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Friends of the Earth Charitable Trust

What is Friends of the Earth Charitable Trust and what does it do to help protect the environment and tackle climate breakdown?
  Published:  24 Jul 2018    |      2 minute read

Our sister organisation Friends of the Earth Charitable Trust is a registered charity (No. 281681) that works to raise funds and provide grants to organisations whose activities further its charitable objectives. It is regulated by the Charity Commission and registered with Companies House.

Download the latest financial accounts for Friends of the Earth Charitable Trust.

Charitable objectives

  • The conservation, protection and sustainable use for the public benefit of the Earth’s natural environment, including bio-diversity, atmosphere, water, land and natural resources.
  • The advancement of education for the public benefit and, in particular, the advancement of education in ecology, natural history, resource conservation, sustainable development and environment studies.
  • The promotion of sustainable development for the benefit of the public by the preservation, conservation and the protection of the environment and the prudent use of natural resources; and conducting or commissioning research and publishing the results of such research. ‘Sustainable development’ means improving the quality of life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems and the natural environment.

Governance

The Board of Friends of the Earth Charitable Trust is:

Sian Ferguson, Chair

Sian Ferguson
Sian Ferguson

Sian Ferguson was appointed Chair of the Charitable Trust in 2023. Sian has worked the environmental sector for 30 years and for the last 10 within philanthropy as Trust Executive of the Aurora, JJ Charitable and Mark Leonard Trusts. She is a trustee at the Environmental Funders Network and a member of the advisory committee of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity.

Nicholas Eldred

Nicholas Eldred
Nicholas Eldred

Nicholas is an experienced solicitor and governance advisor who spent a significant amount of his career in-house, in both public and private sectors. He's been general counsel and secretary of O2uk, the BBC and Christie’s. More recently he's been running his own legal and governance consultancy providing consultant general counsel and/ or company secretary services to a number of different organisations. He advises on and project manages organisational governance change and acts as mentor to general counsel/ heads of legal/ company secretaries. He's also a trustee of The Conversation UK. Nicholas lives in St Albans and loves cycling.

Gillian Fawcett, Treasurer

Photo of Gillian Fawcett

Gillian is a public policy, strategy and finance consultant. During her career she has held the positions of: Head of International at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA); Head of Public Sector at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA); Senior Fellow at the Office for Public Management (OPM); Head of Policy at the Audit Commission; and Head of Finance at the Scrutiny Unit in the House of Commons.

Mel Oley

Mel Oley

Mel is Director of Fundraising and Communications at Freedom from Torture. During her career, she's held fundraising roles with Mental Health UK, ActionAid and Greenpeace. Mel has previously held a trustee role with Build Africa.

Contact

If you have any questions about Friends of the Earth Charitable Trust please contact us.