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2025-12-31-accounts

Annual Trustee Report and Financial Statements For the year ended 31 December 2025

STEWARDSHIP SERVICES (UKET) LIMITED

COMPANY NUMBER 90305

CHARITY NUMBER 234714

Contents

Introduction

Impact & 2025 review

Financial Review & Governance

Annual Financial Statements

About us
4
Key milestones
7
Strategy
9
Message from our
Chair of Trustees
12
14
Financial and risk reporting
Financial review
43
Investment management
and performance
47
Reserves
51
Risks
52
Impact summary
18
2025 review
19
Governance
Structure
54
People
55
Policies and other
statutory declarations
62
Sustainability and
carbon reporting
64
Charity Governance
Code
67
Section 172 Statement
67
Statement of Council
responsibilities
72
Independent auditor’s
report
74
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Consolidated Statement
of Financial Activities
78
Consolidated and
Charity Company
Balance Sheets
79
Consolidated Cash
Flow Statement
81
Notes to the financial
statements
83

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INTRODUCTION

ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Introduction

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About us

2026 is a year of celebration for Stewardship as we mark 120 years working with generous Christians and the ministries they support.

From our beginnings of 11 people, from all walks of life, uniting to help the growing number of churches springing up around the country, we continue to move forward with the same desire to see churches and Christian ministries flourish. This is encapsulated in our vision, which is to see a thriving Kingdom economy where God’s people steward resources generously to advance the Gospel.

Alongside our vision, our mission is to help Christians be the best stewards of the resources God gives them. In 2025, we helped over 30,000 donors discover the joy of generosity as they gave around £160m in support of over 12,000 churches, charities and Christian workers. Our professional services continue to equip, grow and strengthen those ministries so they can create more impact for God’s Kingdom.

Our values

Generosity, expressed with joy Relationship, strengthened with understanding

Integrity, demonstrated with justice

Service, delivered with excellence

Our charitable purposes

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Products and services

For donors

Activate your giving and increase the impact of your gifts.

For partners

Manage your donations and fundraising pages, reduce admin time, get Instant Gift Aid and connect with a community of generous donors.

A personalised service taking your specific needs into account, including independent examinations and accounts preparation.

We help churches and charities achieve their vision by providing finance for building projects. We also support you through the process as a strategic partner.

A dedicated account for those giving over £25,000.

Designed specially to help Christian workers organise, receive and increase their financial support.

Delivered by an award-winning team of Christian professionals, we’ll administer your payroll so that you can focus on your mission.

Let our team of experts take care of your application. We’ll help register your church or charity with the Charity Commission so that you can focus on your vision.

A personal service for those establishing a charitable fund of £500,000 or more.

For Christian workers whose support is paid to the charity rather than the individual.

Whatever stage you’re at, we’re here to partner with you and help you become a healthy, sustainable and missional church.

We’ll guide you through governance, finance, property issues, HR situations, insurance questions and more, all for a low annual fee.

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Cause Crosses

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ART & MEDIA
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BIBLE

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ENVIRONMENT &
ELDERLY
CREATION CARE
INTERNATIONAL AID &
JUSTICE & HUMAN RIGHTS
DEVELOPMENT
SPORTS & RECREATION STUDENTS
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Our online CauseFinder™ tool groups our church, charity and Christian worker partners by cause areas that we call ‘Cause Crosses’. This makes it easy for our donors to discover ministries that are aligned with their personal values as well as helping them to see how their generosity contributes to a wider ecosystem of meaningful, lasting change.

CHURCH PLANTING

COMMUNITY & FRIENDSHIP

EDUCATION & TRAINING

CHILDREN

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EVANGELISM & OUTREACH
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FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS

GLOBAL MISSION

HEALTH & NUTRITION

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MENTAL HEALTH &
PRAYER & WORSHIP
WELLBEING
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LOCAL CHURCH
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MEN
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YOUTH
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TECHNOLOGY & DIGITAL

UK POVERTY & DEBT

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WOMEN
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Key milestones

January

New Active Generosity podcast launched

August

Improved search functionality released for both our giving accounts and website

February

Second Generosity Report published

September

Our Finance Team wins Financial or Procurement Excellence of the Year at the Third Sector Awards 2025

March

Return of 40acts, our generosity challenge for Lent

November

July

Decision to split the Chief Financial and Operating Officer (CFOO) role into separate Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) roles, with Felicity Griffiths retaining the COO role. Recruitment started for a new CFO

December

1 This is a range from -100 to 100, assessing if employees would recommend Stewardship as a place to work to a friend. A score of 10+ is considered good.

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Key milestones

Post year end

January

Full-day thought leadership launch event for our third Generosity Report

February

40acts for Lent is available in the Stewardship Giving app for the first time and supported by a new 40acts podcast

April

Start of the migration of Payroll Bureau clients to a new service platform

May

Our new CFO, Art Russell, starts

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Strategy

Mission Vision

We help Christians A thriving Kingdom be the best stewards economy where God’s of the resources people steward resources God gives them generously to advance the Gospel

We serve

Christians called to faithfully steward their personal, professional or ministry resources for God’s glory

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Stewardship’s Theory of Change

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We estimate Christians in the UK could give £7bn per year.
Closing this gap is key to achieving a thriving Kingdom economy
£7bn
Churches, charities and
Donors Christian workers
Solutions Insight Solutions
Connection
Discipleship programmes to Transformational A comprehensive Tools and resources to equip
integrate faith with finance Christian giving suite of partners to better invite
experience professional generosity, showcase impact
Research and thought
support services and grow their support
leadership to shift the culture Services to support Giving gap
for partners
towards generous stewardship complex donor needs
Problems Problems
There is a disconnect Donors have expressed Partners report that they lack Support often doesn’t
between faith and a growing lack of trust in guidance and support to reach the cause areas that
finance churches and charities make wise financial decisions are most in need but flows
to larger, better-known
Donors receive Donors have a low awareness
partners that are already
insufficient biblical of small to medium charities
well-resourced
teaching on money and and Christian workers
generosity £2bn Partners lack the
Donors are poorly equipped
confidence to articulate
to make wise giving decisions
their mission/ ministry
We currently estimate that
and invite generosity
Christians in the UK give circa
effectively
£2bn a year
Note: We recognise that these are complex challenges with complex
solutions – these have been simplified for conciseness
Discipleship
Confidence Confidence
Insight gap
Distribution gap
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Strategic and Foundational Goals

Strategic Goals

Christians are freed to Christian ministries joyfully and generously are trusted and thriving; release more resources into operating healthily and the Kingdom. sufficiently resourced to achieve their missions.

The culture of teaching on faith, finance and stewardship in UK churches is confident, consistent and contagious.

Foundational Goals

A thriving, united team, who love Jesus, operating in line with Stewardship values.

Technology enables and powers Stewardship forward to achieve our mission and vision.

Underpinned by an agile, fact-based methodology of exploration and development.

An excellent, joined-up experience that solves real needs for customers across our products and services.

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Message from our Chair of Trustees

‘I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labour. For we are co-workers in God’s service...’

1 CORINTHIANS 3:6-9 (NIV)

e’re so encouraged by the resilience in W Christian generosity during a year when cost of living pressures on individual donors increased and headwinds for our church and charity partners were significant. It has been a tough year for many and the need for extravagant, radical generosity to counter these very real challenges is more acute than ever.

I’m delighted to report that we’re seeing evidence of a wonderful growth in generosity among committed Christians, evidenced by our most recent Generosity Report research, the growth in our donor base and a record year for Stewardship in terms of donations received and grants made to our partners.

Our many donors planted the seeds through their giving; our dedicated staff worked hard to create the conditions for growth; the churches, charities and Christian workers who are our partners continue to respond to a wide range of needs in this country and overseas; but the truth is that without God we would not have achieved such amazing results.

I’m delighted to report that we’re seeing evidence of a wonderful growth in generosity among committed Christians.

Trust and generosity

Our third Generosity Report, published January 2026, explores the vital role of trust in developing generous giving. This research shows that generosity is not just about capacity or conviction – it is also relational. When Christians give, they place trust in the recipients to steward what God first entrusted to them. When that trust is strong, generosity becomes bold and joyful; when it is fragile, giving can falter. I’d like to thank all our donors for placing their trust in Stewardship, a trust that has translated into a record year for gifts received, grants made and customer satisfaction. Of course, we’re not perfect and in the thankfully small number of instances where we get things wrong, we’re committed to learning and improving further.

The not-for-profit sector has had a particularly challenging year. Charities were not exempt from many of the Chancellor’s budget measures and have been financially stretched as a result. Against this background, building trust has been hugely important. Our research shows that the correlation between trust in a cause and propensity to give to that cause is consistent across all cause types. A big part of our work is how we equip and strengthen churches and charities through our range of professional services, helping to improve their governance, administer their payroll, prepare their annual accounts effectively and build connection with their supporters. All these services help to strengthen that trust between donors and the causes they support.

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Sound governance

We’ve recently completed our annual review of the effectiveness of our Council of Trustees. This year was a self-assessment following last year’s very thorough independent evaluation that demonstrated a high level of effectiveness. I’m pleased to report that all trustees and senior staff consider the Council to be effective, with 63% rating the level of effectiveness to be better than 12 months ago and none felt that effectiveness had dropped below last year’s already high level. We have also enhanced our access to specialist skills through the appointment of new non-trustee committee members with particular experience in lending, cybersecurity and charity law.

Three of our trustees stepped down in June 2026: our longest serving trustee, Ritz Steytler, who has been a trustee for ten years and kindly gave us an extra year to facilitate a smooth transition to his successor, Craig Martin, who joined last year; Mike Bugembe and Sunil Rajan are also stepping down, both after six years of service. We’re immensely grateful to Ritz, Mike and Sunil for giving so generously of their time and talent.

I also hope that, as you read on, you will be inspired to partner with us in our journey to build a thriving Kingdom economy.

very grateful to Janie, her Leadership Team and all of Stewardship’s staff for their commitment and hard work. We recognise that we all have a part to play and that everyone’s contribution has made an important difference, but it is God who deserves the glory for the record results of the last year.

Investing for growth

These strong results have generated a significant financial surplus and, looking forward, it is our intention to invest the operational surplus generated in 2025 into new projects and enhance our core capabilities in 2026. Accordingly, trustees have approved a budget for 2026 that reinvests the fruits of 2025’s success into delivering better outcomes for our partners and donors.

Thank you for your interest in Stewardship. I hope that you will find this Annual Report informative and encouraging. I also hope that, as you read on, you will be inspired to partner with us in our journey to build a thriving Kingdom economy where God’s people steward resources generously to advance the Gospel.

Chris Gillies

CHAIR OF TRUSTEES

Gratitude for a successful year

Our Chief Executive, Janie Oliver, has now completed her second year at the helm. She has led the organisation to a greater level of spiritual maturity, deepening our foundations of prayer. She has also implemented important changes to sharpen our strategic focus and grow the talent base. All of this has translated into the very strong set of results that you will read about in the rest of this document. I’m

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Message from our Chief Executive Officer

‘Freely you have received; freely give.’

MATTHEW 10:8 (NIV)

s we look back on 2025, I am struck again A by the simple truth: God is faithful – and His people are generous. This year has been a remarkable chapter in Stewardship’s story, marked by incredible growth in giving, deepened partnerships and significant steps forwards in our mission to enable greater generosity for Kingdom impact. It has been a privilege to witness God’s hand at work through thousands of donors, churches, charities and Christian workers across the UK.

In a season when many churches and charities are navigating real pressures, it has been deeply encouraging to witness the resilience of our donors and the extraordinary impact of the ministries they support. I am grateful, too, for the dedication of our staff team and trustees, and for the many ways in which the Lord has provided and guided us along the way.

I am struck again by the simple truth: God is faithful – and His people are generous.

Towards a thriving Kingdom economy

At the heart of Stewardship is a calling to enable greater generosity for Kingdom impact. During 2025, we continued to embed our strategic framework, shaped by our Theory of Change, which helps to identify barriers in the generosity ecosystem and indicates steps we can take towards removing them.

Our strategy is guided by three Strategic Goals, which are focused on:

These are underpinned by four Foundational Goals, which ensure that we are effective and sustainable as an organisation by:

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A record year and what it represents

2025 saw Stewardship’s highest income year on record, reflecting extraordinary generosity across our donor community. We witnessed a 49% increase year on year with Gifts In (also referred to as ‘donations’) reaching £160.9m. This includes a remarkable one-off Gift In of £31.6m.

Grants Out totalled £134.1m, up 26%, which means significant additional resources were released into Kingdom causes and communities. Our Donor Advised Fund (DAF) payout rate for all our donors increased from 57% to 68% year on year[2] , a strong indicator of how actively donors are deploying their charitable capital.

Behind every number is a story: a church worker sustained, a community outreach strengthened, a charity equipped, a family supported. These stories remind us that the true measure of our work is not financial growth alone, but the Gospel impact generosity makes possible.

Investing well: stewarding a growing balance sheet

As our balance sheet grew, we continued to steward resources with care, guided by strong governance and a further refined Kingdom impact investment approach. We recorded £5.9m in investment gains, reflecting a well-diversified investment strategy and careful oversight. Unrestricted expenditure increased to £8.8m, reflecting essential investments in technology, systems and staff to support growth and service excellence.

2025 saw Stewardship’s highest income year on record, reflecting extraordinary generosity across our donor community.

Operational highlights: growing joyful generosity and strengthening ministries

The Stewardship Giving app

We made major progress in using technology to simplify generosity. In 2025, our much-anticipated Stewardship Giving app became available on both iOS and Android, helping donors move more easily from inspiration to action.

Enhancing the partner experience

We improved visibility of giving activity through a redesigned partner dashboard and reduced administrative friction by streamlining onboarding and grant making. We also enhanced our search functionality, making it easier for partners to access the resources they need and for donors to quickly find and support the ministries they care about.

40acts returned – and thousands took part

We were delighted to see the return of 40acts, our generosity challenge for Lent, in 2025. This campaign attracted over 43,000 participants, of which 8,000 were new. Just as encouraging, 33 partners contributed 40 blogs and challenges, deepening collaboration and widening impact.

Expanded Generosity Report

In the second year of the Generosity Report, published 2025, we invested further by increasing the research sample size by 50%, strengthening what is fast becoming our flagship piece of thought leadership for churches and Christian ministries as they navigate generosity with clarity and confidence.

2 We use The Foundation Center method to calculate our payout rate; each year’s total amount of grants made from Stewardship is divided by the total amount of charitable assets (restricted funds) held at the close of the prior year. This method is also used by the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) in its UK DAF Report.

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Launch of Active Generosity podcast

2025 also saw the launch of Stewardship’s monthly podcast, Active Generosity, which invites guests from our community to share stories, learning and encouragement around faith, stewardship and generosity.

Recognition and encouragement

We were grateful to receive external recognition through two industry awards: our Finance Team won Financial or Procurement Excellence of the Year at the Third Sector Awards 2025; and we were also honoured to receive the award in the category of Most Innovative Approach for Raising the Standard of Charity Annual Reporting at the 2025 Corporate Reporting Awards for our Annual Report 2024. Awards are never the goal, but they can be a meaningful encouragement, so we thank God for the excellence, creativity and dedication reflected in this recognition.

Looking ahead

As we enter 2026, our focus remains steady: to help generosity flourish, partners thrive and Kingdom impact grow.

We also know that generosity is closely connected to trust, so we will continue to prioritise the transparency, good governance and excellent service that support confident, joyful generosity.

Thank you for your partnership – to every donor, every church, every charity, every Christian worker and every colleague at Stewardship. Your generosity and faithfulness are a gift. Above all, we give thanks to God, who provides, sustains and multiplies what is entrusted to Him for the sake of His Kingdom.

May we continue, with God’s help, to see a thriving Kingdom economy where God’s people steward resources generously to advance the Gospel.

Janie Oliver CEO

As we enter 2026, our focus remains steady: to help generosity flourish, partners thrive and Kingdom impact grow. We will continue to invest in technology and insight, strengthen the experience for donors and partners and play our part in shaping culture – so that teaching and practice around stewardship become more confident and biblically grounded within the UK Church.

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Impact & 2025 Review

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Percentages given represent growth compared to the prior reporting period.

Impact summary

Serving generous Christians

Growing a thriving Kingdom economy

Professional Services Giving Account income Gifts In Christian charity £62.2m +5% Total Gifts In Total Grants Out partners £1.5m +6% £68.5m +27% £160.9m £134.1m Payroll Bureau +49% +26% 921 clients +4% Donor Advised Fund Gifts In £42.9m +43% DAF payout rate Total number of Grants Out Church partners Accounts Examination Service 68% £39.5m +38% 1m +5% 527 clients +5% Christian workers Philanthropy Fund Charity Formation Gifts In £17.0m +6% £55.8m +196% 38 new charities Other charities Total assets £9.1m +15% 3,466 +16% £248.0m technical briefing with 30% invested in Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the paper downloads Bull’s Eye (see page 47) Impact investment Impact lending £1.5m 9 £30.5m -10% of additional investments were made into Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the Bull’s new loans to partners in loan book at 31 December 2025, made up of 110 loans Eye (see page 47) during the year 2025 with a value of £2.0m

Impact investment £1.5m of additional investments were made into Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the Bull’s Eye (see page 47) during the year

loan book at 31 December 2025, made up of 110 loans (excluding loans by clients via nominated investment options)

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2025 review

Operational highlights and impact stories

Across 2025, we made excellent progress towards the three Strategic Goals that support our mission to help Christians be the best stewards of all that God gives them.

These goals are focused on deepening generosity, strengthening the churches, charities and Christian workers who are our partners, and helping to shape the UK’s discipleship culture around faith, finance and stewardship. At the same time, we also continued to mature our foundational capabilities to ensure our culture, systems, technologies and processes are strong enough to support our ongoing growth.

As part of our strategy review process at the end of 2025, we slightly amended the wording for both sets of goals. We have used the revised wording in our operational summary for 2025, which is structured by these goals, so it is clear to see the progress that has been made in each area.

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2025 review

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Christians are freed to
joyfully and generously
release more resources into
the Kingdom.
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Resilient generosity

Given the challenges in both our sector and the wider economy, we are delighted to report that total Gifts In (also referred to as ‘donations’) increased by a remarkable 49% to £160.9m.

This is a powerful testament to the resilient generosity of our donors, who are both more engaged and more generous than ever. The total includes a gift of £31.6m in the year, a reflection of the trust our donors increasingly place in us to handle significant and complex giving. However, even allowing for that specific gift, Gifts In still increased by 20%.

Gifts In from our Giving Account donors grew by 5% to £62.2m. The total number of donors with a Giving Account grew by 6% and we now have 32,300 donors who are actively[3] using their accounts, which represents an increase of 2% year on year.

3 We define an account as ‘active’ if it was created in the previous month or the account holder has given from the account within the past three months.

Gifts In with our Philanthropy Fund and Donor Advised Fund accounts saw particularly strong growth: for the former, the total rose from £18.9m to £55.8m, including the £31.6m gift previously mentioned; for the latter, there was a 43% increase year on year to £42.9m.

The number of Donor Advised Fund and Philanthropy Fund donors also grew by 3%.

Increase in active generosity

Encouragingly, total Grants Out also saw a significant increase of 26% to £134.1m, which breaks down by account type as follows:

Account type Grants Out
total		 Increase
year on year
Giving Account £60.5m 7%
Donor Advised
Fund		 £38.9m 40%
Philanthropy Fund £34.7m 48%

In addition, the total number of grants made in 2025 rose by 5% to over one million for the first time. The healthy level of active generosity that our growth in Grants Out reflects is further underlined by our

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2025 review

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Breakdown of Grants Out
by partner type
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CHURCHES
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CHRISTIAN CHARITIES CHURCHES
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£39.5m 29% £68.5m 51%

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Total Grants Out
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£134.1m
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CHRISTIAN WORKERS

OTHER CHARITIES

£17.0m 13% £9.1m 7%

excellent DAF payout rate[4] , which has increased from 57% to 68% year on year across all our donors. This indicator measures grants distributed during the year as a proportion of total funds held at the close of the prior year and is therefore a helpful indicator of how actively donors are deploying their account balances. To put our data in context, the industry average is approximately 25%.

We continue to refine our Donor Advisory Board service to Philanthropy Fund donors, which allows them to involve family, friends or other expert advisers in grant-making decisions, but without the legal burden of charity trusteeship.

The Donor Advisory Board team works closely with our charity and church partners to strengthen them in two ways: by helping to nurture and develop an appropriate relationship between donor and partner; and by ensuring they have the right structures and governance in place for receiving significant, multi-year grants.

4 We use The Foundation Center method to calculate our payout rate; each year’s total amount of grants made from Stewardship is divided by the total amount of charitable assets (restricted funds) held at the close of the prior year. This method is also used by the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) in its UK DAF Report.

We had a vision for our giving but not the capacity to implement it well. Stewardship’s Philanthropy Services have been exactly what we needed – providing strategic dialogue, research, charity relationship management, reporting and administration. Essentially the Philanthropy Fund account and Donor Advisory Board service provide everything you’d want from a high-quality charitable trust, but without the cost and complexity of running one ourselves. The team are a joy to work with: friendly and kind, yet utterly professional, with exceptional client service and responsiveness, and an easy-to-use giving app. Quite simply, there’s no way we could have had the impact we’ve had without them.

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2025 review

Strengthened investment offering

We continued to strengthen our investment offering for Donor Advised Fund and Philanthropy Fund donors, working towards a comprehensive suite of investment options for the charitable funds held with us that includes social impact investments. These investments give donors a unique opportunity to pursue positive social or Kingdom impact alongside potential financial returns prior to grant making. Our Kingdom Impact Bull’s Eye Investment Approach (see page 47) guides this work by prioritising the allocation of capital and resources to investments that deliver measurable social or Kingdom benefit (Tier 1 and Tier 2).

In 2025, we executed seven bespoke investment requests totalling £3.0m. This included £0.7m in Tier 1 investments and £1.1m in Tier 2 investments. Among these was a loan requested by a donor that enabled Grace Enterprises to secure premises to support its growth and expand employment opportunities for more people.

We also celebrate the full repayment in 2025 of a significant £2.5m Donor Advised Fund loan to a Christian business, during which the organisation strengthened its profitability, reflecting both the resilience of the enterprise and the effectiveness of this form of impact investment.

Working with Stewardship’s Donor Advisory Board team has been an absolute gamechanger for us. From my very first call with the team, I felt supported, encouraged and genuinely believed in. In fact, that initial conversation was the moment I first glimpsed what The Psalmists could become – something that could grow beyond me, with an impact far wider than what I could achieve alone.

Stewardship has offered guidance at every stage of our development. Whether we’ve needed wisdom on building our team, growing our financial foundation or navigating the structure of the charity, they have been consistently available. The calls, emails and ongoing exchanges have been deeply beneficial and incredibly practical. As a charity still in its infancy, I know we will continue to lean on Stewardship in the months and years ahead. It is a genuine comfort – and relief – to know that this support is there as we grow.

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Looking to start a foundation? There’s another way to give

Philanthropy Fund

hen Ian and his wife sold their business, W they knew they wanted to give. Not just a little, but meaningfully and intentionally from the proceeds of the sale and in a way that reflected their Christian faith and values.

A heart to give, but no clear path

Like many in a similar situation, their first thought was to set up a family charitable foundation. They started down the path, speaking to accountants and solicitors, exploring how to structure things properly for both long-term giving and tax effectiveness. But the deeper they went, the more overwhelming it became. It was also important to them for someone to understand their Christian beliefs and how that was shaping their approach to giving.

A trusted partner for the journey

Then someone introduced them to Stewardship, which in turn led them to our Philanthropy Fund – a flexible solution rooted in shared Christian values that brought a tax-effective structure to their giving, without the complexity they’d feared.

The confidence to give generously and wisely

As they’ve continued their giving journey, Ian and his wife have found the Philanthropy Fund to be more than just a practical solution. Stewardship has continued to be a trusted partner on their giving journey – offering collaboration, wisdom and practical support.

They also like the fact that their account balance doesn’t sit idle but is being used alongside others to fuel Gospel-focused work. They welcome the option for anonymity and the chance to explore new opportunities, from causes they might never have come across to ways of giving beyond straightforward grants, such as loans to churches and charities.

Looking ahead, Ian and his wife are excited about what’s next. They hope to meet others who share their heart for generous, Gospel-driven giving – people who are navigating similar decisions and asking the same questions about how to give wisely, faithfully and with impact.

It felt like a weight had been lifted. It was a relief not to have to make big decisions when we had no experience and so many other pressures. Stewardship helped us avoid mistakes we might have made by going it alone.

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Grace Enterprises: Businesses that bring life in all its fullness

Donor Advised Fund

Impact lending

hen Matt Parfitt set up Grace Enterprises W in 2017, his vision was clear: to create businesses that would give people on the margins of society the chance to flourish. In 2025, a loan requested by one of our Donor Advised Fund donors helped Grace Enterprises secure the premises they needed to grow the business and offer employment opportunities to even more people.

A vision for life-changing jobs

Grace Enterprises began with a radical conviction to build businesses that change lives. For Founder Matt, it was never about chasing profits or building a brand; it was about becoming, as he puts it, “a godly employer” by creating jobs for people who had been

homeless, in prison, battling addiction or starting over as refugees.

Radiant Cleaners: where it all began

The first step in that journey was Radiant Cleaners, a Nottingham-based commercial cleaning company, which puts people before profit. As the cleaning business went from strength to strength, Grace Enterprises diversified its work, first launching a marquee hire business, called Jubilee Events, and then a biscuit business, called Half the Story, in partnership with homeless charity Green Pastures.

A pivotal moment

By 2025, the biscuit business needed more space, which came with hefty financial hurdles: three months of rent upfront plus a £50,000 deposit locked away for five years. Without urgent support, the 20 existing jobs were at risk and the ambition to double that number would be lost.

At this pivotal moment, a conversation with one of our Donor Advised Fund holders at a Faith in Business event opened new opportunities. The donor explains:

“Hearing Matt describe what Grace Enterprises has achieved is truly inspiring. Moreover, Grace Enterprises is professionally run and sustainable. So,

once we understood their situation, we could see that we could remove a worry and stumbling block.”

An interest-free loan met the needs of the fiveyear deposit account guarantee perfectly, while an additional amount was loaned at below-market interest rates to refinance existing loans and cover three months of the bakery’s rental obligations.

Lending from their Donor Advised Fund account was new to this donor. “Before this, we didn’t have any idea how, or even if, charitable funds could be loaned rather than simply given. The assistance from Stewardship has been essential to understand and achieve what we wanted, ensuring that our fund can give and keep on giving.”

Seven, the perfect number

The bakery is now housed in a space that’s seven times bigger than before and recruiting to meet increasing demand for the biscuits. Grace Enterprises’ original vision was to build seven businesses, each one a platform for new beginnings, dignity and life in all its fullness. Watch this space – with the help of the philanthropic community, Grace Enterprises is showing no signs of slowing down!

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Music in the mountains – giving as a business

Donor Advised Fund for Companies

he Donor Advised Fund for Companies T has become a much-valued tool for philanthropic businesses. It enables companies to direct funds efficiently to the causes that matter most to their owners and staff.

The director of one such business shares, “As a company, we see ourselves as stewards of resources entrusted to us by God. We view the work that we are involved with as an opportunity to serve Him. As this is His company, we prayerfully ask Him about how best to use His resources!”

Music in the mountains

The charitable focus of the business’s giving is focused on Central Asia, a notoriously difficult place to reach with the Good News of Jesus and funding to support such projects.

Timur[*] had a remarkable journey to faith, meeting Jesus in a land where His name was rarely spoken. As a musician, music was his natural medium of communication. Timur set up a temporary studio in his bedroom to record songs about his faith. These songs were distributed through WhatsApp and soon thousands of people were listening to these songs of proclamation and testimony in their own language.

The business gave to Timur with its Donor Advised Fund, helping him to update his equipment and find a proper studio where others could also record Christian music. Today, Timur is recording new songs and helping to lead a growing church.

Lifting the administrative burden

The director comments, “We previously used other avenues to give from the company. I was using Stewardship for our family’s giving and then investigated whether we could move our company giving to them.

“The account greatly streamlines the administrative burden that would be associated with the gift being given directly to a range of charities. The ability to request for grants to be made to international NGOs and full-time Christian workers is excellent. Plus, they support both one-off gifts and long-term giving strategies – all with tax efficiency, low fees and excellent recordkeeping.

“The work that we would need to do to remain legally compliant when making such gifts would be enormous – we would perhaps need a member of our team dedicated to this! Instead, Stewardship handles this for us and they are appropriately thorough without creating obstacles.”

The team shares our passion to see God’s resources handled well and for His glory, and their support has been superb. They are deeply committed to their work and are determined to help in any way that they can. It is a great joy to be a very small part of the glorious work that God is doing as we give with Stewardship.

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Christian ministries
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In 2025, just under 900 new churches, charities and individual Christian workers – 8% of the 12,000 that we serve in total – registered for our Partner Account to help with support raising and managing the donation process.

Further improvements to our Partner Account

A significant improvement in our search functionality in 2025 means that donors can find partners more easily. Together with the upgrade to our partner profile pages in 2024, partners are now more able to showcase the impact of their work and invite support.

Encouraging response to our Linked Worker Accounts

Take-up of our Linked Worker Accounts since their launch in September 2024 has been encouraging – we now have 185 of these operating for 15 different

charity partners and total giving across all Linked Worker Accounts was £0.3m.

The Linked Worker Account frees both the Christian worker and their organisation to focus more fully on their mission. While the worker can share a direct link to their profile page, all gifts made are paid directly to the linked charity’s Partner Account in support of the worker’s salary. Both the worker and the linked charity can view giving information online in real time, which in turn simplifies the related administration and communication.

Strong demand for our Support Raising Training

Our Support Raising Training, which is available to all our Partner Account holders, saw the highest number of attendees to date in 2025. The average increase in monthly support for Christian workers following Support Raising Training was just under £200 a month.

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Partner type Total
Church 3,946
Christian charity 3,529
Christian workers 2,358
Secular charity 2,202
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Growing impact with loans to churches and Christian charities

After a particularly strong year of 19% growth in 2024, our loan book consolidated at a total of 110 loans with an overall value of £30.5m (excluding loans via nominated investment options) in 2025. This is a decrease of 10% from £33.8m from the year before. The main driver for this reduction is the increased ability and confidence of our borrowers to repay outstanding balances, which we celebrate.

In 2025, we advanced nine new loans worth £2.0m and with a value range of £18k to £1.2m. Our overall average loan value is £0.3m. Loans help our partners to grow by supporting a range of infrastructure projects from building development and refurbishment to property purchases.

A highlight of 2025 was the migration to a new lending administration system and the launch of a new portal for our lending clients. This gives clients secure, 24/7 digital access to their loan information, including statements and detailed payment history. We have now migrated all our loans and clients to the new portal.

Solid growth across the board for our professional support services

Our suite of professional support services saw solid revenue growth of 6% to £1.5m. These services help to equip, grow and strengthen our partners so they can increase their impact. From payroll to accounts to expert technical advice, we provide practical support for developing robust, effective operations and governance that are also in line with the latest legislation.

Payroll Bureau

Our Payroll Bureau service saw strong growth in 2025, with a 9% increase in revenue to £0.6m. There are now 921 churches and Christian charities with just over 3,900 employees on their payrolls who use our service, 32 of whom were new in 2025. The total administered on behalf of our clients in 2025, including payments to HMRC, was £86.3m.

While our focus is on ensuring clients remain compliant with payroll legislation, we aim to excel in service delivery when issues arise. For example, when a glitch with one bank meant all the Direct Debits were rejected, we stepped in to cover salaries while the problem was being resolved.

An exciting development underway for our Payroll Bureau service is a major upgrade to the supporting software platform, which will allow us to serve significantly more churches and charities. The new Payroll Bureau software platform was chosen and tested in 2025 and we aim to transition clients in the 2026-27 tax year.

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Accounts Examination Service

Our Accounts Examination Service continued to provide trusted governance support to churches and Christian charities in 2025. The service grew by 5% to a record 527 clients, with revenue increasing by 4% to £0.7m, reflecting steady demand for high-quality, values-aligned expertise.

By helping trustees and finance teams navigate regulatory requirements with confidence, the service plays an important role in strengthening the sustainability and resilience of Christian ministries.

Charity formation and training

Our expertise extends to helping others navigate the tricky process of setting up and registering a charity with the Charity Commission. In return for a low fixed fee, we take care of all the paperwork and associated governance. In 2025, we processed 50 applications to set up a new charity and helped 38 new charities to become registered with the Charity Commission. We provide further technical support on a wide range of governance and legislative topics through our online shop resources, briefing papers, Consultancy Helpline and Lunchtime DialIn webinars. Last year, the Consultancy Helpline attracted 555 enquiries and the webinars an average of 151 attendees.

The support I get from the team and the help you give me with running the ministry makes it all possible. I couldn’t do it without you! It’s definitely a team thing and you guys are a key part of it all.

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Faithful generosity: equipping future pastors for Gospel mission

need more faithful Bible-teaching churches. And that means more leaders. Looking ahead, we realised we could need as many as 80 new leaders in the next 25 years. But the cost of training is a barrier for many. We needed to act.”

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A culture of generosity

This faithful generosity has done more than meet a target. It has helped shape a culture of giving across Co-Mission’s 30 churches, one where generosity is seen not as a burden but as a joyful act of discipleship.

Setting a bold generosity target

hat began as a bold plan to resource new W leaders became a powerful story of God’s provision. With a vision for Gospel impact, Co-Mission’s REVIVE appeal stirred God’s people to respond with open-handed generosity, equipping pastors and Gospel workers to share Christ across London and beyond.

For more than two decades, Co-Mission churches have gathered each summer for REVIVE – a weekend of teaching, worship and fellowship. In 2025, REVIVE carried a bold vision: to launch a giving initiative that would resource the next generation of pastorteachers for Gospel ministry in London.

The scale of the need was clear. As Matthew Dalton, Chief Operating Officer at Co-Mission, explains: “If we want to see London reached with the Gospel, we

The plan was ambitious. Co-Mission approached us as a trusted Christian giving partner to help them reach a target of £48,000, enough to support three pastors-in-training for their first year. Previous REVIVE giving appeals had raised around 20% of that total, so aiming for £48,000 felt like a leap of faith. Yet, as Matthew recalls, “We thought, why not? We could do something bigger. Who knows what God might do?”

A remarkable response

From the first evening of REVIVE, generosity began to flow. In total, more than £180,000 was given; nearly four times the original goal, with almost 300 people generously giving. Instead of three pastorsin-training, Co-Mission can now fund four pastorsin-training through their full programme, plus five additional ministry trainees for up to two years.

Having Stewardship alongside us gave us the confidence to have a go. Their experience meant we didn’t feel alone. From structuring the appeal to providing a platform that could cope with the volume of donations, they helped us focus on vision rather than mechanics.

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Good Shepherd Mission: Trusted support for faithful governance and mission

Going ‘above and beyond’

Church Partner

For Sally Dixon, GSM’s administrator, what stands out most is the consistency and care of the relationship. Over time, Stewardship has not only provided a reliable service but a named contact who has taken the time to understand GSM’s context, its people and the way its finance team works. This continuity has built trust and confidence, helping GSM navigate governance responsibilities with assurance.

Accounts Examination Service

ood Shepherd Mission (GSM) is a busy G local church community, serving people from all walks of life through a wide range of weekly activities. GSM also hosts TwelveStep recovery meetings, a seasonal night shelter in partnership with GrowTH and a weekly women’s drop-in community facilitated by The Arch. Through consistent welcome and Gospel witness, lives are being transformed as physical, social and spiritual needs are met.

When deadlines have been tight, Sally has appreciated us going ‘above and beyond’ what might normally be expected from a contractual service, with the team aiming to be as flexible and responsive as possible.

Professional expertise

Behind this vibrant ministry is a team of staff and volunteers committed to stewarding resources well and governing responsibly. For several years, GSM has relied on our Accounts Examination Service and Consultancy Helpline to support its trustees and finance team in this vital work.

Just as important has been the quality of expertise. Sally comments, “It feels like a very safe pair of hands. We can trust the process and know that there are things we don’t need to worry about because they are being handled properly.”

With trustees who are committed volunteers rather than financial specialists, we have helped translate

View partner profile

financial language and responsibilities into clear, accessible explanations. By asking thoughtful, pertinent questions, the team supports GSM to think issues through for itself, equipping trustees to have informed and constructive discussions rather than simply being told what to do.

For GSM, we’ve done more than help them meet their compliance obligations. We’ve enabled confidence, clarity and good governance – freeing leaders and volunteers to focus on what matters most: welcoming people, sharing the Good News of Jesus and seeing lives changed through faithful, everyday mission.

It has felt like Stewardship genuinely wants us to do well. There’s real care there – not just for the accounts but for us as a church and ministry.

They are always professional but also friendly. I’ve never been made to feel inadequate or that I’m wasting their time.

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Glow Church: Partnering for purpose and the power of generosity

A vision that needed space to grow

Like many growing churches, Glow Church reached a point where its existing facilities no longer matched its vision, with the leaders recognising they needed a building designed for more than Sunday services. The decision was made to invest in a bespoke facility – a space that could function as a church, a community hub and a multi-purpose venue for conferences and events. It was a bold step, requiring significant financial commitment and careful stewardship of resources.

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Church Partner Lending
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hat happens when generosity is shaped W by vision and sustained through partnership? For Glow Church UK, the answer has been long-term growth, deeper community impact and renewed confidence to pursue God’s calling for the future.

Walking the journey together

We first partnered with Glow Church in 2016, supporting the refinancing of the loan that enabled the church to secure its new premises. This was the beginning of a long-term relationship rooted in shared values and trust.

Glow Church’s story began decades ago with a simple desire to gather people and share the Good News of Jesus. Over time, that small beginning grew into a thriving church community in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

In 2022, further funding supported improvements to the church’s main auditorium – a key investment that strengthened the church’s ability to host large gatherings and extend its reach within the community.

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For Glow Church, having a partner who understood both the financial realities and the spiritual purpose behind the project made a crucial difference. It provided confidence to keep moving forward, even when the scale of the vision felt stretching.

Generosity that creates space for others

Today, Glow Church’s facilities provide space for worship, connection, outreach and initiatives that meet practical needs, creating opportunities for people who might never otherwise walk through the doors of a church.

Behind the scenes, this has been made possible by faithful generosity – from church members, supporters and partners – stewarded carefully and purposefully. Our role has been to come alongside Glow Church at key moments, helping to structure and support the financial foundations that allow ministry to flourish.

Looking ahead with confidence

As Glow Church looks to the future, there is a strong sense of anticipation. The combination of clear vision, generous partnership and well-resourced facilities has positioned the church to continue growing in both depth and impact.

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Ambassadors Football: Building ministry through football and partnership

Linked Worker Account Partner

or nearly 20 years, Stephen Read has F served with Ambassadors Football, a global organisation committed to connecting people to Jesus through the world’s most beloved sport.

In his role, Stephen works closely with local churches, helping them run weekly community football outreach, holiday camps and international tours – creating environments where belonging, connection and faith conversations can grow naturally.

Shaping support raising for Christian workers

Stephen’s contribution to ministry goes far beyond the pitch. Over the years, he has become a trusted guide for individuals across Ambassadors Football and other mission-focused organisations who are stepping into support-raised roles. Drawing on his long experience and deep understanding of relational support raising, Stephen helps workers grasp both the practical and spiritual foundations of building a partner team – from inviting prayer support to nurturing healthy, long-term financial giving. His long experience in this area has made him a champion for others entering ministry, helping them understand how to build a team of support partners who pray, give and encourage.

It was this experience that positioned Stephen to contribute meaningfully to the development of our Linked Worker Account as a unique feature of our Partner Account for Churches and Charities for those who employ staff raising support towards a fixed salary. When we invited Ambassadors Football to help us explore how this new product could be effective, Stephen’s insights were invaluable. He understands the administrative challenges organisations face when using the support-raising model for employed staff. He also brings practical recommendations shaped by years of real-world experience.

How the Linked Worker Account adds value

Ambassadors Football was one of the first charities to adopt our Linked Worker Account as part of their partnership with us. Stephen retains full control of his support raising. He shares a direct link to his profile page, but all gifts made are paid directly to Ambassadors Football’s Partner Account in support of Stephen’s salary. Both Stephen and Ambassadors Football can view giving information online in real time, reducing admin and improving communication. Stephen has also benefited from being able to send Ambassadors Football staff on our Support Raising Training, to equip them to raise support effectively as they start out. They then have access to our followup monthly surgeries for ongoing support and advice as they build their partner team.

The Linked Worker Account is more than a financial tool – it is a ministry enabler. It not only makes giving simpler for supporters, but it also reduces the administrative burden for those raising support and their organisations. As a result, both Linked Workers and their organisations are freed to focus more fully on their mission.

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The culture of teaching
on faith, finance and
stewardship in UK churches
is confident, consistent
and contagious.
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In 2025, we continued to invest intentionally in shaping a healthier, more confident culture of generosity across the UK church and charity sectors – one rooted in discipleship, openness and trust.

Second Generosity Report explores the state of giving in the UK

We published our second annual Generosity Report in February 2025, sharing its findings with church and charity leaders from across the UK, both in person and via livestream. For this second report, we scaled up the research from a survey sample of just over 4,000 to just over 6,000 Christians. We also significantly increased the number of qualitative interviews from 15 in the first report by taking advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to conduct 50 in-depth virtual interviews. The larger sample enabled greater statistical robustness and more granular and authoritative analysis of all demographics.

Our launch event created space for thoughtful engagement with the data, prompting honest conversation and reflection.

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Cultivating a culture of confident teaching on generosity

Exploring generosity in community

Journey of Generosity events

A significant part of our work for this strategic goal are our Journey of Generosity events, delivered in partnership with Generosity Path. This retreat-style experience provides a rare and valuable space for Christians to reflect prayerfully on wealth, generosity and obedience, with no fundraising agenda. In 2025, we ran 10 Journey of Generosity retreats, including two with Christians Against Poverty, and a special series of these retreats for our staff team.

Alongside our Generosity Report, we continued to create environments where generosity could be explored through relationship and shared purpose. We hosted five Cause Cross gatherings that brought charity partners and generous donors together to share stories of need and impact. Themes included justice and human rights, women, mental health and wellbeing, students and local church and evangelism.

We introduced our new Generous Church project at the launch of our third Generosity Report in January 2026. This is our response to an insight that has consistently emerged from all three Generosity Reports: that regular, confident teaching on generosity builds trust, deepens discipleship and leads to greater, more joyful giving. Our research also shows that while Christians are receptive to such teaching, many churches struggle to share on this topic.

Recognising that navigating wealth and stewardship can be an isolating experience, we also hosted a series of Generosity Lunches around the country. These gatherings create space for open, honest conversation about the joys and challenges of giving, helping to normalise discussions around money within a Christian context.

This UK-wide engagement project therefore seeks to equip church leaders with the confidence, language and tools to embed generosity naturally into discipleship – moving beyond reactive fundraising towards a healthier culture where biblical stewardship is taught consistently, enabling churches to close the giving gap through effective discipleship.

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Developing generosity in partnerships

In 2025, we partnered with several networks and organisations whose work contributes to shaping confident Christian leadership. This included the Everything Network’s annual conference in May, which brought together leaders from across public life to build a movement of Christians seeking cultural renewal throughout society. Other partnerships with organisations like Genesis Network in Northern Ireland and Faith in Business in Cambridge focused on engaging Christians in the business sector and encouraging the idea of generosity as part of a leadership model.

We were also the main giving partner again for Spring Harvest (run by Essential Christian), providing support for both their Easter gatherings and related engagement throughout the year. It was a privilege, too, to continue partnering with Gospel Patrons and with Maclellan on their Giving Together events. We also brought back the popular Faith in Fundraising Conference in partnership with Action Planning and Yeomans.

Developing our thought leadership

We further established our thought leadership with our new monthly podcast, Active Generosity, which we launched in January 2025. Through conversations with guests from across our different audiences, the podcast aims to inform, inspire and challenge how we think and talk about biblical stewardship and generosity.

Behind the scenes, 2025 marked the first full year of our new Theology Committee operating as a standing committee of Council, embedding theological oversight into decision-making. A significant new development in 2025 was the Theology Committee beginning to build a panel of independent expert theologians for consultation on more complex theological topics as required.

Together, these initiatives form part of our wider commitment to shifting the culture of generosity so that church and charity leaders feel equipped to invite and grow generosity with confidence.

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A thriving, united team,
who love Jesus,
operating in line with
Stewardship values.
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Team Stewardship

We celebrate the strength and stability of our team during a year of growth and change, reflected in record levels of engagement, high retention and a shared clarity about how individual roles contribute to Stewardship’s mission.

The investment in our new target culture, which we’d made with the support of Curiosity Society in 2024, was reflected in an excellent level of employee engagement in 2025: the average score for the statement ‘I understand how my role contributes to the mission and success of Stewardship’ was 4.5/5 and our Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), which indicates how many would recommend Stewardship as a place to work to a friend, was extremely positive and reached our highest recorded score in 2025[5] .

We strengthened the capacity of our teams by continuing to recruit skilled and committed people. As a result, our staff team grew by 13% in 2025, which took us to a total staff count of 112 by the end of the year.

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61% 39%
Women Men
2021 UK
51% 49%
Census data
75% 8% 10%
White Asian Black
82% 9% 4%
1% 1% 5%
Mixed Other Undisclosed
3% 2%
21% 28% 15%
Part-time Joined in 10+ years
employees 2025 of service
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5 eNPS score of 35. This is a range from -100 to 100 assessing if employees would recommend Stewardship as a place to work to a friend. A score of 10+ is considered good.

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2025 review

A particular focus in 2025 was on building strong, supportive relationships across the staff team.

To help facilitate this, we held three amazing away days for all staff. A highlight was being joined for one of them by Jo Hargreaves, also known as The Faith Filled Therapist, who gave a wonderful talk on wholeness and God’s design for wellbeing.

Strengthening our Leadership Team to build and support our people has been central, with teaching, worship and prayer complementing time on strategy development and collaboration.

We underpin our work with prayer and deepen our spiritual practice through testimony sharing, additional prayer times and Word for the Weekend, a weekly devotion written by staff team members.

We continued to improve our frameworks for managing probation and professional development, including the introduction of new training for our line managers to ensure consistent and effective

leadership. We also reviewed our induction programme, which received a satisfaction rating of 4.3/5.

We were delighted to receive external recognition through two industry awards: Financial or Procurement Excellence of the Year at the Third Sector Awards 2025; and Most Innovative Approach – Raising the Standard of Charity Annual Reporting for our Annual Report 2024 at the 2025 Corporate Reporting Awards.

Technology enables and powers Stewardship forward to achieve our mission and vision.

In 2025, we focused on strengthening our technology foundations and building capability for the future.

We delivered key milestones in the Customer 360 programme, including the recruitment of specialist technical roles. Core systems were improved, including the migration to a new lending administration system and the launch of a portal for our lending clients. This provides secure, 24/7 digital access to their loan information. We also made the decision to change the software

platform that supports our Payroll Bureau service; having selected a supplier and tested the platform in 2025, we plan to migrate clients in 2026.

We made solid progress in our use of AI, running early Copilot trials and developing an organisation-wide AI strategy. Major technical building blocks were put in place, such as Azure Search, and we increased our overall technology capacity through new data engineering hires. We also completed important security and platform upgrades.

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2025 review

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Underpinned by
an agile, fact-based
methodology of exploration
and development.
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2025 was the first full year of seeing the new Project Management Office (PMO) in action, starting with the introduction of a project governance framework.

We began working with an external supplier on the proof of concept for our new data platform, which is a key element in our Customer 360 programme. Over the year, we strengthened the organisation’s data analysis and reporting through improved specification and tracking of key performance indicators.

We saw the benefits of this new function throughout the year with a consistent flow of project proposals approved and close monitoring enabling projects to remain on track and within budget. We also continued to build our agile capability, with four team members successfully completing AgilePM Foundations and Practitioner exams.

Another key development was the setting up of a new working group to review how we prioritise our change portfolio, which is already helping us to allocate our resources more effectively.

An excellent, joined-up experience that solves real needs for customers across our products and services.

During the year, we brought greater consistency to our customer experience by combining customer research with improved integration of our communications tools.

Customers benefited from

improvements to product search and navigation following the rollout of Azure Search, while the introduction of a Zoom Contact Centre supported a more seamless and connected customer experience. 2025 was also the first full year for our new Customer Service and Customer Operations Teams.

Improved analysis of our customer pipeline has given us a clearer understanding of customer needs and behaviours, which is helping us to review and optimise how we communicate with our customers. We have also improved our internal processes to ensure teams are working more effectively together.

We were delighted to see our commitment to continuously improve our customer experience reflected in a record 95% Customer Service Satisfaction (CSAT) score at the end of the year.

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New strategic initiatives for 2026

We have much we want to achieve in 2026 and are excited to deliver the plans we have across all our Strategic and Foundational Goals, with solid progress already underway.

Strategic Goal 1

For our donors

Following the launch of the Stewardship Giving app in 2025, a strategic priority for our donors in 2026 is to achieve a major shift to an app-first giving experience. Our ultimate vision for the app is for it to be a dynamic, innovative tool that can materially help to bridge the gap between faith and finance by encouraging higher levels of active generosity. We will deliver this by continuing to improve its functionality and introducing devotional content that explores generosity.

We were therefore delighted to be able to integrate our 40acts 2026 campaign within our Giving app for the first time, creating an exciting opportunity for our donors to be able to track their progress and respond with generosity in one place.

For our Donor Advised Fund and Philanthropy Fund donors, priorities include strengthening our impact investment offering, developing a collaborative fund structure and rolling out flexible service modules that will allow donors to customise their support package. We are also exploring new initiatives that will support generosity in community.

Strategic Goal 2

For our partners

2026 is a step-change year for governance, regulatory readiness and operational robustness. On the governance front, two key foci are incorporating the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) across our Accounts Examination and Payroll Bureau services; and effectively integrating the Statement of Recommended Practice for charities (SORP), published in November 2025, which applies to those charities that prepare accrual accounts.

In terms of service enhancements in 2026, our plans include adding new features focused on inviting and growing support to our Partner Account; driving adoption of our Linked Worker Account; and migrating our payroll clients to our new payroll software platform in the 2026-27 tax year.

We plan to expand our influence beyond service delivery in two ways: firstly, through the development of strategic partnerships with Christian organisations; and secondly, through our training and services, including Consultancy Helpline.

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New strategic initiatives for 2026

Strategic Goal 3

Our thought leadership

Our third Generosity Report, which we launched with a full-day event for around 200 church and charity leaders in January 2026, explores the vital role of trust in shaping generosity.

A follow-up webinar the following week attracted 80 attendees from across the UK and overseas.

In 2026, our Generous Church project is building on the insights developed during our research phase to develop ecumenical solutions designed to help church leaders to teach about biblical stewardship and generosity.

Our monthly podcast, Active Generosity, now in its second year, is attracting a growing audience who want to hear from Christian leaders in all spheres about their journeys of faith, stewardship and generosity. We are now focused on developing its reach and influence.

Our Theology Committee, which is now in its second full year of operation, is focusing in 2026 on developing our theology of generosity, stewardship and the Kingdom economy. This foundational piece of work will critically underpin our thought leadership going forwards.

Christians working in all spheres of public and private life. They’ll do this through speaking engagements, Journey of Generosity retreats, lunches and engaging with various philanthropy networks.

40acts, our generosity challenge for Lent, built on its return in 2025. Again, around 40,000 took part. In addition to being able to access it in the Stewardship Giving app for the first time, listeners could also listen to a new 40acts podcast series.

The Opportunities Team will continue to partner with like-minded organisations to platform our thought leadership to various audiences around the UK, including church, charity and business leaders, and

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Moving forwards with our Foundational Goals

Foundational Goal 1

Foundational Goal 2

Our people

Our technology

A key focus for our people in 2026 is to implement a programme to embed our target culture practically across all teams.

Over 2026, we plan to increase the capacity and expertise of our technology teams, alongside exploring how best to use AI across the organisation while staying true to our Christian values and ethics. We will roll out AI productivity tools and investigate which processes can be automated, laying the foundations for using AI more extensively in future years.

Each month, we are looking at different key aspects of our culture that together will help us become increasingly Christ-centred in our work. Central to this is moving to a pattern of daily corporate prayer, in addition to team and individual prayer.

Foundational Goal 3

We are transitioning to a new leadership structure for our Finance, Investments and Lending Teams, which includes the appointment of a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), who started in May 2026. The strengthening of this core function is foundational for supporting our long-term growth sustainably and with excellent governance.

Our data insights

In 2026, we are building the foundations for our data platform, with the aspiration of making it easily accessible across the organisation to inform decision-making. Within the PMO Team, we plan to further embed the Agile methodology across the organisation in our product development, project delivery and working practices.

Foundational Goal 4

Our customer solutions

Our multi-year Customer 360 programme sits across Foundational Goals 2 to 4, but primary progress is focused on Foundational Goal 4 in 2026.

Our aim is to transform the way we create and deliver mass outbound communications to our donors and partners by completely redesigning our customer emails and processes. We are also revitalising how we use Salesforce to support the customer experience.

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Financial Review & Governance

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Financial review

2025 was an outstanding year financially, characterised by a substantial increase in income, strong levels of grant making and a significant strengthening of the balance sheet.

Total income increased by 46% to £170.9m (2024: £117.5m), of which £160.9m (2024: £108.1m) related to donations and legacies. Total expenditure rose by 26% to £144.5m (2024: £114.7m), reflecting the increase in funds actively granted during the year. Total income increased by more than total expenditure primarily due to Gifts In (also referred to as ‘donations’) exceeding Grants Out, contributing to an increase in net assets of £32.4m.

Grant-making activity increased materially during the year, with total Grants Out rising by 26% or £27.9m, to £134.1m (2024: £106.2m), reflecting continued generosity and the active deployment of charitable funds. Cash balances strengthened over the year, due to Gifts In received exceeding Grants Out and substantial capital repayments on the church and charity loan book.

Income

Total income for the year was £170.9m, compared with £117.5m in 2024, representing an increase of 46%.

Unrestricted income for the reporting period was £10.9m, an increase of 1% compared to £10.7m (excluding profit from associate) in the prior reporting period.

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Total income
£200M
£170.9m
£150M
£117.5m
£100M
£50M
£0M
2024 2025
+46%
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Donations (also referred to as ‘Gifts In’)

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Investment income
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Gifts In by type, year on year comparison

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£0M £70M
Giving Account
2025 +5%
£62.2m
2024
£59.3m
Donor Advised Fund
2025 +43%
£42.9m
2024
£29.9m
Philanthropy Fund
2025 +196%
£55.8m
2024
£18.9m
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Donations reported in this financial year, including legacies, were £160.9m for the year, an increase of 49% compared to £108.1m in the prior period. This increase was driven primarily by Philanthropy Fund and Donor Advised Fund donors, including a significant one-off gift of £31.6m. Excluding this, donations still increased by approximately £21.2m, representing 20% year-on-year growth. Underlying generosity strengthened further in 2025, with Giving Account income rising by 5%, Donor Advised Fund income increasing by 43% and Philanthropy Fund income up 28% when excluding the significant gift, reflecting both a higher number of active accounts and deeper donor engagement.

Investments and lending

Investment income totalled £7.8m in 2025 (2024: £7.6m), an increase of £0.2m (3%) year on year.

Interest from church and charity lending increased to £2.7m (2024: £2.4m), reflecting the impact of the considerable growth in the loan book of 20% during 2024.

Income from externally managed funds increased to £2.5m (2024: £2.3m), driven by the strategic reallocation of approximately £10m into fixed income portfolios to mitigate the impact of falling base rates. This was partially offset by a reduction in money market interest to £2.7m (2024: £3.0m), reflecting the decrease in the Bank of England base rate during the year.

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£7.8m +3%
Professional services income
£1.7m -1%
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Charitable activities

Income from charitable activities remained stable at £1.7m in 2025 (2024: £1.7m), in line with the prior year. This income primarily reflects fees earned from our professional services for churches and Christian charities, including Payroll Bureau, Accounts Examination, Consultancy Helpline, Charity Formation and training, as well as fee income from church and charity lending.

While fees from professional services increased 6% compared to the prior year, this was offset by a decrease in lending fees. Overall demand for our professional services remained strong and continued to support good governance, financial sustainability and operational effectiveness of Christian ministries. This in turn helps churches and charities to grow trust with donors, which contributes to the stability of these ministries going forward.

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Expenditure

Total expenditure for the year was £144.5m, an increase of 26% compared to £114.7m in 2024.

Grants and grant-making activities increased significantly to £134.1m, increasing 26% from £106.2m in the prior year. This reflects both the higher level of funds received during the year and the continued active distribution of funds held within Giving Account, Donor Advised Fund and Philanthropy Fund accounts. Grant making remained focused on supporting churches, Christian workers and charities in line with the charity’s objects.

Other expenditure, comprising direct costs and support costs, totalled £8.6m. Our total running costs (including direct costs, support costs and fundraising) amounted to £10.2m, an increase of 20% compared to £8.5m in 2024. The increase reflects continued investment in people, technology and infrastructure to support growth, strengthen governance and improve services to donors and partners.

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Grants out
£150M
£134.1m
£120M
£106.2m
Churches
Christian
Charities
Christian
workers
Other
charities
£30M
£0M
2024 2025
+26%
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Share of associate’s loss

A £226k loss from associate was recognised in line with our shareholding in Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd, the holding company of Kingdom Bank Ltd (2024: £10k gain from associate). The loss in the current year is primarily associated with a strategic investment plan to upgrade Kingdom Bank’s IT systems. Once complete, this is expected to deliver enhanced returns in future years.

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Balance sheet position

Unrestricted funds

Unrestricted funds increased by £0.5m over the year, resulting in a closing unrestricted reserves balance of £10.4m at 31 December 2025 (2024: £10.0m).

The closing balance remains comfortably above the minimum level of £8.9m set out in the reserves policy. This places the organisation in a robust position to manage financial risk, while also providing capacity to invest in systems, people and capabilities that support our Strategic Goals and long-term mission.

Cash and cash equivalents

Total cash and money market deposits increased by £8.4m during the year, rising from £54.2m to £62.6m. This movement was driven primarily by Gifts In received during the year exceeding Grants Out, alongside significant capital repayments on the church and charity loan book.

Investments and lending

The church and charity loan book (excluding nominated investment options[6] ) decreased to £30.5m at the year end, compared to £34.2m at the end of 2024, reflecting substantial capital repayments during the year (£5.3m compared to £2.8m in 2024) as well as a reduction in the total value of loans advanced in the year (£2.0m compared to £8.1m in 2024). Loans continue to play an important role in supporting churches and Christian charities to invest in mission and infrastructure, and while the loan book reduced in 2025 due to significant capital repayments, demand for lending remains strong, with a healthy pipeline of opportunities extending beyond the year end.

Total investment assets increased year on year, with other investments rising by £11.8m to £126.1m, reflecting new inflows including £31.6m of gifts of property and £7.0m of gifts of shares, alongside net investment gains of £5.9m, partially offset by net disposals of £32.5m.

Loan book

excluding loans made via nominated investment options

£30.5m

Debtors

Debtors due after more than one year increased significantly during the year, to £19.7m (2024: £nil). This wholly relates to deferred consideration receivable by the charity following the disposal of an interest in land during the year. The consideration is payable in two instalments, in 2027 and 2029, and has been recognised at present value in line with FRS 102 and the Charities SORP. The gross amount due is £20.7m, which has been discounted using forecast inflation over 2026–2029 at an average rate of 2% per annum. The resulting revaluation of £1.0m (2024: £nil) has been recognised within donation income in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities.

6 See Investment management and performance

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Investment management and performance

‘Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.’

Kingdom Impact Bull’s Eye Investment Approach

PSALM 112:5 (NIV)

Investment policy and objectives

As part of our vision to foster a thriving Kingdom economy, we embrace an investment policy that incorporates Christian values and being a witness to the Gospel in the way we steward our resources.

Our investment policy is therefore focused on prioritising our capital and resources towards investments that balance the goals of achieving competitive risk-adjusted financial returns, as well as positive social or Kingdom impact (Tier 1 or Tier 2 investments). We call this the ‘Kingdom Impact Bull’s Eye Investment Approach’.

29% (2024: 30%) of total assets in Tiers 1 and 2

In 2025, we executed seven bespoke investment requests totalling £3.0m. This included £0.7m in Tier 1 investments and £1.1m in Tier 2 investments.

Tier 1: Church and ministry investments

Aimed at churches, Christian charities and social enterprises that are devoted to sharing the Gospel and building Christian ministry.

Tier 2: Impact investments

Encompasses broader impact investments that create positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. These investments typically deliver transformational change for under-served communities and are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Tier 3: ESG investments

Portfolios that are invested considering Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risk factors.

Tier 4: Other client NIOs and cash

Includes other client nominated investment options (NIOs) and cash that does not fit within Tiers 1-3.

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We also celebrate the full repayment in 2025 of a significant £2.5m Donor Advised Fund loan to a Christian business, during which the organisation strengthened its profitability, reflecting both the resilience of the enterprise and the effectiveness of this form of impact investment.

In absolute terms, our overall investment in Tier 1 and Tier 2 investments increased by £1.5m. Total assets increased proportionately more and therefore, as a share of total assets, Tier 1 and Tier 2 investments decreased marginally by 1% to 29% of total assets.

These investments aim to achieve Kingdom impact by enabling churches and Christian charities to build their ministry and address social issues, alongside financial returns. This included a diversified range of private investments aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as well as loans to a Christian charity which helps Christian workers access affordable homes in London.

Tier breakdown of assets in 2025

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TIER 1 TIER 2
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20% 9% 2024: 23% 2024: 7%

TIER 3

TIER 4 TIER 3 29% 42% 2024: 27% 2024: 43%

Kingdom Impact Bull’s Eye Investment Approach

Total assets increased by 16% compared to the prior year to £248.0m from £214.6m.

At the end of 2025, 20% of assets were invested in Tier 1 investments (2024: 23%), 9% in Tier 2 (2024: 7%) and 42% in Tier 3 (2024: 43%), with the remainder in Tier 4.

Our trustees have delegated investment decisions to the Finance and Investment Committee, which reviews the investments and their performance on a quarterly basis.

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Total assets

STEWARDSHIP INVESTMENT PORTFOLIOS

£72.0m 2024: £66.9m

MONEY MARKET AND CASH DEPOSITS

£49.3m 2024: £46.5m

NOMINATED INVESTMENT OPTIONS

£45.1m

2024: £42.9m

CHURCH AND CHARITY LENDING excluding loans made via nominated investment options

£30.5m 2024: £34.2m

OTHER IMPACT INVESTMENTS

£25.4m

2024: £17.7m

OTHER ASSETS NOT INCLUDED OF £25.7M (2024: £7.2M)

Asset allocation

Total investment assets (excluding cash and money market deposits) increased to £159.7m at the end of the year (2024: £153.9m).

Stewardship Investment Portfolios

TOTAL ASSETS 30%

Stewardship Investment Portfolios are managed by three external investment managers, with ESG and sustainability integrated within the investment approach[7] as well as ethical investment restrictions[8] . These are offered to Philanthropy Fund and Donor Advised Fund account holders, where donors can request the portfolio to which they would like balances in their Stewardship giving accounts allocated.

In 2025, investment performance within these portfolios was primarily driven by advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the rally in gold as a safehaven asset and inflation protection, weakening in the US dollar and the impact of the UK and US interest rate cuts.

Total investment in the three portfolios was £72.0m at year end (2024: £66.9m).

7 For further information on investment approaches, please refer to Stewardship Investment Portfolios

8 For further detail on these restrictions, please refer to Stewardship’s investment policy

The Balanced Portfolio is a discretionary mandate managed by Sarasin & Partners, which aims to achieve a balance between income and longterm capital growth while meeting the objective of producing a return of Consumer Price Index +2.5% over the long term. Investments cover a range of asset classes including equities, fixed income and alternatives. 2025 performance (net of fees) was 4.8%, underperforming the inflation target return of 5.9%. This is due to the investment manager’s intentional positioning of the portfolio allocation to long-term fundamentals rather than the short-term valuation expansion currently driving markets.

The Equity Portfolio is a discretionary mandate managed by Rathbones, which aims for capital growth over the long term and invests only in equities. During 2025, the total return on the portfolio was 6.0% (net of fees), underperforming the market benchmark of 16.1% and ARC’s Equity Risk Charity Index of 8.8%. This was due to the underperformance of high-impact stocks and high-quality stocks compared to companies with more variable sales, profits and returns on capital. A manager review was conducted in Q3 2025 and a series of changes were made to the portfolio to catalyse an improvement in performance.

The Sustainable Investment Portfolio is an advisory mandate with Cazenove Capital. The mandate aims to achieve Consumer Price Index +4.0% per annum (net of fees) over rolling ten-year periods by investing in equities, fixed income and alternative assets that the investment manager classifies as sustainable. 2025 performance (net of fees) was 11.3%, outperforming the inflation target return of 7.2%.

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Nominated investment options

TOTAL ASSETS 18%

Nominated investment options are investments requested by Philanthropy Fund or Donor Advised Fund account holders with larger amounts to invest. These may be comprised of listed securities, social impact investments, investment funds, restricted loans, money market deposits or by way of a discretionary mandate with an investment manager. Investment decisions are ultimately made at the discretion of Stewardship’s trustees and any investment made from the donor balance is made by Stewardship as principal.

The financial gains and losses, including any interest or dividends (less any management fees and transaction costs) from the investments, are allocated to the donor account from which investments are made.

NIOs increased by £2.2m to £45.1m (2024: £42.9m) over the year driven by new investments and investment return, partially offset by liquidation of existing investments to support grant making.

Church and charity lending

TOTAL ASSETS 12%

Church and charity lending decreased by £3.7m to £30.5m (2024: £34.2m), excluding loans made via NIOs over the year. This was driven by a net decrease in the number of loans at the balance sheet date of 5 to 110 (2024: 115). The average lending rate of the loan book at 31 December 2025 was 6.9% (2024: 7.6%).

Loans to churches and Christian charities are considered a key part of fulfilling our charitable objectives and form the core of Tier 1 investments described in the Bull’s Eye Approach. The loans are made in accordance with the lending policy, which manages risk through consideration of the security provided, interest rates relative to the base rate and peers, as well as other risks of default.

Other impact investments

TOTAL ASSETS 10%

Other impact investments increased by £7.7m to £25.4m (2024: £17.7m) over the year primarily due to market gains and increased allocation to the segregated Fixed Income Portfolio managed by Rathbones Investment, which increased by £9.0m to £19.1m (2024: £10.1m)

Money market and cash deposits

TOTAL ASSETS 20%

Money market and cash deposits increased by £2.8m to £49.3m (2024: £46.5m), excluding cash deposits made via nominated investment options. Of the total balance, 78% is held strategically at nine institutions with a long-term credit rating of A- or higher. During the financial year, Stewardship’s average interest rate return was 4.31% (2024: 4.58%).

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Reserves

Stewardship’s Executive Team and trustees monitor unrestricted funds and plans for the future to ensure we have appropriate financial resources to continue our operations.

It is vitally important to us that the funds received from donors, held in restricted funds, are protected as much as possible.

Net assets at the end of the reporting period were £239.4m (2024: £207.1m), of which £229.0m (2024: £197.1m) comprised restricted funds and £10.4m (2024: £10.0m) comprised unrestricted funds.

Stewardship’s reserves policy applies a risk-based approach, including volatility measures as a basis for determining the level of reserves to be held. The policy requires Stewardship to hold financial resources sufficient for running costs for six months, as well as any foreseeable operational deficits, and a risk-weighted provision against assets held, based on both historic market experience and Stewardship’s knowledge. This determines the minimum level of reserves required at 31 December 2025 as follows:

To ensure we can cover

our next six months of running £5.1m costs and any foreseeable operational deficits

To cover the risk of loss on investments and church and £3.8m charity lending

Minimum unrestricted £8.9m reserves requirement Unrestricted reserves £10.4m balance

As indicated in note 1b to the financial statements, Stewardship’s trustees and Executive Team have reviewed our financial position, plans, reserves and risk management and consider Stewardship to have adequate resources to continue operations for the foreseeable future and are satisfied that there are no material uncertainties surrounding the preparation of these financial statements on a going concern basis. As well as unrestricted reserves of £10.4m (2024: £10.0m), Stewardship has significant liquidity, with £28.6m (2024: £28.7m) held in instant access accounts and short-term money market funds. These provide the liquidity to meet the ongoing operational expenditure needs of the charity and ensure funding for grant payments from giving accounts.

We are considering plans to invest a portion of the surplus reserves in future years in line with our strategy and charitable objects. We also intend to conduct a thorough review of our reserves policy in 2026 to ensure we are making best use of funds for charitable impact.

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Risks

Stewardship is largely dependent on receiving donations from the holders of our giving accounts.

The principal identified risks and uncertainties are concentrated around the conditions that facilitate this giving and our own operational abilities to efficiently manage and facilitate our grant making. Our approach to risks is defined in our Risk Appetite Statement. We maintain and update a risk register, which is monitored by the Executive Team and reported to the trustees via the Audit and Risk Committee on a regular basis. The Council of Trustees, in conjunction with the Leadership and Executive Teams, deem that they have established appropriate systems to anticipate risks as they arise and have instigated procedures and actions to mitigate the probability and impact that such risks may pose to the organisation. The principal risks and uncertainties have been identified as:

----- Start of picture text -----
Risk title IT and cybersecurity risk Maintaining and upgrading Reputational risk
technology & software
Risk In common with other As technology evolves, companies Reputational risk is the risk of an adverse event
description organisations, cyber-attacks that fail to adopt new tools and resulting in damage to our reputation, leading to
remain a constant threat to the processes may find themselves lost revenue or increased operating, capital or
integrity and availability of our outpaced by more agile competitors regulatory costs.
systems and data. who can offer better, faster and
cheaper solutions.
Summary • Our key operating system, • Keeping pace with technological • We protect our standing and reputation by
of key Microsoft Azure, a cloud advancement and replacing being a sound and trusted organisation,
mitigations computing service, provides software that is coming to the ensuring a positive client experience while
extra infrastructure resilience end of its life cycle remains a complying with all legal and regulatory
and protection for our data challenge for many organisations. requirements.
and systems. We continue to Stewardship has a significant
• We also build and protect our standing by
implement our programme of technology library that requires
ensuring our values are embedded in our
security enhancements and continual review and oversight
staff behaviour and external communications.
ongoing reviews, testing our to ensure that they remain fit for
We listen to and act on feedback, including
IT estate with independent purpose.
complaints, to ensure we strive to deliver the
third-party security experts.
• We maintain an active programme best possible service to our customers.
• We acknowledge that staff of work to ensure that we
• We have compliance policies and
awareness is a key control continue to move and adapt
programmes to assist with extensive risk-
and regular training and within the evolving market, aiming
based due diligence procedures, which seek
testing is undertaken in this to be proactive in maximising
to mitigate the risk of contentious gifts being
area to ensure that they are opportunities and mitigating
accepted and our grants being misapplied.
aware of their duty to protect threats.
our systems and data. • Use of ethical screening seeks to mitigate any
concerns over the investments we make and
therefore helps manage our reputational risk.
• As part of Stewardship’s Christian ethos, we
uphold biblical doctrines, while speaking as
subject matter experts into biblical generosity
principles.
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• Our interest margin approach aims to limit the impact of interest rate volatility. This approach has been implemented across the relevant income streams impacted by interest rate movements and is proving successful in managing the risk. In addition, we have become less reliant on interest income to cover our running costs. We continue enabling our Donor Advised Fund and Philanthropy Fund donors to benefit from interest being allocated on the cash balances held in their giving accounts.

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Structure

Overview

Stewardship began its life in 1906 as the United Kingdom Evangelisation Trust (UKET) to support the church planting activities of the Brethren Church, the primary function being to hold in trust property and financial resources generously given for church planting and evangelism. We have evolved, 120 years later, into a family of charities and companies that seek to inspire and serve evangelical Christian generosity.

At 31 December 2025, the Stewardship family (as detailed in note 15 to the financial statements) was comprised of Stewardship Services (UKET) Ltd, the principal charity; Stewardship Professional Services Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stewardship Services (UKET) that is currently dormant; and an associate investment in Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd, the parent company of Kingdom Bank.

The parent company, Stewardship Services (UKET) Ltd, a company limited by guarantee (company number 90305) and a registered charity with the Charity Commission (charity number 234714), is governed by a Memorandum and Articles of Association, last amended in September 2017. All the directors of the company are also trustees and members of the charity. The trustees meet regularly as Council and are referred to as members of the Council. Together with the Executive Team, they provide:

The subsidiary and associate have their own governing documents and boards of directors.

Public benefit statement

The Stewardship family of companies seeks to serve generous Christians and the work of churches, Christian workers and charities in the UK and abroad by providing services designed to administer the effective receipt and distribution of charitable funds.

Moreover, partnering with our clients in providing training, resources and administrative services, such as Payroll Bureau and Accounts Examination, enables churches, charities and workers to better fulfil their key activities of advancing the Christian faith and bringing relief to those in need.

The trustees have had regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning future developments as we seek to continue making a difference.

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People

The Executive Team comprises the key management personnel of the charity.

The Executive Team works in partnership with the Council of Trustees to deliver our goals and mission. The following served as members of the Executive Team for the year ended 31 December 2025 and up to the date of approval of the accounts.

Janie Oliver Nicola Johnson Daniel Jones Felicity Griffiths Art Russell Chief Executive Chief Customer Chief Purpose Chief Financial and Chief Financial Officer Officer Officer Operating Officer Officer from until 5 May 2026 5 May 2026 and Chief Operating Officer thereafter Company Secretary

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Members of Stewardship Services (UKET) Ltd Council (trustees)

The following served as directors and members of the Council for the year ended 31 December 2025, and up to the date of approval of the accounts, except where stated otherwise:

9 The Chairs Committee was formed in September 2025.

10 Mike Bugembe, Sunil Rajan and Ritz Steytler stepped down as directors and members in June 2026.

----- Start of picture text -----
Name Full Council Finance & Audit & Risk Appointments IT, Product & People Lending Sub- Theology Chairs
Investment & Data Culture & Committee Committee Committee [9]
Remuneration Place
Chris Gillies (from June (until June
Chair Chair Chair
2025) 2025)
Deputy Chair
David Steinegger (from June
(from June
2025)
2025)
Mike Bugembe [10]
Deputy Chair
Gareth Burns (until June (until June
(until June
2025) 2025)
2025)
Jennifer Charteris
Curt Hopkins
Chair
Lew Jackson
Chair
Craig Martin
(from Sep
2025)
Edward Mishambi
Chair
Andrea Pattico
Chair
Sunil Rajan [10]
Angie Rusbridge
Ritz Steytler [10] Chair
(until Sep 2025)
(until Sep 2025)
Katherine Tait
James Ward
Chair Chair
Nathan Whitaker
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Advisers

Carolyn Asplin (from December 2025)

Non-trustee member of the Lending Sub-Committee

Antony Billington (from June 2026)

Non-trustee member of the Theology Committee

Bernadette Cunningham

Non-trustee member of the Finance and Investment Committee and the Lending Sub-Committee

Jonathan Gwilt

Non-trustee member of the Finance and Investment Committee and the Lending Sub-Committee

Tony Jowett (from June 2026)

Non-trustee member of the Audit and Risk Committee

Peter Lynas (from June 2026)

Non-trustee member of the Theology Committee

Ruby Sam-Kputu (from June 2026)

Non-trustee member of the Audit and Risk Committee

Andrew Shefford

Non-trustee member of the Audit and Risk Committee

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Committees and trustees

Appointment of new trustees

The existing trustees, together with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Team, seek to identify potential new trustees with the character, energy, shared vision, skills and lived experience to provide a positive contribution to Stewardship and who we consider will be able to help in our development. Where appropriate, trustee vacancies are advertised and a suitably skilled search firm will be engaged. Potential trustees are given significant exposure to Stewardship before a decision is made on their appointment. The Appointments and Remuneration Committee makes recommendations to Council. The power to appoint new trustees rests with the existing trustees on a two-thirds majority.

Induction of new trustees

A full induction programme is provided for new trustees covering areas that include:

Operations and decision-making

The trustees meet regularly either as Council or in committees where, in full consultation with the Executive Team, the main strategic and directional decisions are taken.

Day-to-day operations are delegated to the Executive Team, which has, within certain limits, delegated authority. Suitable benchmarks and milestones are agreed to provide a basis on which to measure achievements, with the Executive Team generally reporting progress to the trustees through the various committees.

There are seven trustee committees and one sub-committee. Details of these are on pages 59-61.

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Finance and Investment Committee

This committee is responsible for overseeing the general financial management and investment activity of Stewardship. To fulfil these responsibilities, the committee:

Lending Sub-Committee

A sub-committee of the Finance and Investment Committee

This committee is responsible for overseeing the lending portfolio, and for reviewing and approving lending within prescribed limits. To fulfil these responsibilities, the committee:

Audit and Risk Committee

This committee has responsibility for the supervision of the annual audit, internal control environment and the oversight of risk management. To fulfil these responsibilities, the committee:

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Appointments and Remuneration Committee

This committee has responsibility to ensure that the trustees and Executive Team are properly appointed following appropriate process, and that the Executive Team are remunerated fairly, in line with Stewardship’s policies and values. To fulfil these responsibilities, the committee:

IT, Product and Data Committee

The responsibility of this committee is to advise on issues and operations related to IT and overseeing the strategic direction of all aspects of technology, product and data. To fulfil this responsibility, the committee:

People, Culture and Place Committee

This committee is responsible for overseeing the culture and workplace of Stewardship. To fulfil this responsibility, the committee:

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Theology Committee

This committee was formed during 2025 and has the responsibility for prayerfully advising and guiding the Council and Stewardship staff on theological matters. To fulfil this responsibility, the committee:

Chairs Committee

This committee was formed in 2025 and has responsibility for coordinating the work of Council committees, overseeing preparations for Council meetings and addressing matters that fall outside the remit of other committees or require urgent attention between Council meetings. To fulfil this responsibility, the committee:

Task and Finish Groups

In addition, we engage trustees on specific topics through focused Task and Finish Groups, which enable staff to draw on the experience, skills and knowledge of relevant trustees when working on projects or implementing complex change. These groups are formed with the approval of Council, have agreed terms of reference, provide progress reports to Council and generally conclude in six to twelve months, after which the group is disbanded.

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Policies and other statutory declarations

Grant-making policy summary

We work in partnership with our donors and other parties to identify churches, Christian workers and charities for the purpose of providing grant support. We operate within the prevailing regulatory, legal and taxation framework of the UK. We assess the activities being performed by partners to ensure that the partners’ work is properly understood and is consistent with our own objectives. We use the Nicene Creed as our benchmark to ascertain whether another organisation or partner shares our Christian faith.

Account holders making gifts to Stewardship may express a preference that their donated funds are granted by us to specific partner causes. Grants may be made to a wide range of charitable causes, both Christian and secular. Following successful due diligence and a financial needs assessment, a beneficiary is recognised as eligible and we will then consider the request of our donor. The depth of due diligence undertaken is risk-based and considers several risk factors including the size of the proposed grant, geographical location, governance arrangements and operational structure. All Grants Out are made at the discretion of our trustees. We reserve the right not to make a grant to a particular partner.

Modern Slavery Act

Our operating income (those funds freely available for Stewardship to use in pursuance of our charitable objectives) for the period is £10.4m (2024: £10.7m), well below the threshold of £36m set by the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We are therefore not legally required to have a policy on modern slavery; however, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 is a positive piece of legislation aiming to safeguard workers from exploitation and we support the aims of this legislation. We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and human trafficking. As far as is possible, we ensure that the organisations we provide grants to do not use the funds in ways that are contrary to this Act. With the vast majority of our activities centred on charitable gift processing and providing services to charities and churches, our supply chain is low value by comparison and, as such, we have assessed it as low risk. The Council and the staff team at Stewardship are committed to continually improving our practices to help identify and combat modern slavery and human trafficking.

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Fundraising statement

Raising funds includes costs incurred in seeking donation income and totalled £347k (2024: £401k) for the reporting period.

We are registered with the Fundraising Regulator and adopt the standards within the Code of Fundraising Practice.

As a DAF charity, our charitable model is different from most other charities, in that we receive restricted donations from individuals and organisations and have established and maintain over 12,000 active charitable grant-making partner relationships. These relationships have enabled individuals and organisations to donate to Stewardship, expressing a preference for their support of an eligible partner, knowing that we have undertaken the required due diligence on our partners together with claiming any tax relief on eligible giving.

Donors can give with our online fundraising platform at stewardship.org.uk or using the Stewardship Giving app. Stewardship’s online fundraising and donation pages have been helping churches and charities for many years. This has enabled donors to give support quickly and easily to those most in need.

During the accounting period, we have not received any fundraising complaints and remain committed to upholding the compliance issues of the Code of Fundraising Practice.

We have not employed any third-party professional to engage in fundraising activities on our behalf. We have several members of staff who work to promote Stewardship and our services, through the production of marketing and delivery of training materials. The aim of these activities is not to raise funds for Stewardship’s purposes but to promote our services in order to fulfil our objectives.

As a DAF, we are in a niche fundraising position with many churches, charities and overseas non-profits registered to receive funds from us and therefore in the habit of referring potential donors to us as they seek funds for their work.

In addition, in furtherance of our charitable objects, we make grants to Christian workers who rely on and seek supporters to fund their work by making donations to Stewardship. We pay close attention to funds raised in support of Christian workers and have integrity checks and alert systems in place to manage this complex area of fundraising.

To support these partners, we provide:

In addition, in furtherance of our charitable objects, we make grants to Christian workers who rely on and seek supporters to fund their work by making donations to Stewardship. We pay close attention to funds raised in support of Christian workers and have integrity checks and alert systems in place to manage this complex area of fundraising.

Stewardship takes its responsibility to protect vulnerable donors very seriously and upholds the values of the Code of Fundraising Practice by treating its donors fairly and with respect. Stewardship does this by:

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Sustainability and carbon reporting

Measured carbon footprint for year ending 2025

Measured carbon footprint comparison[11]

120 TCO 2E[12]

We report energy and carbon emissions in compliance with The Companies (Director’s Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018.

We have achieved Planet Mark certification for the third year, reflecting our ongoing commitment to measuring, reporting and reducing our environmental impact. Accreditation is based on a verified Planet Mark measurement report covering our carbon emissions for the year ended 31 December 2025, including electricity, transmission and distribution losses, water, business travel, waste, paper and refrigerant losses.

During 2025, aspects of the reporting boundary and methodology were expanded, including for business travel and employee commuting. To ensure a like-for-like assessment of performance, year-on-year comparisons in this section are presented on a normalised basis, excluding emissions reported for the first time.

Employee commuting 42.7%
32.4%
0.0%
3.2%
21.7%
0.0%
80 TCO2E
Business travel
Waste
Fuel- and energy-related activities
Electricity
Fugitive emissions

6.9%

14.6%

absolute per employee reduction in reduction in Scope 2 emissions Scope 2 emissions

40 TCO 2E

11 This comparison graph uses data that has been normalised to exclude any emissions that were reported for the first time in this reporting period.

12 tCO2e stands for tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. It is a standard unit used in climate accounting to measure the total warming impact of various greenhouse gases (like methane and nitrous oxide) by converting them into the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) with the same global warming potential.

0 TCO 2E

98.8tCO e 2

84.4 tCO e 2

2024 2025

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The reporting criteria cover emissions from sources across Scopes 1, 2 and 3, with the boundary expanding year on year in line with Planet Mark requirements.

Scope 1 covers direct emissions from sources we own or control; Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased electricity; and Scope 3 covers all other indirect emissions across our value chain, such as travel, commuting and purchased goods and services.

Scope 1 and 2 emissions

There were no Scope 1 emissions in 2025, as no refrigerant leaks occurred during the year.

Scope 2 emissions, relating to purchased electricity, decreased compared with the prior year. On a location-based basis, electricity emissions reduced by 16.3%, from 13.2 tCO₂e in 2024 to 11.1 tCO₂e in 2025. On a market-based basis, electricity emissions reduced by 2.1%, from 29.7 tCO₂e to 29.1 tCO₂e, reflecting a modest reduction in electricity consumption over the year.

This reduction supports our Planet Mark requirement for year-on-year improvement in Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Looking ahead, Stewardship has agreed a renewable electricity tariff from 2026, which is expected to deliver a further reduction in Scope 2 emissions in future reporting periods.

Scope 3 emissions

Scope 3 emissions continue to represent the majority of Stewardship’s carbon footprint. On a normalised basis, Scope 3 emissions increased by 27.4% in 2025, from 54.7 tCO₂e to 69.7 tCO₂e.

The increase was driven primarily by changes in business travel and employee commuting.

Business travel

Business travel emissions increased on a normalised basis by 15.3%, from 21.2 tCO₂e in 2024 to 24.5 tCO₂e in 2025.

This reflects higher levels of organisational activity during the year reflected in increased headcount, alongside enhancements to the measurement methodology. Emission factors now include well-to-tank emissions and radiative forcing has been applied to air travel, providing a more complete representation of the climate impact of flights.

Employee commuting

Employee commuting emissions increased on a normalised basis by 36.5%, from 32.3 tCO₂e to 44.1 tCO₂e.

This increase reflects a combination of growth in headcount, higher levels of commuting and improved data capture. Higher commuting has been a result of an intentional shift towards more regular in-office days for some teams, to support training

and development and enhance collaboration. A higher response rate to the employee commuting survey in 2025 has resulted in a more complete and more reliable dataset, meaning the figures provide a more accurate reflection of commuting patterns than in previous years.

A separate estimate for homeworking emissions has again been provided but does not form part of the reported total footprint due to uncertainties inherent in estimating homeworking energy use.

Strong data quality

Data quality remains a key strength of our carbon reporting. In 2025, we achieved a 96% Planet Mark data quality score, assessed as high and indicating that the data is reliable for decision-making and provides an accurate representation of the organisation’s carbon footprint. Based on a data quality score of 95% in 2024, we were nominated for a Planet Mark data quality award in 2025, recognising the consistency and robustness of our reporting approach.

2026 outlook

While Scope 3 emissions increased on a normalised basis in 2025, we remain committed to reducing our environmental impact and to addressing those factors within our control. Scope 1 and 2 emissions decreased during the year and this remains a key area of focus.

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Our priorities include transitioning to a renewable electricity tariff from 2026, which will further reduce Scope 2 emissions, alongside continuing to review business travel practices to balance sustainability with operational needs and maintaining a focus on resource efficiency across the organisation.

Climate Stewards partnership

In addition, we have contributed to climate solutions with Climate Stewards in recognition of our emissions associated to electricity use and business travel. During 2025, we made climate contributions to cover 40 tCO₂e, representing emissions related to business travel and building use (electricity) through the funding of community carbon projects in the Global South that meet Climate Stewards’ Seal of Approval Framework. In 2026, we have again committed to contribute to climate solutions, calculating this contribution to reflect the full normalised footprint as reported, 99 tCO₂e.

In line with our Planet Mark status, we continue to target year-on-year reductions in Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a reduction in emissions per employee. With three years of verified data now in place, we are well positioned to track progress consistently and take informed action over time.

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Charity Governance Code

We recognise the importance of the Charity Governance Code’s principles and values in its role of supporting the Council’s journey of continuous improvement as it upholds the Trust’s 120-year legacy.

Our Council members are united under the statement of beliefs to which we subscribe and, as Christians, are committed to the biblical principles of good stewardship and governance. A thorough external review of board effectiveness, performed by independent external consultants, was carried out towards the end of 2024. The findings of this external review were that the board demonstrated a high level of effectiveness. The resulting report was considered by Council in March 2025 with various actions identified to help the Council operate even more effectively. Some of these actions have been progressed during 2025 and some continue into 2026 and future years.

Before the Council meeting in March 2026, a short survey was undertaken by the board, which indicated that all respondents considered the board to be ‘effective’ or ‘very effective’, with 63% considering the Council to be more effective than 12 months ago. A continuous improvement action plan will be reviewed by Council at subsequent meetings.

Section 172 Statement

As a charity and company limited by guarantee, we are required to report on how the trustees (who are also the directors for purposes of company law) have discharged their duty to promote the best interests of Stewardship, having regard to the matters set out in section 172 (1) (a) to (f) of the Companies Act 2006. In doing so, regard (amongst other matters) must be given to:

These considerations are embedded into the trustees’ approach to strategy, governance, risk management and decision-making throughout the year.

Stakeholders

The Council of Trustees recognises that our ability to deliver our mission and charitable objectives depends on strong, trusted relationships with its stakeholders. In particular, these include Christian ministries, donors, philanthropists, employees, regulators and key partners.

The table below sets out our principal stakeholder groups, the key matters of importance to each group and how the trustees engage with them. By maintaining an ongoing understanding of stakeholder perspectives, the Council is better equipped to evaluate the potential impact of its decisions, balance competing considerations appropriately, and ensure that we continue to operate sustainably, responsibly and in line with our values.

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----- Start of picture text -----
Regulators
Stakeholder
(Charity Commission, ICO, HMRC Investment community Neighbours Suppliers
group
and Fundraising Regulator)
Key • Maintaining strict governance • Comprehensively reviewing • Fostering good relationships with • Working with suppliers who share
considerations procedures to ensure compliance the financial performance of our residential neighbours in the our values
with all applicable regulatory Stewardship’s investments flats above our office at 1 Lamb’s
• Being a trustworthy and reliable
regimes Passage
• Balancing the financial customer
• Using our knowledge and performance, risk factors and • Working well together in tackling
experience to influence policy liquidity of the investments held building issues impacting us all
and regulation where appropriate
How we engage • Timely submissions of all • Regular meetings and • Stewardship representatives • We endeavour to build good
necessary filings and returns correspondence with our maintained contact with the relationships with our suppliers
investment managers Lambs Management Company and have worked with most of
• Self-reporting and engagement
(LMC) board on matters related them for several years
where appropriate • Oversight from the Finance and
to our building and the full and
Investment Committee • We complete and submit
• Prompt and comprehensive final repayments of an interest-
payment reporting to the
response to requests for • Actively seeking and harnessing free loan made to expedite the
Department for Business and
information if requested ethical and impactful investment replacement of cladding
Trade. The 2025 reports indicated
opportunities, particularly for
• Engagement as part of regulator that, on average, we take 15 days
Kingdom growth
working groups and committees to pay our suppliers, compared to
• Working with external experts 14 days covering the same period
• Lobbying for change at a policy
where required on potential in the prior year
level
regulatory or specialist issues
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Key decisions in 2025

The following sets out the key decisions taken by the Stewardship Council of Trustees in 2025 and how the interests of our stakeholders and the wider factors set out in section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 were taken into account.

Thought leadership

We decided to accelerate Stewardship’s thought leadership by strengthening our generosity initiatives and sharing practical insight through research, campaigns and new projects.

Key considerations:

Technology transformation and modernisation

We approved the next phase of technology transformation, including the modernisation of core systems to strengthen internal technology capability and the safe and effective integration of AI into working practices.

Key considerations:

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Finance

We agreed to strengthen the stewardship of our balance sheet through the creation of a dedicated Investments and Lending Team, including the appointment of a new senior leadership role to manage that team, alongside a review of our reserves policy.

Key considerations:

People

We approved changes to our executive leadership and people strategy, including new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) roles, the recruitment of a CFO and the adoption of a defined target culture and people strategy, to be embedded across the organisation in 2026.

Key considerations:

Trustee governance

We approved enhancements to governance structures and effectiveness, including the creation of new board committees to support decision-making and theological oversight and the completion of an independent board effectiveness review.

Key considerations:

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Statement of Council responsibilities

The members of Council are responsible for preparing the Annual Report, incorporating the strategic report and the financial statements, in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the members of Council to prepare financial statements for each financial year in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards and applicable law). Under company law, the members of Council must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the group and charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the group and charity for that period.

In preparing these financial statements, the members of Council are required to:

The directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charitable company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company 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 charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Financial statements are published on the charitable company’s website in accordance with legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements, which may vary from legislation in other jurisdictions. The maintenance and integrity of the charitable company’s website is the responsibility of the members of Council. The Council members’ responsibility also extends to the ongoing integrity of the financial statements contained therein.

Re-election of Council members

Under the articles of the charity, trustees serve for a term of three years. The articles do not specify a

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maximum length of service. However, Stewardship’s policy is to follow the Charity Governance Code recommendations. Trustees will usually be reappointed for a second three-year term and a third successive term of three years will be considered if appropriate. A trustee’s term of office will only be extended beyond three successive terms (that is beyond a total of nine years) in exceptional circumstances, following a particularly rigorous review that considers the need for progressive refreshing of the board, with such exceptions being explained in the Annual Report.

Appointment of auditors

Approval

This report, including the strategic report, was approved by the Council on 25 June 2026 and signed on its behalf.

Signed on behalf of the Council by:

Christopher Gillies

It was agreed to appoint Crowe U.K. LLP as auditors at the Audit and Risk Committee meeting in June 2025.

CHAIR OF STEWARDSHIP

Provision of information to auditors

As required by the Companies Act, the trustees who held office at the date of approval of the Annual Report as set out above each confirm that, so far as they are aware, there is no relevant audit information (information required by the company’s auditors in connection with preparing their report) of which the company’s auditors are unaware; and as the directors of the company they have taken all the steps they ought to have taken in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the company’s auditors are aware of that information.

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Independent auditor’s report

to the members and the trustees of Stewardship Services (UKET) Ltd

company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least 12 months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

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

Basis for opinion

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Stewardship Services (UKET) Ltd (‘the charitable company’) for the year ended 31 December 2025 which comprise Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities, Consolidated and Parent Balance Sheets, Consolidated Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including 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).

In our opinion the financial statements:

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 Financial Reporting Council’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.

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.

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

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the Annual Report. 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.

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 this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. 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.

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We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In light of the 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 strategic report or the directors’ report included within the trustees’ report.

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;

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement, 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.

Details of the extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations are set out below.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: frc.org.uk/ auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of noncompliance with laws and regulations. We identified and assessed the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements from irregularities, whether due to fraud or error, and discussed these between our audit team members. We then designed and performed audit procedures responsive to those

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risks, including obtaining audit evidence sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks within which the charitable company and group operates, focusing on those laws and regulations that have a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The laws and regulations we considered in this context were the Companies Act 2006, the Charities Act 2011, together with the Charities SORP (FRS 102). We assessed the required compliance with these laws and regulations as part of our audit procedures on the related financial statement items.

In addition, we considered provisions of other laws and regulations that do not have a direct effect on the financial statements but compliance with which might be necessary to the charitable company and group’s ability to operate or to avoid a material penalty. Auditing standards limit the required audit procedures to identify non-compliance with these laws and regulations to enquiry of the trustees and other management and inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.

We also considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the charitable company and group for fraud. We identified the greatest risk of material impact on the financial statements from irregularities, including fraud, to be within the timing and recognition of income and the override of controls by management. Our audit procedures to respond to these risks included designing procedures to evaluate the appropriateness of the completeness and timing of income recognition, enquiries of management and the Audit and Risk

Committee about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities, sample testing on the posting of journals, reviewing accounting estimates for biases, reviewing regulatory correspondence with the Charity Commission, and reading regulatory reports and minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.

Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may not have detected some material misstatements in the financial statements, even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. For example, the further removed noncompliance with laws and regulations (irregularities) is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely the inherently limited procedures required by auditing standards would identify it.

In addition, as with any audit, there remained a higher risk of non-detection of irregularities, as these may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal controls. We are not responsible for preventing non-compliance and cannot be expected to detect non-compliance with all laws and regulations.

Use of our 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.

Tina Allison

SENIOR STATUTORY AUDITOR

For and on behalf of Crowe U.K. LLP, Statutory Auditor, London

29 June 2026

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Annual Financial Statements

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Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities

For the year ended
31 December 2025
Notes		 31 December 2025 31 December 2024
Unrestricted
Funds
£’000
Restricted
Funds
£’000
Total
Funds
£’000		 Unrestricted
Funds
£’000
Restricted
Funds
£’000
Total
Funds
£’000
INCOME FROM
Donations and legacies
2
Charitable activities
3
Investments
4
Interest income
16
Share of associate’s profit
14
Total income
EXPENDITURE ON
Raising funds
5
Investment management
fees
5
Grants and grant-making
activities
8
Charitable activities
5
Share of associate’s loss
14
Total expenditure
Net gains on investments
14
Net income
Transfers between funds
20
Net movement in funds
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS
Total funds brought forward
19
Total funds carried forward
19		 3,220
104,888
108,108
1,745
-
1,745
5,742
1,897
7,639
-
-
-
10
-
10
3,506
157,368
160,874
1,721
126
1,847
5,638
2,196
7,834
-
364
364
-
-
-
10,865
160,054
170,919		 10,717
106,785
117,502
(401)
-
(401)
(71)
(409)
(480)
(4,810)
(106,138)
(110,948)
(2,826)
(17)
(2,843)
-
-
-
(347)
-
(347)
(67)
(435)
(502)
(5,502)
(134,974)
(140,476)
(2,919)
(7)
(2,926)
(226)
-
(226)
(9,061)
(135,416)
(144,477)		 (8,108)
(106,564)
(114,672)
315
5,611
5,926		 113
6,152
6,265
2,119
30,249
32,368		 2,722
6,373
9,095
(2,067)
2,067
-
655
8,440
9,095
(1,629)
1,629
-
490
31,878
32,368
9,299
188,680
197,979
9,954
197,120
207,074
10,444
228,998
239,442		 9,954
197,120
207,074

All transactions arise from continuing operations. All gains and losses are included above. The notes on page 83 to page 105 form part of these financial statements.

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Consolidated and Charity Company Balance Sheets

Company number: 90305

Company number: 90305
Notes Group Charity
31 Dec 25
£’000
31 Dec 24
£’000		 31 Dec 25
£’000
31 Dec 24
£’000
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets
12
Church and charity loans
13
Investments
14
Total fixed assets
CURRENT ASSETS
Debtors
16
Church and charity loans
13
Money market deposits
Cash at bank and in hand
Total current assets
LIABILITIES
Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year
Grant payments due
17
Other creditors
17
Total current liabilities
17
Net current assets
Total net assets
THE FUNDS OF THE CHARITY
Restricted funds
19
Unrestricted funds
19
Total funds		 2,888
2,913
31,565
37,188
126,122
114,305		 2,888
2,913
31,565
37,188
126,112
114,069
160,575
154,406		 160,565
154,170
22,850
3,603
1,976
2,391
61,441
52,880
1,180
1,326		 22,850
3,603
1,976
2,391
61,441
52,880
1,180
1,326
87,447
60,200		 87,447
60,200
4,732
3,991
3,848
3,541
8,580
7,532		 4,732
3,991
3,848
3,541
8,580
7,532
78,867
52,668		 78,867
52,668
239,442
207,074		 239,432
206,838
228,998
197,120
10,444
9,954		 228,998
197,120
10,434
9,718
239,442
207,074		 239,432
206,838

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As permitted by s408 of the Companies Act 2006, the charity has not presented its own Statement of Financial Activities and related notes. The charity’s surplus for the period was £32,594,000 (2024: £9,096,000).

Approved and authorised for issue by the Council and signed on their behalf on 25 June 2026.

Christopher Gillies

CHAIR OF STEWARDSHIP

The notes on page 83 to page 105 form part of these financial statements.

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Consolidated Cash Flow Statement

For the year ended 31 December 2025 2025 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES
Net cash used in operating activities
(37,927)
CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES
Total investment income
7,834
Loan advances
(2,558)
Loan capital repayments
8,596
(Increase) / reduction in money market deposits
(more than 3 months)
(8,492)
Proceeds on sale of investments
60,709
Purchase of investments
(28,239)
Net cash provided by investing activities
37,850
Change in cash and cash equivalents during the reporting period
(77)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period
28,715
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period
28,638
RECONCILIATION OF NET INCOME TO CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES
Net income for the reporting period
32,368
Adjustments for:
Gifts of shares and property
(38,587)
Share of associate’s loss / (profit)
226
Depreciation charges
25
Gains on investments
(5,926)
Total investment income
(7,834)
(Increase) / decrease in debtors
(19,247)
Increase / (decrease) in creditors
1,048
Net cash used in operating activities
(37,927)		 7,639
(11,557)
2,972
4,915
14,485
(9,452)		 (9,966)
9,002
(37,927)
7,834
(2,558)
8,596
(8,492)
60,709
(28,239)
37,850
(77) (964)
29,679
28,715
28,638 28,715
9,095
(3,098)
(10)
27
(6,265)
(7,639)
614
(2,690)
32,368
(38,587)
226
25
(5,926)
(7,834)
(19,247)
1,048
(37,927) (9,966)

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For the year ended 31 December 2025 2025 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
ANALYSIS OF CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS
Cash at bank
Money market deposits
Total cash and cash equivalents
Money market deposits (greater than three months)
Total cash and money market deposits		 1,326
27,389
28,715
25,491
1,180
27,458
28,638
33,983
62,621 54,206
At start of the
period
Cash flows		 At end of the
period
ANALYSIS OF NET FUNDS
Cash
Money market deposits (less than 3 months)
Total cash and cash equivalents
Money market deposits (greater than three months)
Total		 1,326
27,389		 (146)
69
1,180
27,458
28,715
25,491		 (77)
8,492		 28,638
33,983
54,206 8,415 62,621

The notes on page 83 to page 105 form part of these financial statements.

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Notes to the financial statements

1 Accounting policies

a. Basis of accounting

The financial statements have been prepared under the historic cost convention except for investments, which are included at bid market price, and long lease assets held at valuation. They are also prepared in accordance with the UK Companies Act 2006, FRS102, the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom, and the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (Charities SORP 2019 – Second Edition). The charity meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS102.

The financial statements include the results of all the charity’s operations, which are described in the trustees’ report. All operations referred to in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities are continuing unless otherwise stated.

b. Going concern

The Stewardship trustees and Leadership Team have reviewed the group and charity’s financial position, plans, reserves and risk management and consider Stewardship has adequate resources to continue operations for the foreseeable future and therefore support the preparation of these financial statements on a going concern basis.

At 31 December 2025, the Stewardship group had unrestricted reserves of £10.4m to fund its ongoing operations, which is £1.5m above its minimum reserves requirement (see page 51 for details of our reserves policy). Stewardship also has significant liquidity, with £28.6m held as cash and cash equivalents. These provide the liquidity to meet the ongoing operational expenditure needs of the charity, but also to ensure funding for grant payments from giving accounts.

Each year, Stewardship updates its future strategic plans and associated financial model for a number of years into the future, in order to ensure we have the operational and financial capacity to continue in operation and to fulfil our charitable objectives. Based on the analysis undertaken, the trustees and Leadership Team have not identified any material uncertainties and have therefore continued to prepare the accounts on the basis that the group is a going concern.

c. Basis of consolidation

The consolidated financial statements incorporate the results of Stewardship Services (UKET) Ltd (‘the charity’) and other Stewardship entities (note 15). The consolidated entity is referred to as ‘the group’ and the consolidated financial statements present the results of the group as if they formed a single entity. Intercompany transactions and balances between group entities are therefore eliminated in full. No separate Statement of Financial Activities or Cash Flow Statement has been prepared for the charity as permitted by section 408 of the Companies Act 2006 and FRS102 respectively. In the consolidated accounts, interests in associated undertakings are accounted for using the equity method of accounting. Under this method an equity investment is initially recognised at the transaction price (including transaction costs) and subsequently adjusted to reflect the group’s share of the profit or loss and equity of the associate.

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d. Key estimates and judgements

The trustees make judgements and accounting estimates, as required, that are considered reasonable and prudent.

Estimates

Judgements

The terms and conditions confirm that grants are made at the discretion of Stewardship’s trustees. They also create reasonable expectations that a donor’s gift request will be approved if it meets Stewardship’s due diligence requirements, and that Stewardship will not make a grant on its own initiative from a donor’s Giving Account unless the account has become dormant.

While Stewardship trustees have complete discretion over the funds and the grants made from them, the trustees are of the view that the donors’ reasonable expectations are that we should hold these funds as restricted funds until such time as they are granted out.

e. Financial instruments

Stewardship has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. These consist of financial assets and liabilities, initially measured at their transaction value (including transaction costs) and subsequently at their settlement value. Further details on the measurement and recognition of these instruments are detailed in the following accounting policies.

f. Income

Donations (also referred to as ‘Gifts In’) are recognised in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities usually in the period they are received or, if appropriate, when any requested conditions have been met. Where a donation

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(‘Gift In’) is made with a valid Gift Aid declaration, the Gift Aid is recognised in the period in which the original donation was made. Legacies are accounted for as income once the entitlement to the legacy becomes probable and quantifiable. As per note 1.d(iii) income received from donations and legacies is held as restricted funds. Income received in foreign currencies is reported in the financial statements at the pound sterling equivalent value based on the exchange rate in place on the date of income recognition. Non-cash gifts are recognised at the fair value of the asset at the time of donation. All other income is recognised on an accruals basis and included in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities when the group is entitled to the income. This includes all earned investment income and fee income on services provided by the group.

g. Expenditure

viii. Employee termination costs are accounted for on an accruals basis and in line with FRS102.

h. Operating leases

Rentals payable under operating leases are charged to the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities evenly over the period of the lease.

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i. Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets (except long leasehold assets) costing more than £1,500 are capitalised and are stated at historic cost less accumulated depreciation. Depreciation is provided on these tangible fixed assets at rates calculated to write each asset down to its estimated residual value evenly over its expected useful life. Depreciation is charged as follows:

j. Fixed asset investments

Investments in financial instruments are included at bid market value at the balance sheet date.

Realised gains and losses on investments sold in the year and unrealised gains and losses on revaluation of investments are included in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities.

Social investments are reported at their recoverable value and any gains or losses on the sale of investments are included in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities. For more detail, refer to notes 1.d(ii) and 14.

An entity is treated as an associated undertaking where the group exercises significant influence in that it has the power to participate in its operating and financial policy decisions.

In the consolidated accounts, interests in associated undertakings are accounted for using the equity method of accounting. Under this method an equity investment is initially recognised at the transaction price (including transaction costs) and subsequently adjusted to reflect the group’s share of the profit or loss and equity of the associate.

The Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities includes the group’s share of the operating results, interest, pretax results and attributable taxation of such undertakings applying accounting policies consistent with those of the group.

k. Debtors

Trade and other debtors are measured on the basis of their recoverable amount. Where settlement is deferred and the effect of the time value of money is material, debtors are initially measured at the present value of the future cash flows, discounted at an appropriate inflationary rate. The discount is unwound over the period of deferral and recognised as finance income in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities.

l. Church and charity loans

Church and charity loans are considered to be programme-related investments. Loan balances are valued at the amount of principal due to be recovered and adjusted for impairment. Amounts expected to be received in the next 12 months are shown as a current asset, with amounts due after more than one year shown as long-term assets.

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m. Current asset investments

Current asset investments are investments that are held by the group pending their sale. They are measured at fair value.

n. Money market deposits

Money market deposits are held as part of the group’s allocation of total assets. These are generally fixed term and notice deposits of up to one year but can also include instant access savings accounts, which generate additional interest income and liquidity.

o. Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and in hand is held to meet the day-to-day running costs of the charity as they fall due and to provide for the liquidity needs in respect of funds held as agent.

p. Creditors

Creditors are amounts owed by the group. They are measured at the amount that the charity expects to have to pay to settle the debt or pay for services or goods received.

q. Funds held as agent

Funds received by the group as agent are not recognised as income nor is their distribution recognised as the agent’s expenditure. Balances at the period end, which are held within cash balances, are reported under creditors as detailed in notes 17 and 18. All fees for acting as agent are recognised as the group’s income, any costs in the administration of the agency arrangement are recognised as expenditure and balances held are recognised as liabilities in the accounts.

r. Reserves

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2 Income from donations and legacies

2025 2024
Unrestricted
Funds
£’000
Restricted
Funds
£’000
Total
Funds
£’000		 Unrestricted
Funds
£’000
Restricted
Funds
£’000
Total
Funds
£’000
Gifts
Gift Aid tax
Legacies
Gifts of shares
Gifts of property		 3,504
101,793
105,297		 3,217
85,995
89,212
3
14,742
14,745
-
1,053
1,053
-
3,098
3,098
-
-
-
2
16,831
16,833
-
1,544
1,544
-
6,969
6,969
-
30,231
30,231
3,506
157,368
160,874		 3,220
104,888
108,108

All income is generated from activities within the UK.

3 Income from charitable activities

2025 2024
Unrestricted
Funds
£’000
Restricted
Funds
£’000
Total
Funds
£’000		 Unrestricted
Funds
£’000
Restricted
Funds
£’000
Total
Funds
£’000
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Payroll administration
Accounting and consulting
Conference, training and
publications
Charity formation services
CHURCH AND CHARITY LENDING
Fee income
GIVING ACCOUNTS
Fees on management of
Stewardship Investment Portfolios
for Donor Advised Fund and
Philanthropy Fund accounts
Other income		 585
-
585
697
-
697
84
-
84
14
-
14
185
-
185
117
-
117
63
-
63
636
-
636
727
-
727
80
-
80
16
-
16
102
126
228
98
-
98
62
-
62
1,721
126
1,847		 1,745
-
1,745

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4 Investment income

2025 2024
Unrestricted
Funds
£’000
Restricted
Funds
£’000
Total
Funds
£’000		 Unrestricted
Funds
£’000
Restricted
Funds
£’000
Total
Funds
£’000
Interest on money market deposits
Loan interest
Income from externally managed
funds		 2,565
130
2,695		 2,884
74
2,958
2,321
69
2,390
537
1,754
2,291
2,408
281
2,689
665
1,785
2,450
5,638
2,196
7,834		 5,742
1,897
7,639

5 Analysis of expenditure

Grant
Funding
£’000
Direct
Costs
£’000
Support
Costs
£’000
Total
£’000
Grant and grant-making activities
Investment management fees
Raising funds
Other charitable activities		 134,090
4,002
2,384
140,476
-
502
-
502
-
347
-
347
-
1,512
1,414
2,926
134,090
6,363
3,798
144,251

Costs are directly allocated to the service area to which they relate or apportioned by headcount.

Analysis of expenditure – prior year

Analysis of expenditure – prior year
Grant
Funding
£’000
Direct
Costs
£’000
Support
Costs
£’000
Total
£’000
Grant and grant-making activities
Investment management fees
Raising funds
Other charitable activities		 106,178
2,459
2,311
110,948
-
480
-
480
-
401
-
401
-
1,437
1,406
2,843
106,178
4,777
3,717
114,672

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Net income for the year is stated after charging

Net income for the year is stated after charging
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Depreciation on tangible fixed assets
Statutory audit fees (excluding VAT)
Statutory audit fees paid to other auditors (excluding VAT)
Operating lease rentals		 25 28
76
14
6
78
15
7

6 Analysis of support costs

Staff
£’000
IT
£’000
Premises
£’000
Other
£’000
Total
£’000
Grants
Charitable activities		 1,606
390
74
314
2,384
953
231
44
186
1,414
2,559
621
118
500
3,798

Analysis of support costs – prior year

Staff
£’000
IT
£’000
Premises
£’000
Other
£’000
Total
£’000
Grants
Charitable activities		 1,397
492
145
277
2,311
850
299
88
169
1,406
2,247
791
233
446
3,717

7 Analysis of governance costs

2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Staff costs
Statutory audit fees (excluding VAT)
Statutory audit fees paid to other auditors (excluding VAT)		 131 112
76
14
78
15
224 202

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8 Grant and grant-making activities

The group works in partnership with its donors and other parties to identify Christian churches, workers and charities for the purpose of providing grant support. Summary details of grants made during the year are shown below.

2025 2024
£’000
Number		 £’000
Number
GRANTS OF OVER £1,000
to Christian organisations
to Christian churches
to other charities
to support Christian workers
to support Bible college students
GRANTS OF UNDER £1,000
to Christian organisations
to Christian churches
to other charities
to support Christian workers
to support Bible college students
Total grants
GRANT-MAKING ACTIVITIES
Direct costs
Support costs
Total grants and grant-making activities		 34,345
4,916
12,497
3,090
5,423
657
2,800
1,409
181
72
48,090
5,634
23,081
3,420
6,428
776
3,107
1,608
109
45
80,815
11,483		 55,246
10,144
19,440
452,464
16,001
152,306
2,514
76,533
12,620
285,554
357
7,748
20,469
477,868
16,383
157,624
2,674
79,621
13,440
299,694
309
7,145
53,275
1,021,952		 50,932
974,605
134,090
1,033,435		 106,178
984,749
4,002
2,384
140,476		 2,459
2,311
110,948

During the year, grants to individuals totalled £16,965,000 (2024: £15,958,000) and grants to churches and charities totalled £117,126,000 (2024: £90,221,000).

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9 Staff costs

2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Pension contributions
Redundancy and termination payments
Other employee benefits
Average headcount		 4,530 4,026
465
564
15
52
589
653
6
77
5,855 5,122
106 96

Redundancy and termination payments are recognised when there is a demonstrable commitment that cannot be realistically withdrawn. Redundancy costs of £6,000 (2024: £15,000) were incurred in the year and no amounts were outstanding at the balance sheet date (2024: £13,000).

Employees’ emoluments exceeding £60,000
(excluding pension contributions)		 2025 2024
£130,000
–
£139,999
£120,000
–
£129,999
£110,000
–
£119,999
£100,000
–
£109,999
£ 90,000
–
£ 99,999
£ 80,000
–
£ 89,999
£ 70,000
–
£ 79,999
£ 60,000
–
£ 69,999		 1 1
1
1
-
-
1
3
3
2
-
-
-
2
2
4
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Contributions to defined contribution pension schemes for these
employees
Remuneration of key management personnel (members of the
Executive Team as defined on page 55) excluding employer
pension contributions		 171 136
544
524

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CONTENTS ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Contributions to defined contribution pension schemes for 4 key
management personnel (2024: 4)		 109 95

Trustees’ fees and expenses

No fees are paid to trustees for their services. Expenses were reimbursed to 3 trustees (2024: 2) for travel and subsistence totalling £1,410 (2024: £943).

10 Pension contributions

Stewardship contributes to a defined contribution pension scheme. Contributions for the period amounted to £653,000 (2024: £564,000).

Pension contributions are accounted for as they fall due. Contributions at the balance sheet date that were pending payment to our pension provider totalled £8,000 (2024: £12,000).

11 Related party transactions

The trustees of Stewardship may use the services provided in the normal course of the activities of the organisation and there are no preferential terms. This includes any donations made using their giving account under the standard terms and conditions. The trustees may also be trustees of other organisations which Stewardship supports in the normal course of its grant-making activities and professional services. They receive no personal benefit. The trustees have instituted a register of other interests, and disclosure is made at trustees’ meetings of any potential conflicts of interest.

2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Donations received from trustees and related parties
These donations are reported excluding Gift Aid.		 14,725 7,528

Donations of £14,494,473 (2024: £7,305,523) were received from, and grants of £649,969 (2024 £376,500) were made to, Trustbridge Global Foundation. Trustbridge Global Foundation is considered to be a related party by virtue of Stewardship’s Chief Customer Officer being a trustee. All conflicts of interest are declared and carefully managed.

Cash deposits of £1,831,626 were held with Kingdom Bank Ltd (a subsidiary of Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd) as at 31 December 2025 (31 December 2024: £1,081,626).

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12 Tangible fixed assets

Long Leasehold
Premises
£’000
Leasehold
Improvements
£’000
Fixtures, Fittings
and Equipment
£’000
Computer
Equipment
£’000
Total
£’000
AT COST OR VALUATION
As at 1 January 2025
As at 31 December 2025
DEPRECIATION
As at 1 January 2025
Charge for the period
As at 31 December 2025
NET BOOK VALUES
As at 31 December 2025
As at 31 December 2024		 2,800
355
52
167
3,374
2,800
355
52
167
3,374
-
244
52
165
461
-
24
-
1
25
-
268
52
166
486
2,800
87
-
1
2,888
2,800
111
-
2
2,913

The historic cost carrying value for the long leasehold premises was £2,518,000 and improvements £355,000.

Long leasehold premises and improvements, fixtures, fittings, equipment and software are used to support direct charitable purposes and for the management and administration of the organisation.

Revaluation of 1 Lamb’s Passage

Under Stewardship’s accounting policy, a full valuation is required every five years. Stewardship’s long leasehold premises, and associated leasehold improvements, were valued at 31 December 2023. A red book valuation was performed, as at that date, by MRICS registered consultants from Daniel Watney and the property was valued at an estimated market value of £2,935,000, reflected under Long Leasehold Premises and Leasehold Improvements. The carrying value of Long Leasehold Premises and Leasehold Improvements at 31 December 2025 was £2,887,000 (2024: £2,911,000). No depreciation has been charged on the Long Leasehold Premises, on the basis that publicly available UK commercial property market data indicates modest capital growth and any depreciation charge would be immaterial and eliminated on revaluation. A review for indications of impairment has been performed, and none have been identified.

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13 Church and charity loans

2025 2024
£’000 £’000
As at 1 January
New loans advanced
Capital repayments
As at 31 December
Amounts falling due after more than one year
Amounts falling due within one year		 39,579 30,994
11,557
(2,972)
2,558
(8,596)
33,541 39,579
37,188
2,391
31,565
1,976
33,541 39,579

Loans to churches and charities are secured on properties.

Loans by clients via nominated investment options made up £3,029,000 (2024: £5,399,000) of the amount outstanding at the year end and £532,000 (2024: £3,085,000) of new loans advanced in the period.

14 Other investments

Group Charity
2025
£’000
2024
£’000		 2025
£’000
2024
£’000
Market value of investments as at 1 January
Additions
Gift of property
Gifts of shares
Proceeds of sales
Net investment gains
Share of associate’s (loss) / profit
Market value of investments as at 31 December
Historic cost		 114,305
109,965
28,239
9,452
31,618
-
6,969
3,098
(60,709)
(14,485)
5,926
6,265
(226)
10		 114,069
109,739
28,239
9,452
31,618
-
6,969
3,098
(60,709)
(14,485)
5,926
6,265
-
-
126,122
114,305		 126,112
114,069
111,675
101,215		 111,675
101,215

Included in investments is £99,370,000 of nominated investment options (2024: £94,858,000).

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Sarasin & Partners LLP, Rathbone Investment Managers Ltd, and Schroder & Co Ltd manage respectively the Balanced, Growth and Responsible Investment Portfolios Funds on a discretionary basis. As such, additions and disposals are recorded on the basis of cash injected into or withdrawn from each fund.

Investments in associate Group Charity
2025
£’000
2024
£’000		 2025
£’000
2024
£’000
Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd 3,613
3,839		 3,603
3,603

The investment in Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd is a mixed motive social investment. Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd undertook a rights issue in December 2025. One of our donors elected to participate in this rights issue using their Stewardship giving account. As a result, there has been an increase in our donor advised investment in Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd during the year. Stewardship did not elect to participate in this rights issue and the decrease in investment in Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd held as an associate represents Stewardship’s share of its loss for the year. The investment is included in the following table as (i) £4,189,000 in restricted funds shown as ‘investment in Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd’ (2024: £3,604,000) and (ii) £3,613,000 (2024: £3,839,000) as ‘investment in associate’.

Investments held (by group) 2025 2024
Total
£’000		 Total
£’000
Pooled Balanced Portfolio
Pooled Equity Portfolio (formerly known as Growth Portfolio)
Pooled Sustainable Investment Portfolio (formerly known as
Responsible Portfolio)
Donor Advised Investments
Social investment property
Investment in Lamb’s Passage Holding Limited
Donor advised investments
Pooled Sustainable Investment Portfolio (formerly known as
Responsible Portfolio)
Fixed income bonds
Other impact investments
Investment in Lamb’s Passage Holding Limited held as an associate
Other investments
Total investments
OF WHICH
Social investments comprise		 39,096 39,863
23,963
1,315
25,337
776
3,604
29,097
2,360
23,852
776
4,189
99,370 94,858
1,725
11,024
2,859
3,839
1,398
19,147
2,594
3,613
26,752 19,447
126,122 114,305
11,078
11,172

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Investments held (by charity) 2025 2024
Total
£’000		 Total
£’000
Pooled Balanced Portfolio
Pooled Equity Portfolio (formerly known as Growth Portfolio)
Pooled Sustainable Investment Portfolio (formerly known as
Responsible Portfolio)
Donor Advised Investments
Social investment property
Investment in Lamb’s Passage Holding Limited
Donor advised investments
Pooled Responsible Investment Portfolio
Fixed income bonds
Other impact investments
Investment in Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd held as an associate
Other investments
Total investments
OF WHICH
Social investments comprise		 39,096 39,863
23,963
1,315
25,337
776
3,604
29,097
2,360
23,852
776
4,189
99,370 94,858
1,725
11,024
2,859
3,603
1,398
19,147
2,594
3,603
26,742 19,211
126,112 114,069
10,842
11,162

15 Other Stewardship legal entities

Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd

Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd (company number: 12117633) was incorporated in the UK on 23 July 2019 to act as a holding company for the purchase of Kingdom Bank Ltd. Its registered office is c/o Kingdom Bank Ltd, Media House, Padge Road, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 2RS. At 31 December 2025, Stewardship Services (UKET) Ltd (the charity) had a beneficial interest in 22.1% of the share capital of Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd. A further 23.7% was held as donor advised investments within restricted funds and the rights attaching to those shares are delegated to the Giving Account holder concerned via a power of attorney. At 31 December 2025, two of the nine directors of Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd are trustees or key management personnel of the charity. The charity accounts for Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd as an associate under the equity method because it has a participating interest and exercises influence over the operating and financial policy decisions of Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd. The group’s share of the loss of Lamb’s Passage Holding Ltd was £226,000 (2024: gain of £10,000).

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Stewardship Professional Services Ltd

Stewardship Professional Services Ltd (company number: 14613682, registered office: 1 Lamb’s Passage, London EC1Y 8AB) was incorporated in the UK on 24 January 2023. The entity has remained dormant since incorporation.

16 Debtors: Due within one year

Group Charity
2025
£’000
2024
£’000		 2025
£’000
2024
£’000
DUE MORE THAN ONE YEAR
Gross amount receivable
Net revaluation of receivable to present value
Present value of receivable
DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR
Trade debtors
Gift Aid tax receivable
Prepayments
Accrued income
Other debtors		 20,715
-
(1,023)
-		 20,715
-
(1,023)
-
19,692
-		 19,692
-
65
63
300
1,364
228
208
2,544
1,944
21
24		 65
63
300
1,364
228
208
2,544
1,944
21
24
3,158
3,603		 3,158
3,603
22,850
3,603		 22,850
3,603

Debtors due more than one year include £19,692,000 (2024: £nil), which represents the discounted value of deferred consideration due to the charity arising from the disposal of an interest in land during the year. The deferred consideration is payable in two tranches, in 2027 and 2029, and has been recognised at its present value in accordance with FRS102 and the Charities SORP. The aggregate gross amount receivable is £20,715,000. This has been discounted to present value based on forecast inflation over 2026-2029 at an average of 2% p.a. The change in the present value of the receivable during the year of £364,000 (2024: £nil) has been reflected as interest income in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities.

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17 Creditors: Due within one year

Group Charity
2025
£’000
2024
£’000		 2025
£’000
2024
£’000
Grant payments due
Funds held as agent – see note 18
Accruals
Deferred income
Taxation and social security
Trade creditors
Other creditors		 4,732
3,991
2,041
1,884
1,463
1,256
-
7
223
194
109
182
12
18		 4,732
3,991
2,041
1,884
1,463
1,256
-
7
223
194
109
182
12
18
8,580
7,532		 8,580
7,532

18 Funds held as agent

Group and charity As at 1
January
2025
£’000
Receipts
£’000
Payments
£’000		 As at 31
December
2025
£’000
Payroll Bureau services
Group and charity
Prior period		 1,884
86,407
(86,250)		 2,041
1,884
86,407
(86,250)		 2,041
As at 1
January
2024
£’000
Receipts
£’000
Payments
£’000		 As at 31
December
2024
£’000
Payroll Bureau services 1,837
82,036
(81,989)		 1,884
1,837
82,036
(81,989)		 1,884

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19 Analysis of net assets by fund

----- Start of picture text -----
Group 31 December 2025 31 December 2024
Client/ Client/
Unrestricted Restricted Agency Total Unrestricted Restricted Agency Total
Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Tangible
assets - 2,888 - 2,888 2 2,911 - 2,913
Church and - - - -
33,541 33,541 39,579 39,579
charity loans
Donor
advised - 99,370 - 99,370 94,858 - 94,858
investments
Other - - -
26,752 26,752 1,953 17,494 19,447
investments
Money
market
deposits 9,871 45,977 6,773 62,621 7,740 40,591 5,875 54,206
and cash
balances
Debtors 1,711 21,139 - 22,850 1,377 2,226 - 3,603
Funds held - - - -
(2,041) (2,041) (1,884) (1,884)
as agent
Other
(1,138) (669) (4,732) (6,539) (1,118) (539) (3,991) (5,648)
creditors
- -
10,444 228,998 239,442 9,954 197,120 207,074
----- End of picture text -----

Other investments is net of unrealised losses of £343,000 (2024: £94,000).

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----- Start of picture text -----
Charity 31 December 2025 31 December 2024
Client/ Client/
Unrestricted Restricted Agency Total Unrestricted Restricted Agency Total
Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Tangible
assets - 2,888 - 2,888 2 2,911 - 2,913
Church and - - - -
33,541 33,541 39,579 39,579
charity loans
Donor
advised - 99,371 - 99,371 94,858 - 94,858
investments
Other - - -
26,742 26,742 1,955 17,256 19,211
investments
Money
market
deposits 9,861 45,986 6,773 62,620 7,502 40,829 5,875 54,206
and cash
balances
Debtors 1,711 21,139 - 22,850 1,377 2,226 - 3,603
Funds held - - - -
(2,041) (2,041) (1,884) (1,884)
as agent
Other
(1,138) (669) (4,732) (6,539) (1,118) (539) (3,991) (5,648)
creditors
- -
10,434 228,998 239,432 9,718 197,120 206,838
----- End of picture text -----

‘Other investments’ is net of unrealised losses of £353,000 (2024: £330,000).

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20 Analysis of funds

Group Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds Total
General Funds
£’000
Legacy Funds
£’000
Total Funds
£’000		 Total Funds
£’000		 £’000
Balance 1 January 2025
Income
Expenditure
Net investment gains
Transfers
Balance 31 December 2025		 4,645
5,309
9,954
10,828
37
10,865
(8,970)
(91)
(9,061)
283
32
315
(1,630)
1
(1,629)		 197,120
160,054
(135,416)
5,611
1,629		 207,074
170,919
(144,477)
5,926
-
5,156
5,288
10,444		 228,998 239,442
Charity Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds Total
General Funds
£’000
Legacy Funds
£’000
Total Funds
£’000		 Total Funds
£’000		 £’000
Balance 1 January 2025
Income
Expenditure
Net investment gains
Transfers
Balance 31 December 2025		 4,409
5,309
9,718
10,828
37
10,865
(8,744)
(91)
(8,835)
283
32
315
(1,630)
1
(1,629)		 197,120
160,054
(135,416)
5,611
1,629		 206,838
170,919
(144,251)
5,926
-
5,146
5,288
10,434		 228,998 239,432

Donor funds

Donors will at some future date express preferences as to how these funds may be granted out to specific recipient causes. Upon approval by Stewardship of the preferences, the grant payments will be made. Until this time, the funds are held as restricted within the group’s accounts.

Legacy funds

Legacy funds are held as a separate unrestricted reserve under the unfettered discretion of the trustees.

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Analysis of charitable funds – prior year

----- Start of picture text -----
Group Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds Total
General Revaluation Legacy Legacy Total Giving Revaluation Total
Funds Reserve Funds Revaluation Funds Accounts Reserve Funds
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Balance 1
January 3,559 610 4,492 600 9,261 171,159 10,917 182,076 191,337
2024
Income 9,519 - 43 - 9,562 110,004 - 110,004 119,566
- - -
Expenditure (7,521) (33) (7,554) (110,004) (110,004) (117,558)
Investments
(losses) / - 65 - 80 145 1,864 3,364 5,228 5,373
gains
Transfers of - - - - - -
(78) (78) (78)
group entity
Transfers (1,455) - 1 - (1,454) 1,454 - 1,454 -
Fixed asset - - - - - -
(661) (661) (661)
revaluation
Balance 31
December 4,102 14 4,503 680 9,299 174,399 14,281 188,680 197,979
2024
Charity Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds Total
General Revaluation Legacy Legacy Total Giving Revaluation Total
Funds Reserve Funds Revaluation Funds Accounts Reserve Funds
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Balance 1
January 3,349 610 4,492 600 9,051 170,830 10,917 181,747 190,798
2024
Income 9,422 - 43 - 9,465 110,137 - 110,137 119,602
- - -
Expenditure (7,451) (33) (7,484) (109,886) (109,886) (117,370)
Investments
(losses) / - 65 - 80 145 1,864 3,364 5,228 5,373
gains
Transfers (1,455) - 1 - (1,454) 1,454 - 1,454 -
Fixed asset - - - - - -
(661) (661) (661)
revaluation
Balance 31
December 3,865 14 4,503 680 9,062 174,399 14,281 188,680 197,742
2024
----- End of picture text -----

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21 Transfers between funds

21
Transfers between funds
Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds
2025
£’000
2024
£’000		 2025
£’000
2024
£’000
Investment income attributed to Donor Advised
Fund accounts
Donor Advisory Board support
Other		 (1,632)
(2,086)
44
39
(41)
(20)		 1,632
2,086
(44)
(39)
41
20
(1,629)
(2,067)		 1,629
2,067

22 Financial commitments

As at 31 December 2025, there were the following financial commitments:

Commitment
Funded from		 31 December 2025 31 December 2024
Due within
one year
£’000
Due after
one year
£’000
Total
£’000		 Due within
one year
£’000
Due after one
year
£’000
Total
£’000
Grants
Giving account
balances
Loan offers
Restricted cash
balances
Operating
Leases
Unrestricted cash
balances		 3,478
21,538
25,016		 6,697
3,721
10,418
2,569
-
2,569
6
-
6
864
-
864
11
45
56
4,353
21,583
25,936		 9,272
3,721
12,993

Grant commitments have increased to £25,539,000 (2024: £10,418,000). This is mainly attributable to grants intended to be made to a grant beneficiary in 2027 and 2029, following receipts of deferred consideration arising from the disposal of an interest in land by the charity during the year (see note 16).

23 Contingent liability

The charity has received a pre-action claim from a former donor on 22 June 2026. A claim has been issued but not yet served. The trustees are in discussion with legal advisers to assess the merits of the claim and at the date of approval of these financial statements, it is not possible to reliably estimate either the outcome or cost of this claim to the charity.

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24 Indemnity insurances

The group has taken out indemnity insurance cover for trustees. Premiums due for the policies during the period totalled £14,000 (2024: £13,000).

25 Taxation

The trustees consider that Stewardship meets the charity tests set out in Paragraph 1 Schedule 6 Finance Act 2010 and accordingly is potentially exempt from taxation in respect of income or capital gains within categories covered by Part 11 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 or Section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, to the extent that such income or gains are applied exclusively to charitable purposes. No tax charge arose in the period.

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ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Legal and administrative details

Registered office

1 Lamb’s Passage, London EC1Y 8AB

Operating name

The charity operates under the name of Stewardship

Auditors

Crowe U.K. LLP

55 Ludgate Hill, London EC4M 7JW

Investment managers

Barclays Bank plc 1 Churchill Place, London E14 5HP

Solicitors

Anthony Collins Solicitors LLP 134 Edmund Street, Birmingham B3 2ES

Bates Wells & Braithwaite London LLP 10 Queen Street Place, London EC4R 1BE

Edward Connor Solicitors 10 The Point, Market Harborough LE16 7QU

Fiscal Engineers Ltd 1A Tower Square, Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL

JP Morgan Private Bank 60 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0JP

Rathbones Investment Management Ltd Port of Liverpool Building, Pier Head, Liverpool L3 1NW

Resonance Impact Investment Ltd

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP 1 Embankment Place, London WC2N 6RH

The Great Barn, 5 Scarne Court, Hurdon Road, Launceston PL15 9LR

Trethowans LLP

London Road Office Park, London Road, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP1 3HP

Sarasin & Partners LLP

Juxton House, 100 St Paul’s Churchyard, London EC4M 8BU

Schroder & Co. Ltd

Principal bankers

Lloyds Bank plc

Black Horse House, Progression Centre, 42 Mark Road, Hemel Hempstead HP2 7DW

1 London Wall Place, London EC2Y 5AU

Tribe Impact Capital LLP, Jermyn Street, London SW1Y 6LX

Contact us

hello@stewardship.org.uk www.stewardship.org.uk

Registered charity number 234714

Stewardship is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated in the UK and registered in England and Wales. Its company number is 90305.

Apart from the photos used in the impact stories, all photos are of our staff, trustees and partners. The photography and design for this annual report was done in-house.

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®. Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS