WRAP attains charitable status four months early

The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has announced that it has registered as a charity following a successful application to the Charity Commission.


The Charity Commission has approved the organisation’s application to obtain charitable status, which was put forward earlier this year. The news comes earlier than expected, as WRAP predicted to hear about its application by the end of March 2015.

WRAP chief executive Liz Goodwin described the event as a “landmark moment”.

Goodwin added: “While much of WRAP’s work has always been charitable in nature, registering as a charity cements this philosophy by giving us more scope to explore new ways of working and develop new ideas. It also opens up opportunities to access new sources of funding through foundations and trusts.

“WRAP is valued for its role in bringing different groups together, to drive change, and I believe we are better able to play that role as a charity.”

She said that exploring new sources of funding from relevant trusts and foundations was “an important and logical step”.

Last summer, WRAP saw its central funding slashed by more than one-third as part of Defra’s response to the Government’s Spending Review. As a result grant funding from Defra for this financial year (2014/15) has been confirmed at £17.6m (2013/14: £25.7m) for WRAP. This is expected to reduce to £15.5m in the next financial year (2015/16).

Right direction 

Elsewhere, Goodwin said part of WRAP’s unique selling point is its “ability to bring together different groups, to drive change”.

She explained: “It’s what we have done and what will continue to do. Collaborations and partnerships are built on trust and transparency, and I believe we will be even better placed to do this as a charity.”

She said that WRAP was “moving in the right direction” and that the organisation had “many positive remarks” from its stakeholders about the application to the Charity Commission.

Goodwin added: “But our successful registration is just the start, we now need to continue doing what we do well, and adapt to new opportunities to make us even better. Only then can we truly maximise all that WRAP has to offer.”

Liz Gyekye

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