Trustees' annual report examples (SORP 2026)

The Trustees’ Annual Report turns your charity’s numbers into a story a reader can follow: what you set out to do, what you achieved, how you spent the money, and how the charity is run. What it must contain scales with size, so this page works through two complete, annotated examples — a small charity on receipts and payments accounts and a larger charity following the Charities SORP 2026 — showing what each section needs and why. Both are illustrative and fictional.

The Charities SORP 2026, which applies to accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026, refreshes the Trustees’ Annual Report with dedicated sections on reserves, future plans, impact, and environmental, social and governance matters. (Source: GOV.UK, 31 October 2025.) That refresh applies to charities preparing accruals accounts; smaller charities on receipts and payments accounts still prepare a report, but a simpler one.

How to read these examples

Both reports cover the same core ground — who the charity is, its purposes, what it did, what it achieved, its finances and reserves, and its plans — but the larger charity’s report goes into more depth and adds the sections the SORP requires. Read the small example first for the essentials every charity needs, then the larger one for what changes as a charity grows and follows the SORP. The call-outs marked “Why this works” point out the parts charities most often get wrong.

Illustrative example 1: Oakvale Befriending — a small charity on receipts and payments accounts (~£50,000 income)

Oakvale Befriending is a fictional small charity that reduces loneliness among older people in one town. Preparing receipts and payments accounts, its report is short — a few pages — but still covers its purposes and public benefit, what it did and achieved, a simple financial review with a reserves policy, and its plans. Section by section, it looks like this.

Reference and administrative details

Oakvale Befriending, registered charity number 11XXXXX, is an unincorporated charitable association established in 2016. Trustees serving during the year: [list]. Principal address and bank details: [given]. The charity prepares receipts and payments accounts.

Structure, governance and management

The charity is governed by a constitution adopted in 2016 and run by a board of five trustees, recruited for local knowledge and relevant skills and appointed at the annual general meeting for three-year terms. The board met four times during the year, and day-to-day work is coordinated by a part-time coordinator.

Objectives, activities and public benefit

The charity’s purpose is to relieve the loneliness and isolation of older people in Oakvale. During the year it provided weekly volunteer befriending, a daily telephone befriending line, and a monthly social group. In deciding these activities, the trustees have had regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.

Achievements and performance

During the year the charity befriended 60 older people, delivered around 3,000 befriending contacts, and trained 25 volunteers. A short wellbeing survey completed at the start and after six months suggested that most people befriended felt less lonely, and several returned to activities they had stopped attending. The trustees are aware the survey reached only those still receiving befriending, and plan to improve how outcomes are captured.

Financial review and reserves

Total receipts for the year were £48,200 and total payments £46,900, leaving a small surplus. The trustees have adopted a reserves policy of holding between three and six months’ running costs, equal to roughly £12,000 to £24,000; free reserves at the year-end were £18,000, within that range. The trustees consider the charity’s finances stable but reliant on a small number of local grants.

Plans for the future

In the coming year the charity plans to recruit ten more volunteers, extend the telephone befriending line, and improve how it measures the difference it makes.

Illustrative example 2: Brightway Futures — a charity following the Charities SORP 2026 (~£520,000 income)

Brightway Futures is a fictional medium-sized charity that helps young adults into work. Preparing accruals accounts under the Charities SORP 2026, its report is fuller: it covers the same core ground as the small example but in more depth, and adds a risk statement, a dedicated impact section, and a section on environmental, social and governance matters. The key sections look like this.

Reference and administrative details

Brightway Futures is a charitable company limited by guarantee (company number 0XXXXXXX, charity number 11XXXXX), established in 2011. It prepares accruals accounts in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102). Trustees, who are also the company’s directors, serving during the year: [list]. Registered office, bankers, auditor and key management: [given].

Structure, governance, management and risk

The charity is governed by its articles of association and run by a board of nine trustees, recruited against a skills matrix and serving three-year terms, supported by finance and safeguarding sub-committees. The trustees have reviewed the principal risks and uncertainties facing the charity — chiefly reliance on a small number of large funders and the local labour market — and are satisfied that systems are in place to monitor and manage them.

Objectives, activities and public benefit

The charity exists to help young adults aged 18 to 25 who are not in education, employment or training move towards lasting work, through employability training, supported work placements, mentoring and wraparound support. The trustees confirm they have had regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit in setting the charity’s aims and activities.

Achievements, performance and impact

During the year the charity supported 200 young people, of whom 150 completed the 12-week programme and 120 took up work placements. Using a distance-travelled tool at the start and end of the programme, participants showed clear gains in confidence and employability skills; of those who completed, 62% were in work, education or training three months later, and 48% were still in work at six months. One participant’s story is set out below. The trustees note that they lost contact with some participants after the programme and are working to improve follow-up.

Financial review and reserves

Total income was £521,000 (£300,000 in grants, £180,000 from a local-authority contract, and £41,000 in donations and other income) and total expenditure £508,000. Of the income, £360,000 was restricted to particular projects and £161,000 unrestricted. The trustees’ reserves policy is to hold three months’ unrestricted running costs, around £95,000; free reserves at the year-end were £102,000, slightly above target, and the trustees explain that the excess is earmarked towards a planned new service.

Environmental, social and governance matters

The charity reports briefly on its environmental, social and governance work: it has reduced office energy use and moved to a green energy supplier, pays all staff at least the real Living Wage, and strengthened its board’s diversity and its safeguarding governance during the year.

Plans for the future

In the coming year the charity plans to grow the programme to support 250 young people, add two employer partners, and pilot a follow-on mentoring service to improve how many participants stay in work.

What every Trustees’ Annual Report must include

Whatever its size, every charity’s report should cover the same essentials: reference and administrative details; structure, governance and management; objectives and activities with a public benefit statement; achievements and performance; a financial review including the reserves policy and level; and plans for the future. Charities preparing accruals accounts under the SORP add more detail and, under SORP 2026, dedicated impact and ESG sections, plus a risk statement where required.

The filing rules follow income. A charity with gross income over £25,000 must file its report and accounts with the Charity Commission within 10 months of its financial year-end; a charity with income of £25,000 or less must still prepare a report but does not have to file it. Charities preparing receipts and payments accounts (currently available to non-company charities with income of £250,000 or less) write the shorter report shown in the first example; those preparing accruals accounts write the fuller, SORP-compliant report shown in the second. The reporting and filing rules are covered in full in the UK Charity Compliance Handbook.

How to write yours

Start from the required sections above, write plainly, and treat the report as your annual case to funders and the public rather than a compliance chore — it is read by people deciding whether to trust and support you. Show outcomes, not just activity; state your reserves policy and explain it; and include the public benefit statement. Use the Trustees’ Annual Report template to structure your own, and see the underlying rules in the Trustees’ Annual Report, Charities SORP, public benefit and free reserves glossary entries. To make the achievements section stronger, see the theory of change worked examples and the Impact Measurement Handbook.

Last reviewed: July 2026 · Reviewed by Ivan Siyanko. Both examples are illustrative and fictional; figures are invented and not benchmarks.