Our structure and business plan
The Vegetarian Society has been a charity since 1969 (charity number 259358) and was, at the same time, set up as a company limited by guarantee (limited company no 959115, England and Wales). The charity is governed by trustees who are either elected by the membership, or co-opted to meet a specific need of the charity. As the Directors of the charity, and ultimately responsible for its governance, the Trustees make up the Council and meet quarterly. If you've been a member of the Vegetarian Society for over a year you may be interested in standing as a Trustee. Full membership of the Vegetarian Society imparts democratic rights.
There are currently 33 paid staff, either full or part-time, running the day-to-day activities of the charity. Staff are managed by the Chief Executive, who oversees the work in the office, and works closely with the management team and Council to ensure effective use of the charity’s resources.
We also rely on dedicated volunteers and local groups and information centres to support our work and to spread the word about vegetarianism.
Our work is paid for through three main channels of income: from individuals (membership, donations, legacies and associated gift aid tax relief); from selling our products and services (Cordon Vert courses, advertising, sponsorship and licensing our ‘Vegetarian Society Approved’ symbol); and from investments and other sources.
The Vegetarian Society has a 5 year strategy and is developing a medium term business plan. The strategy sets out our overall purpose and direction and the business plan describes our priorities in more detail along with the outcomes we aim to achieve. We review both documents on an annual basis so if you have any comments please contact our Chief Executive, CEO@vegsoc.org
If you want more information about what we did last year, how much it cost and how we paid for it, please have a look at our Annual Report and Financial Statements. Further statutory and financial information is available on the Charity Commission website.