Charities

The National Garden Scheme gives visitors unique access to over 3,300 exceptional private gardens in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, and raises impressive amounts of money for some of the UK's best-loved nursing and health charities through admissions, teas and cake. Thanks to the generosity of garden owners, volunteers and visitors we have donated more than £74 million to our beneficiary charities, and in 2024 made donations of over £3.5 million. Founded in 1927 to support district nurses, we are now the most significant charitable funder of nursing in the UK and our beneficiaries include Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK, Parkinson’ UK, Carers Trust and The Queen’s Institute for Community Nursing. The National Garden Scheme doesn’t just open beautiful gardens for charity – we are passionate about the physical and mental health benefits of gardens too. We fund Community Gardens and projects that promote gardens and gardening as therapy, and in 2017, we launched our annual Gardens and Health Week to raise awareness of the topic in May each year. Our funding also supports the training of gardeners and offers respite to horticultural workers who have fallen on difficult times.

The National Gulf Veterans and Families Association (NGVFA) was established as a registered charity in March 1999. After returning from Gulf War 1 (90-91), service personnel developed illnesses and could not understand why. Many told their stories in local and national newspapers, and began to realise how wide-spread and common the problems were amongst Gulf Veterans. Responding to this need the NGVFA was established and set up to run from its base in Kingston Upon Hull. Over subsequent years, as further desert conflicts took place the availability and scope of the charities' services expanded to cover Veterans of Gulf 2 (Iraq 03-09) and Afghanistan (01-14). A Board of Trustees, which includes Veterans, help ensure that Veterans of desert conflicts and their families, partners and carers are at the heart of all we do. Day to day management and administration is undertaken by a small team of staff and a small number of dedicated volunteers. Thousands of service personnel were deployed in both the Gulf Conflicts with many more in the current ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. Many returning home develop health or social problems, requiring support from the NGVFA.