Overall GiG Score: 8 ?
Finance Score: -5
Governance Score: 6
Support Score: 7
  • Accounts overdue -5
  • Good trustee age range: +3
  • Gender balanced board: +3
  • Grant maker support: +7

FIRSTSITE LIMITED 

Provision of visual arts programme and activities
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • There have been no material income shortfalls in recent years
  • A significant proportion of recent income was derived from major grant makers including the Government and a Community Foundation
  • The Board appears to be well diversified in terms of age and gender

Financial issues to consider:

  • Latest accounts are overdue for filing
Established: 30 years

www.firstsite.uk.net

info@firstsite.uk

01206713711

Charity Commission for England and WalesCompanies House

Financial Data ?

Income & Spending ?
Sources of Income ?
Y/E Income
£k
Spending
£k
Surplus/
Deficit
Fundraising
Cost £k
Total
Funds £k
Unrestricted
Funds £k
Mths
Rsrvs
Staff Volun-
teers
31/03/22£2,835£2,450£384£326£1,016£7143.56453
31/03/21£1,895£1,631£263£150£632£4213.15914
31/03/20£2,057£2,010£47£273£369£870.55430
31/03/19£1,862£1,846£16£213£229£1160.84740
31/03/18£1,544£1,707£-163£187£261£1971.44161
31/03/17£1,587£1,830£-243£168£424£1591460
31/03/16£2,200£2,162£38£813£679£3321.8630
31/03/15*£2,116£1,906£210£575£629£1731.1150
31/03/14£1,790£2,141£-350£811£420£-105-0.6230
31/03/13£1,835£2,251£-416£743£770£1550.8290
31/03/12£1,456£1,940£-484£387£1,186£3722.3690
31/03/11£1,642£1,112£530£114£1,670£2532.7230
31/03/10£1,165£827£338£229£1,140£1812.6130
31/03/09£1,412£809£603£234£802£1672.5140
31/03/08£1,146£1,011£134£379£199£-13-0.2140
31/03/07£1,083£1,243£-160£477£65£140.1140
31/03/06*£740£706£34£0£0£0n/a00
31/03/05*£675£561£114£0£0£0n/a00
31/03/04£494£490£4£0£0£0n/a00

Financial Ratios
Fundraising Costs/Relevant Income: 14.8%
Fundraising Costs/Total Spending: 13.3%
Senior Staff Costs/Total Spending: 7%
Highest pay band: £70,000-£80,000
Liabilities/Assets: 19%
Liabilities/Income: 9%
Unrestricted Funds/Total Funds: 70%
Reserves/Spending: 3.5 months
Net Current Assets/Spending: 4 months
Quick Ratio: 2.9
Asset Split ?
What it does
  • Arts/Culture/Heritage/Science
Who works here?
  • 64 employees
  • 53 volunteers
Who it helps
  • The General Public/Mankind
How it operates
  • Other charitable activities
Where it operates
  • Essex,

Who's supporting them? ?

Donations from Grant Makers ?

We have details on the following significant donations. Multi-year donations are allocated to the years for which they are earmarked.

Major supporters in last 5 years
DCMS£2,385,666
Essex Community Foundation£179,083
Youth Music£30,000
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months
To be used for
Essex Community Foundation - Grant to Firstsite
£18,000 28/07/2022
towards the Sarah Lucas exhibition
Essex Community Foundation - Grant to Firstsite
£7,497 10/02/2022
to help run a holiday hunger club in the Easter 2022 school holidays for financially disadvantaged families in Colchester
Essex Community Foundation - Grant to Firstsite
£20,886 18/11/2021
towards a lighting renewal project to help reduce the carbon footprint of a gallery and community space in Colchester
Essex Community Foundation - Grant to Firstsite
£1,809 05/08/2021
To help families access the Holiday Hunger Programme in Harwich during the summer where transport is a barrier
Essex Community Foundation - Holiday Fun, The Collective, Monday Mates and Friday Friends
£19,612 21/12/2020
to run a holiday hunger and term-time activities for deprived families in Harwich and Colchester
Essex Community Foundation - Grant to Firstsite
£4,802 26/10/2020
For the Firstsite Gallery which improves the well-being and life-chances of local people through their engagement with arts and culture
Essex Community Foundation - Grant to Firstsite
£14,898 11/05/2020
to provide the location of the Colchester emergency response hub in partnership with Community 360 during COVID19
DCMS - Firstsite
£829,514 01/04/2020
We are the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Lets Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of ....more
DCMS - FirstSite - The Great Exhibition
£49,000 01/04/2020
We are the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Lets Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of ....more
DCMS - Firstsite CRF Fund COVID-19
£692,625 01/04/2020
To support Arts and Culture throughout England
Essex Community Foundation - Holiday Fun, The Collective, Monday Mates and Friday Friends
£40,000 31/01/2020
6
To run a holiday hunger and term-time activities for deprived families in Harwich and Colchester
Essex Community Foundation - Grant to Firstsite
£15,304 07/11/2019
Towards the Anthony Gormley Show at the Firstsite Autumn Exhibition
Youth Music - CLIP
£30,000 05/07/2019
CLIP
Essex Community Foundation - Firstsite Holiday Fun
£36,275 04/07/2019
38
Towards the operational costs of running a hunger project during the summer holidays for disadvantaged young people and families in Colchester
DCMS - Firstsite
£814,527 01/04/2019
£1.6bn invested in the key arts and culture infrastrucure organisations in England for a 4 year period
National Lottery Community Fund - Mother?s Project?Holiday Hunger
£10,000 31/01/2019
12
The organisation will use the funding to run a project of workshops and activities for mothers in poverty to help them overcome challenges and improve skills.
Garfield Weston Foundation - Main Grants award
£40,000 04/10/2018
Firstsite lighting upgrade to LED
Essex Community Foundation - Grant to Firstsite
£14,975 08/08/2018
£10,000 towards the Raqs Media Collective exhibition and £4,975 towards the presentation of the research material behind the making of Gillian Wearing statue of Millicent Fawcett for Parliament ....more
DCMS - Firstsite
£814,527 01/04/2018
To promote Arts & Culture throughout the UK
DCMS - Firstsite
£203,632 01/04/2018
To support Firstsite
Youth Music - CLIP
£17,684 09/03/2018
CLIP
Essex Community Foundation - Grant to Firstsite
£15,000 23/08/2017
To help finance the Grayson Perry exhibition of work from his 'House for Essex'
Essex Community Foundation - Grant to Firstsite
£9,148 24/10/2016
to support the Britishness Project which will work with children and young people to create artwork exploring issues of identity and Britishness for an exhibition at Firstsite.
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to firstsite
£100,000 12/06/2008
36
Towards Project costs Towards the costs of firstsite's Artist Space programme, a dedicated space to house interplay between artists and audience in the creative process. CHANGED IN 2013 TO: Towards ....more
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (9)
Current Trustees appointed
Gender Split

Age Range of Trustees: 29-67
  • TIM FIELD Appointed: 2018, Occupation: Lawyer
Legal constitution
  • Charitable company registered in England & Wales on 21/01/1994, number: 1031800
  • Registered at Companies House on 04/01/1994, number: 02884347
Gift Aid
  • Registered with HMRC for Gift Aid
Policies in force
  • Complaints handling
  • Conflicting interests
  • Investment
  • Paying staff
  • Risk management
  • Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
  • Volunteer management
Filing Record
19 returns made; AR15: 72 days late, AR06: 1 days late, AR05: 15 days late,
Main office

Firstsite
Lewis Gardens
COLCHESTER
CO1 1JH

Objectives

TO PROMOTE THE ARTS IN SOCIETY, IN PARTICULAR THE VISUAL AND MEDIA ARTS, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE INHABITANTS OF COLCHESTER AND THE SURROUNDING AREA IN PARTICULAR AND EAST ANGLIA IN GENERAL BY DEVELOPING PUBLIC APPRECIATION OF THE ARTS AND BY IMPROVING ACCESS TO, AND THE QUALITY OF THE ARTS. [VISUAL AND MEDIA ARTS SHALL BE DEFINED AS INCLUDING PAINTING, DRAWING, PHOTOGRAPHY, FILM VIDEO, SCULPTURE, THE CRAFTS OF POTTERY, WOODWORK, TEXTILES, PLASTIC, METAL WORK, PERFORMANCE AND CURRENT TECHNOLOGY FOR ARTS PURPOSES]

Defined Area of Benefit:

COLCHESTER AND THE SURROUNDING AREA IN PARTICULAR AND EAST A

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales
360 Giving
CharityBase
Authorised officials of this charity can add information to this page (including a Donate Now button) for no cost

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