Posted on 9th January 2018
The Association of British Riding Schools (ABRS) is pleased to announce that it has been successful in applying for charitable status.
The application made to the Charity Commission by the ABRS executive board follows their review of the structure of the Association and coincides with the appointment of the Association’s first Chief Executive, David Pettifor in June last.
Many, including members, due to the nature of the Association’s work, had assumed that the ABRS was as a charity already, but the new status now represents a major development for the organisation, enabling it to enhance its benefits of membership.
Two routes were available to the ABRS in making the application, the more straight- forward involving incorporating a new company or, alternatively by demonstrating how the ABRS had evolved into a charity over time while retaining its original ethos. It was the latter route that the ABRS chose.
ABRS Chairman, Julian Marczak said, “In our 60th year what better way for the ABRS to celebrate than acquiring charitable status. Following a detailed consultation process, we decided that becoming a charity would bring about a number of clear advantages to the Association, including accessibility to otherwise unavailable funding to assist with our charitable work and this was clearly identified in the application process. In addition to the availability of Gift Aid our new charitable status will create accessibility to funding opportunities which would otherwise be unavailable and we welcome the change with great enthusiasm.
There has been much more to celebrate in the ABRS 60th anniversary including gaining access to the Register of Training Organisations, taking on the first ABRS Apprentices, continued success with the UKCC, a revival underway with the Association’s own qualifications and tests, new IT systems, better communications with members and more efficient ways of integrating with Scottish members”.
