The Noel Sweeney Foundation
Charity 1194201
Overview
Summary
The Noel Sweeney Foundation currently appears to be a highly flexible charitable funding vehicle rather than a service-delivery organisation. Its role is defined less by a specific issue, geography or programme than by trustees’ discretion to direct trust income and capital towards charitable purposes. Although it identifies children and young people, older people and disabled people as beneficiary groups, the available evidence does not show how these priorities shape actual grants, partnerships or place-based relationships.
Operational geography
Evidence and reasoning
Supporting evidence
Bournbrook and Selly Park
Confidence: low
Direct evidence shows a Foundation partnership with Sense to create an accessible sensory garden at Sense TouchBase Pears in Selly Oak. The Foundation states that Tara Group leaders participated in on-site construction work. However, the evidence does not establish the ward in which this activity took place.
- The Noel Sweeney Foundation — Sense impact page
States that the Foundation partnered with Sense in August 2023 to create an accessible sensory garden in Birmingham, and that Tara Group leaders joined a construction taskforce at the Selly Oak site. - Sense — TouchBase Pears sensory garden page
Identifies the sensory garden as part of Sense TouchBase Pears in Selly Oak, Birmingham.
City Centre
Confidence: high
Direct evidence shows continuing financial and volunteering support for Birmingham Children's Hospital, including participation in its 2026/2027 project selection process and regular hospital volunteering. The hospital's Emergency Department is identified by the NHS as being in Birmingham City Centre.
- The Noel Sweeney Foundation — Birmingham Children's Hospital impact page
Reports fundraising, volunteering on hospital wards, Associate membership of the Changemakers Programme, and involvement in the hospital's 2026/2027 project selection process. - University Hospitals Birmingham — alternatives to Emergency Department page
States that Birmingham Children's Hospital's Emergency Department is in Birmingham City Centre.
Remaining uncertainties
- The Foundation has no Birmingham office or owned or leased property evidenced in the Charity Commission record; its stated head office is in Chasetown, Staffordshire. The Birmingham locations identified are therefore delivery and partnership locations, not Foundation premises.
- The Foundation identifies Birmingham as one of the places where Tara Group is currently building and therefore a funding priority, but does not publish the specific Birmingham development sites or wards concerned.
- The Charity Commission records Birmingham City and Staffordshire as the charity's operating areas, while the Foundation's current website also describes potential and actual activity across the Midlands, including Wolverhampton, Coventry and Nottingham. This supports a regional overall footprint, but the full current distribution of grants is not publicly itemised.
- Evidence supports activity at the named Selly Oak and City Centre partner sites, but does not demonstrate that the Foundation directly delivers services across every Birmingham ward or citywide.
Additional evidence needed
- A current grant or impact report listing funded Birmingham organisations, project areas and dates of support.
- A current list of Tara Group's Birmingham construction sites, with confirmation of which sites generate Foundation community investment.
- Confirmation from the Foundation of whether its Birmingham Children's Hospital and Sense relationships remain active beyond the activities described on its website.
Areas of work
- General Charitable Purposes
Who they help
- Children/young People
- Elderly/old People
- People With Disabilities
How they help
- Makes Grants To Individuals
- Makes Grants To Organisations
- Provides Other Finance
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
A discretionary funding vehicle
The Foundation appears designed to distribute resources flexibly, with trustees able to determine both the charitable purposes supported and the timing and manner of support.
Why it matters
This suggests its potential role may be responsive and opportunistic rather than tied to a fixed programme. Understanding trustee decision-making would therefore be more informative than categorising it by a single cause area.
Show evidence
“The trustees may apply income and all or part of the capital at such times and in such manner as they think fit.”
Source:Charity Commission“The charity makes grants to individuals and organisations and provides other finance.”
Source:Charity Commission
Broad charitable scope may outweigh stated beneficiary categories
The listed beneficiary groups may indicate areas of interest, but the governing object permits support for exclusively charitable purposes generally, so they may not be exclusive priorities.
Why it matters
This distinction affects how other organisations interpret the Foundation’s relevance: it may have wider potential as a funder than its beneficiary labels initially suggest.
Show evidence
“The charity helps children and young people, elderly or old people, and people with disabilities.”
Source:Charity Commission“The trustees may support such exclusively charitable objects and purposes as they think fit.”
Source:Charity Commission
Its civic relationships are currently invisible
The available evidence identifies financial support as the Foundation’s main mechanism but provides no named recipients, locations, themes or collaborators. Its practical influence may therefore be greater than currently visible.
Why it matters
For a Civic Atlas, grant recipients and repeat funding relationships would reveal where the Foundation is connected, which needs it strengthens and whether it fills gaps or reinforces existing networks.
Show evidence
“The charity's activities are to apply the income and all or part of the capital for exclusively charitable objects and purposes.”
Source:Charity Commission“The charity does general charitable purposes.”
Source:Charity Commission
- Which causes, places and communities have actually received funding.
- Whether the named beneficiary groups are active priorities or broad eligibility categories.
- How trustees select recipients and whether grants are recurring, reactive or strategic.
Remaining uncertainties
- Recent grant lists, amounts, recipients and geographic coverage.
- Trustee reports or accounts explaining grant-making priorities and decision criteria.
- Evidence of partnerships, repeat recipients and outcomes from funded work.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
The principal activities are to hold the capital and income of the trust fund upon trust to apply the income, and all such part(s) of the capital for the benefit of such exclusively charitable objects and purposes as the Trustees may in their discretion think fit.
Charity objects
THE TRUSTEES SHALL HOLD THE CAPITAL AND INCOME OF THE TRUST FUND UPON TRUST TO APPLY THE INCOME, AND ALL OR SUCH PART OR PARTS OF THE CAPITAL, AT SUCH TIME OR TIMES AND IN SUCH MANNER TO, OR FOR THE BENEFIT OF, SUCH EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE OBJECTS AND PURPOSES IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD AS THE TRUSTEES MAY IN THEIR DISCRETION THINK FIT.