Yes, that’s right, despite being 38 years old we are now officially a new charity, having changed structure from a Charitable Trust to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) from the beginning of this month. From the outside you would be hard pushed to notice any changes though.
As announced in our Summer 2026 Newsletter (downloadable from the News page) we have been undergoing a lengthy process to improve the governance of our charity by moving to a CIO, which is a structure more suited to a charity of our size.
That does mean we have a new charity number (1216065), and a new entry on the charity Commission website, plus our official name is now simply ‘The Gatehouse’, which is what everybody has already been calling us for years anyway, rather than the previous rather lengthy version.
That does affect some aspects of donations including Gifts in Wills and Gift Aid Forms – see our website Gifts in Wills and Donate Money pages, although our bank account number and sort code remain the same.
Our staff and volunteers will also remain the same, our policies, systems, website and social media likewise, and we’ll continue to provide the same range of essential services and activities in the same place and at the same times. So, all change, but in practice no change, just the same old Gatehouse that you know, and (hopefully) love.
