, to support work-life balance. In February 2025, tèmítópé received the approval from the Trustees to move the organisation to a fourday work week (with no deduction in salary). This is a benefit that allows staff to have more time off per working week, without it impacting their take-home pay. We do not see any negative outcomes from a four-day work week. Another change that tèmítópé instated is that the leave at the end of the year - the typical end-of-year shutdown — is not deducted from contractual annual leave entitlements. This ensures staff do not have to worry about ‘saving’ annual leave days for the end of the year, and that we can return to work in January as rested as possible.

The biggest take away of the past year has been the necessity for transparency, accountability and honesty, and this reflects the changes made since tèmítópé was appointed Executive Director. These lessons also shape the updated strategy, which builds on her experience and connections in the field, the current legislative and regulatory regions our advocacy work focuses on, and the broader socio-political context of operating a Black feminist organisation concerned with technology policy and the information ecosystem.

Advocacy work

Advocacy and Programmatic

Since tèmítópé’s appointment to ED, we have already delivered a strategy and brand refresh, including updating our website. The new strategy continues our work of Black feminist tech policy, and ensures it is the foundational theory underpinning all of advocacy. A key differentiating factor under tèmítópé’s leadership will be ensuring Glitch builds on existing academic research, so as not to duplicate existing work, and also to build bridges between academia and civil society. In addition, tèmítópé developed a framework for the organisation for thinking how the different strands and tactics to systemic change come together in our advocacy (existing and forthcoming). We call this the Mitigating-OrganisingImagining framework, or M.O.I.

Our work for the rest of the year (and into 12 months from now) will focus on a campaign (including position paper, public activity/mobilisation, and parliamentary/government influencing) on noncriminal redress for AI-facilitated or tech-facilitated intimate image-based abuse (NCII). Redress as an element of platform accountability has been a long-time idea and passion of our Head of Policy, Research and Campaigns. As a result, due to recent changes in legislation which criminalise the participation in NCII, as well as reforms to the UK’s Victim and Courts Bill, we have developed a strategy that we hope will, at the very least, result in increased political appetite for noncriminal redress for tech harms. This falls under both our ‘mitigating’ and ‘organising’ framework to advocacy.

The second significant piece of new work is on AI governance and accountability. At the time of writing, we are three months into a research project investigating AI/predictive tools in the public sector, named ‘Black Feminist AI Governance’ (BFAI). In BFAI, we seek to apply Black feminist theory and analysis to uncover and illustrate how algorithmic discrimination exists and is made possible in public-sector predictive AI tools and products in housing welfare (England) and immigration (temporary visas) (Canada). We are interested in approaching the issue using this lens, because we understand algorithmic discrimination as resulting in individual, collective or societal harms, which we want to surface to apply to our programmatic work on AI resistance.

When tèmítópé was made Executive Director, programmatic work at Glitch had been paused since the end of 2023. Given the adjustment to strategy and then the smaller team, Glitch has not been in a position to re-launch programmes work. However, BFAI will shape the development of new workshops on AI literacy and resistance for our focal population, which we will aim to launch in the first quarter of 2026.

Advocacy work continuted.

We have continued to work in platform governance in general, referencing our tech-facilitated gender-based violence efforts. Over the last year, we were able to sustain active engagement with Ofcom, pushing for strong implementation of the Online Safety Act (OSA). We built close relationships with Ofcom teams and our evidence and research has been cited a number of times by the regulator. Specifically, our work has been cited as influencing Ofcom’s approach to:

Provisions for reducing bias in hash databases in the Illegal content codes of conduct; Conceding that automated content moderation for adults needs addressing, with Ofcom committing to bringing further measures forward in a future consultation, to be part of the illegal content codes of conduct, based on our evidence;
Gender-sensitive risk assessments in the Guidance for protecting women and girls online; and Identifying digital misogynoir as best practice for content moderation in the Guidance for protecting women and girls online.

Relatedly, we have remained an active participant in the Online Safety Act Network (OSAN), specifically in legitimising intersectionality as a useful framework for writing digital policy attentive to the realities of Black women and other marginalised people’s online lives. We have also been cited several times in various public accounts committee meetings and debates.

Below are some examples of our advocacy work we’re most proud of:

In January, w for how regulators could track and monitor online abuse that women in public life were facing.
Our ED was invited to give an intervention at the APPG meeting on AI and Domestic Abuse, and from this, received positive feedback from the Lord Baroness on our plans for noncriminal redress, who chairs the meeting, and we have engaged a new civil society partner for our work in this area.
Our digital misogynoir taxonomy being cited as best practice in the Women & Girls Guidance from Ofcom.
The launch of our position paper, Beyond the Content Takedown: Non criminal Redress for Intimate Image Abuse on the necessity for a compensatory access scheme for tech-facilitated gender-based harm.

Even though there were a number of challenges revealed midway through the financial year, the charity has been able to fulfil its obligations to funders and those we advocate on behalf of. We’re excited to see where tèmítópé leads the charity, and a new, strengthened version of Glitch, and we’re looking forward to reviewing the next year’s work in 2025-2026.

Objectives and Activities

a. Charitable Objectives

Glitch's Constitution specifies that our charitable purposes are:

1.To advance education in matters relating to the prevention of online abuse through the provision of training, workshops and other resources; and
2.To advance the preservation and protection of good mental health through raising awareness, providing information and resources and making recommendations to providers on the scope of online abuse and its negative impact on individuals and society.

In setting objectives and planning for activities, the trustees have given due consideration to general guidance published by the Charity Commission relating to public benefit, including the guidance 'Public benefit: running a charity (PB2)'.

b. Our Vision

Our vision is a world where internet technologies and the information ecosystem are ethical, equitable and just, for Black women and gender-expansive people.

c. Our Mission

Ultimately, our mission is to ensure that internet technologies in the information ecosystem do not replicate or further discrimination to Black women and other marginalised people.

d. Background

We centre Black women and gender-expansive people in our mission, vision and work. To do so we make use of Black feminist thought to illustrate how race and gender re-shape individual and collective experiences online and with emerging technologies. We understand internet technologies to be an accelerator of existing social justice issues like racism, misogyny, white supremacy, dis/ability and economic injustice. Technologies reconstitute and reconfigure the ways these issues are experienced, enacted and resisted, but it is rarely the originator of these problems.

In our advocacy, we bridge the gap between academic research and civil society advocacy, choosing to build on existing research to develop strategy and policy work

The Cambridge Dictionary defines the word glitch as "a small problem or fault that prevents something from being successful or working as well as it should." We think that sums up the state of the internet technologies today: the glitches that allow for discrimination to proliferate, preventing it from being equitable to all, and something we all have a part to play in fixing.

Achievements and performance

Financial review

a. Financial review

The Charity recorded an in-year deficit of £47,657 (2024 – £75,284). This resulted in total funds at the year-end of £87,493 (2024 – £135,150). Of the funds held at the year end £53,532 (2024 - £127,135) were unrestricted and the remaining £33,961 (2024 - £8,015) were for restricted purposes. The deficit incurred was planned as the majority of our funds are linked to grants that are used to complete our outputs within the year. Further funds were secured for April 2025 onwards that are not represented in the accounts.

b. Reserves policy

Glitch’s reserves policy is set to protect the charity’s intangible assets and to ensure the availability of funds to deliver to completion mission critical projects. The levels of reserves needed are reviewed quarterly based on the key points:

1.The free funds needed should the charity stop operating, for the smooth transfer of intangible assets and governance duties;
2.The expenditure remaining on advocacy projects started which are linked to a contract or to restricted funding.
3.The expenditure remaining on advocacy projects which are funded from unrestricted funds.

The charity operates with the following types of reserves:

Restricted reserves – contractually restricted by funders
Designated reserves – restricted by decision of the Trustees
Committed reserves – restricted by decision of the Executive Director and/or Finance Director
Unrestricted reserves - unrestricted.

Free reserves are made up of the committed and unrestricted reserves. The minimum reserves needed at 31 March 2025 for the year 2025/26 are £80,155 – £160,310, representing 3-6 months of committed costs for the following financial year. At 31 March 2025, the actual reserves were £87,493. For the year 2025/26, new funding has been secured with existing funders as well as new funding relationships established.

c. Going concern

After making appropriate enquiries, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.

Further details regarding the adoption of the going concern basis can be found in the accounting policies. Nevertheless, in the first half of the year, there was a moderate risk of losing major funding sources without adequate notice - following on from the Serious Incident Report submitted in December 2024 to the Charity Commission and closed by the Commission in October 2025. Now, the charity is in the refresh and re-ignition stage following the exit of the former Founder and CEO. None of our existing funders have elected to cancel existing funding grant contracts at the time of writing, and the Trustees do not foresee this changing.

Structure, governance and management

a. Constitution

Glitch is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), registered with the Charity Commission in England & Wales on 3 February 2020 under registration number 1187714 and is governed by its constitution.

b. Methods of appointment or election of trustees

Every trustee must be appointed for a term of two years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, due regard is given to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO. There must be a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 12 trustees.

c. Organisational structure

The Board of Trustees are responsible for the governance of the charity, but delegates day to day management of the charity to Glitch’s Executive Director. Trustees are expected to be aligned with the same values as Glitch, of which we have 5: Accountable, Black Feminist, Care-full, Thoughtful, and Radical. The Trustees have an oversight and accountability role, meeting quarterly for board meetings with the Executive and senior team members to review financial status and any key operational decisions.

d. Risk management

The Board of Trustees and key management personnel have a rigorous approach to risk management, and the key risks facing the organisation are reviewed on an ongoing basis, with mitigating actions put in place to minimise the ongoing risk to the charity.

The charity maintains a low risk appetite for safeguarding, reputational and data protection matters, a medium risk appetite for strategic and operational risks that may affect project delivery, and a low-medium risk appetite for financial risks that could threaten organisational sustainability.

There are presently no going concerns regarding risk management.

e. Public benefit

Throughout the process of determining the activities outlined in this report, the Trustees confirm that they have complied with their duty in section 4 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission.

Statement of trustees’ responsibilities

The trustees 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).

The law applicable to charities in England & Wales 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 its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; Observe the methods and principles of the Charities SORP (FRS 102); Make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent; State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards (FRS 102) have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Charity will continue to operate.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Charity's transactions and 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 Charities Act 2011, the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the provisions of the Trust Deed. 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.

Approved by the Board of Trustees and signed on their behalf by:

Asha Allen

Chair of Trustees Date: 8th November 2025

Independent Examiner’s Report to the trustees of Glitch for the year ended 31 March 2025.

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Charity for the year ended 31 March 2025.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity’s trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).

I report in respect of my examination of your Charity’s accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Act. In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5) (b) of the Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

Since the Charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000, your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a fellow of both the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Association of Charity Independent Examiners (ACIE), both of which are 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:

Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
The accounts do not accord with those records; or
The accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of the accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view’ which is not a matter considered a part of an independent examination.

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.

Jason Foxwell FCCA FCIE

www.independent-examiner.net 12 Hillbourne Road, Poole, BH17 7JB Date: 8th November 2025

Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 March 2025.

The Statement of Financial Activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All of the charity’s activities derive from continuing operations.

The notes on pages 12 to 20 form an integral part of these accounts.

Balance sheet as at 31 March 2025

The accounts were approved by the trustees, authorised for issue and signed on their behalf by:

Asha Allen

Chair of Trustees Date: 8th November 2025

Statement of cash flows for the year ended 31 March 2025

The notes on pages 12 to 20 form an integral part of these accounts.

Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

Accounting Priorities

1.1 Basis of preparation of the accounts

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with 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) (effective 1 January 2015) - (Charities SORP (FRS 102)).

Glitch meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy notes.

1.2 Income

All income is recognised once the Charity has entitlement to the income, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount of income receivable can be measured reliably.

Grants are included in the statement of financial activities on a receivable basis. The balance of income received for specific purposes but not expended during the period is shown in the relevant funds on the balance sheet. Where income is received in advance of entitlement of receipt, its recognition is deferred and included in creditors as deferred income. Where entitlement occurs before income is received, the income is accrued.

Donations are recognised in full in the Statement of Financial Activities when entitled, receipt is probable and when the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.

1.3 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 allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.

Expenditure on raising funds includes all expenditure incurred by the Charity to raise funds for its charitable purposes and includes costs of all fundraising activities, events and non-charitable trading.

Expenditure on charitable activities is incurred on directly undertaking the activities which further the Charity's objectives, as well as any associated support costs. All expenditure is inclusive of irrecoverable VAT.

1.4 Tangible fixed assets and depreciation

Tangible fixed assets costing £1,000 or more are capitalised and recognised when future economic benefits are probable and the cost or value of the asset can be measured reliably. Tangible fixed assets are initially recognised at cost. After recognition, under the cost model, tangible fixed assets are measured at cost less accumulated depreciation and any accumulated impairment losses. All costs incurred to bring a tangible fixed asset into its intended working condition should be included in the measurement of cost.

Depreciation is charged so as to allocate the cost of tangible fixed assets less their residual value over their estimated useful lives, using the straight-line method.

Depreciation is provided on the following basis:

Computer equipment - 33% straight line

1.5 Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

1.6 Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and in hand includes cash and short-term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.

1.7 Liabilities and provisions

Liabilities are recognised when there is an obligation at the balance sheet date as a result of a past event, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefit will be required in settlement, and the amount of the settlement can be estimated reliably.

Liabilities are recognised at the amount that the Charity anticipates it will pay to settle the debt or the amount it has received as advanced payments for the goods or services it must provide. Provisions are measured at the best estimate of the amounts required to settle the obligation.

1.8 Financial instruments

The Charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

1.9 Pensions

The Charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme and the pension charge represents the amounts payable by the Charity to the fund in respect of the year.

1.10 Fund accounting

General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the Charity and which have not been designated for other purposes.

Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors or which have been raised by the Charity for particular purposes. The costs of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund. The aim and use of each restricted fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

INCOME FROM DONATIONS AND LEGACIES

3. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

4. ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE BY ACTIVITIES

Support costs are analysed on the next page.

ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE BY ACTIVITIES CONTINUED

Analysis of Support Costs

5. INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REMUNERATION

6. STAFF COSTS

7. TRUSTEES’ REMUNERATION AND EXPENSES

During the year, no trustees received any remuneration, benefits or had any expenses reimbursed (2024 – Nil).

8. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

9. DEBTORS

10. CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

11. STATEMENT OF FUNDS

European AI & Society Fund

European AI & Society Fund awarded Glitch a grant for the period April 2023 to May 2024 to carry out a project related to digital rights and freedoms as per the proposal submitted to the European AI Fund.

12. ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS

13. RECONCILIATION OF NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS TO NET CASH FLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES

14. PENSION COMMITMENTS

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund. The pension cost charge represents contributions payable by the charity to the fund and amounted to £5,827 (2024 - £13,073)

Glitch