![A lady in a harness and safety rope system climbing up a wall and smiling at the camera](https://calvertexmoor.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Rebecca-Limb-1.png)
Rebecca’s story
After a 9-month hospital admission, Rebecca was eager and ready to head to Calvert to make some unforgettable memories…
As a charity, our funding model relies on the incredibly generous contributions of trusts and foundations to continue providing the life-changing work we do...
We are Calvert Exmoor; a registered charity (registered with Fundraising Regulator and Chartered Institute for Fundraising) providing stimulating, exciting and accessible breaks and activities for children, adults, families and groups with disabilities. A Gold Standard AHEOC certified centre, we have been welcoming guests with physical, behavioural, sensory and learning disabilities since its establishment in 1996. We pride ourselves on providing a positive and safe environment in which guests can challenge themselves in numerous ways, primarily through taking part in an exclusive range of adventurous activities.
The Bednight Funding Gap is the funding gap between the tariff paid by the guest and the true cost to us as a centre per guest, per night. To keep stays affordable for our guests, this must be covered by our fundraising.
We can also ringfence these funds to particular groups of guests, so, whether your charitable aims encompass beneficiaries from particular counties, of certain ages or with specific disabilities (among other criteria), we can ensure these aims are met.
There is plenty of equipment required to keep our centre running smoothly. Your generous donation can be used to purchase the necessary kit for our guests. The equipment required varies, but some examples include:
Located on the edge of Exmoor, we are proud to maintain our estate of outstanding facilities for our guests.
Your donations and support enable us to maintain the highest quality and continue improving our facilities to do the best by our guests and the environment.
Grants towards this area could cover:
Bursaries enable us to make our breaks and visits even more affordable and ensure we are able to reach those who need our services most.
To meet your own charitable aims, we can ringfence our bursary donations to be allocated to specific bookings that contain people of particular criteria. This could include age, type of disability and the counties they are coming from to visit us, among others.
Read more about our bursary scheme here…
We were incredibly pleased to have the support of Pets Foundation, who funded the purchase of a new Bennington ‘Fun Bug’ Carriage.
This carriage was bought to replace the previous carriage and is purpose-built, so that the carriage is lighter, more manoeuvrable and more practical for riders and horses. It’s more open, with no sides, to avoid the rider feeling confined and they can see more around them.
Riders can sit in the seat or go on in a wheelchair, to sit aside the driver and maybe even take the reins!
This project is ongoing and is supported by a multitude of funders.
As a charity, we subsidise our rates to ensure our services are financially accessible. As you can imagine, this comes with a cost to us as a centre, which we call the Bednight Funding Gap. This is the gap between the amount guests contribute to their stay and the true cost to us as a centre. We must fundraise for this in order to ensure more guests are able to benefit from the Calvert Exmoor experience.
Funders across the UK have been kind enough to support this cause recently. Some have chosen to restrict this funding for guests from particular areas, or of particular ages or living with specific disabilities, in order to abide by their own charitable aims.
Recent successes include:
In the last year, we have managed to secure funding from a variety of sources for over £54,000 towards the revitalisation of our fleet of accessible bikes.
With regular use over many years, many within our fleet of accessible bikes were in need of replacing. From accessible e-trikes to front-loading bikes that allow a wheelchair to be secured at the front and with even more bikes on the way, we are incredibly excited to be able to offer this incredibly popular sport to even more of our guests with varying needs.
In spring 2024 we delivered a pilot grant-funded breaks project working with schools that specialise in teaching young people categorised as SEND, typically located in areas of high economic deprivation surrounding the centre. Over 150 children have benefitted from this project so far this year and we are excited to continue this scheme with support from another grant funder this autumn.
With a centre built around a Grade II listed farmstead, much of our historical artifacts include original mechanisms for a waterwheel, which can be seen in our barn.
Due to age and natural degradation over almost three decades, a listed door that protects the waterwheel was in need of replacement and is temporarily boarded up, as seen in the picture.
A generous funder has awarded a grant to replace this waterwheel door and we are eagerly awaiting its arrival, any day now!
Our Bursary Scheme has multiple funders. Having awarded £36,000 in bursaries last year, we are aiming to award even more this year.
An incredibly generous funder recently donated a large sum to our Bursary Scheme specifically to be used for those under the age of 18, which, with our recent influx of school visits, has meant more children from these schools have been able to benefit from the Calvert Exmoor experience!
With frequent use over the years, many canoes within our fleet have been in need of refurbishment or replacement. This last year, we were grateful to receive funding that ensured the purchase of two new Enigma Canoes.
We are still in need of two more of these canoes to complete our fleet.
As you can imagine, the frequent use of our safety equipment on our rope-based activities like abseiling, climbing and crate stacking, involves frequent replacements or maintenance. While we have a budget for general maintenance, the cost of replacing many of our equipment items would exceed this, so we also raise money for this as a project.
We were very grateful to receive a donation that saw the purchase of some new Figure 8 metalwork devices, which are used for descending smoothly in abseiling.
In our Equestrian Centre, our ceiling-track hoist was nearing its decommission date. With a generous grant award from Morrisons Foundation, we were able to have this replaced with a more modern version of the hoist. The new hoist (pictured) is now in use and is making things much easier for both our staff and those who need extra support with mounting a horse.
From farrier visits, vet bills and stables maintenance to staff time and field maintenance, each of our twelve horses are estimated to cost the centre £8,000 a year. With that in mind, many funders who prefer to support equine-related causes choose to donate core funding that is ringfenced for use by the Equestrian Centre.
We have multiple funders supporting our Equestrian Centre, from funding staff training and apprenticeship schemes to core costs associated with running the centre.
For example, a kind funder has recently agreed to fund the cost of vital work to fencing around one of our horse fields. This is greatly appreciated, as it not only affects the wellbeing of our horses, but, by doing so, affects the experience of our guests. This was not an expense that we, as a charity, were able to pay and we are incredibly grateful for the foundation’s award.
We can’t wait to see the impact of Toyota Community Fund’s grant on the renovation of our sensory room. With their generous help and that of our wonderful volunteers, we are currently renovating the space and, by doing so, we will be opening it up to the local community for hire by the hour. This will not only benefit more people but also strengthen our connection with the local community.
From apprenticeship schemes to staff qualifications, we often receive grant funding towards the all-important development of our incredible staff.
Some examples of funding towards this cause:
In the financial year ending November 2023, we had fundraised a total of approximately £200,000
This financial year, we are well on the way to achieving our £390,000 target before the financial year end in November 2024
According to Sport England, as many as 1 in 5 people have a long-standing limiting disability or illness…
Sport England
Activity Alliance's Annual Disability and Activity Survey 2022-2023 found that 4 out of 5 disabled people wanted to become more active…
Activity Alliance
Activity Alliance found that 42% of people with disabilities in the UK perceived a lack of accessible facilities as a barrier to participating in physical activity.
Activity Alliance
This isolation can be experienced in various forms: social, financial, physical and emotional…
Forgotten Families Isolation Report 2021
In 2023, 98% of guests said the facilities and their accommodation was suitable, comfortable and clean
97% of guests stated their activity programme was well adapted and high quality in 2023
When asked about centre facilities, 95% of guests in 2023 said that they were well maintained
When asked if their personal aims and goals of their visit were met, 99% of 2023 guests answered yes
Previous holidays have excluded Luke from activities because he is a wheelchair user. It was very special to see Luke glowing with pride and delight after trying things for the very first timeLuke's Mum, a bursary recipient
We’d love to hear from you. You can either call or email us.
Call 01598 763221 and select option 3
Email us at fundraising@calvert-trust.org.uk
Please note: Our fundraising team work Monday to Friday between 09:00 and 17:00.
We offer a range of opportunities for funders:
Our annual accounts can be found on our Charities Commission page here.
Our financial year runs from 1st December to 30th November.
By BACS:
Payee/Account name:
‘Exmoor Calvert Trust’
Sort Code: 60-02-03
Account number: 23840528
By cheque:
Account name: Exmoor Calvert Trust
Send to:
Calvert Exmoor
Wistlandpound
Kentisbury, Barnstaple
Devon
EX31 4SJ
We will acknowledge as soon as funds are safely received. Thank you.
We have a range of company policies and can confirm that we have these in place:
To download these policies, please scroll down to the red box.
Of course. Click here to read more about our awards, partnerships or accreditations.
After a 9-month hospital admission, Rebecca was eager and ready to head to Calvert to make some unforgettable memories…
“It’s as though the world has opened up that bit more and got that little bit bigger!” – heartwarming family story at Calvert Exmoor.
On his first of several trips to Calvert Exmoor, Tom overcame his nerves to try new activities alongside enjoying some activities he knows and loves.
Where every break and every activity is suitable for every person every time
Read about the history of Calvert Exmoor and its origins within The Calvert Trust…
Explore Calvert Exmoor’s exceptional facilities, including accessible accommodations, adventure activities and specialised equipment for those with disabilities. Read more…