How we spend your money

We matched our all-time planting record last year, easing 6.1 million native trees into the ground. More than a million were supplied for free to schools and community groups UK-wide. They were also delivered without plastic tubes for the first time, part of our ongoing campaign to plant more sustainably.

Meanwhile, our new wood at Frodsham in Cheshire was dug in entirely by schoolchildren and volunteers – 30,000 saplings in a single season.

Our longstanding mission to nurture degraded woodland back to health stepped up massively last year, as we trounced our target for woods either being actively restored or committed to restoration. The area recovered for nature by the year’s end was 1,044 hectares – over four times more than we achieved in 2021–22.

Our hardworking campaigns team is ever vigilant against threats to the UK’s ancient woodland, and they tackled around 200 cases last year. One battle focused on Kent, where 25,000 supporters backed our petition to save Oaken Wood, home to stag beetles, dormice, bluebells and nightjars. More than 70 football pitches’ worth of habitat will be decimated if a proposed quarry extension goes ahead there. The fight goes on.

This is the sum we spent in 2023–24 to enable us to raise our income and invest for future growth. For every pound spent on fundraising, we raised £5.40 in return, while 84p in every pound went directly to support our charitable objectives.