Greener Henley becomes a Charity!

Greener Henley becomes a Charity!

By Kate Oldridge

We have momentous news for Greener Henley.  Following approval at our AGM on 2nd December to apply for charity status, we submitted our application with the Charity Commission on 17th December, and, having anticipated the process to take anywhere between 3 and 6 months, we were delighted when we were awarded charity status within 3 days! 

The charitable purposes are in summary, to:

  1. To conserve, protect and improve the natural environment by promoting biodiversity and the careful use of natural resources within Henley and the surrounding area.
  2. To educate and raise awareness of the public in Henley and the surrounding area in subjects related to the climate and nature emergency.

I can confirm that we will still, within the rules of the Charity Commission, be able to carry out campaigning (for example supporting the Climate and Nature Bill, or supporting a law to ban harmful chemicals), if that activity is carried out in the context of supporting the delivery of our charitable purposes.  This is very important to us and we were very careful to be clear about this in our application. 

We have a cracking board of trustees:

  • Mike Barry, former Sustainability Director M&S
  • Giles Trendle, former MD Al Jazeera English, Co-Chair Covering Climate Now
  • Ian Gethin, finance and charity expert, experienced non-executive director
  • Kate Miller, Chief Communications Officer England and Wales Cricket Board (to be appointed on 27th January)
  • Harriet Barcella, Life and Mindset Coach, Host of Henley Female Network (to be appointed on 27th January)
  • Richard Winder, Head of Sustainability, Handelsbanken UK (to be appointed on 27th January)

Our charity status enables us to massively expand our reach, by increasing our ability to fundraise and attract volunteers across the organisation.  It enhances our reputation and credibility as an organisation, signalling transparency, accountability and financial scrutiny, which attracts more supporters, volunteers and donors.  

We are currently laying the foundations to ensure that Greener Henley is in the strongest position possible as we look forward to 2030. We have much work to do and can only do this by scaling up our impact to help Henley thrive, build resilience and inspire other communities.  Achieving charity status is the first, major hurdle on this journey  We are now working on fundraising and finalising our strategy, and we will be holding a strategy launch event in the Spring – watch this space!

Kate Oldridge