It has been an exciting year for the FBA with new projects, new partners and new team members joining us to help increase the positive impact we can bring to our precious freshwater environments.

This report summarises another strong year of performance and impact across our strategic priorities of freshwater science, advocacy and learning, and organisational resilience. In this summary report, you will see how FBA’s action-focused science is playing its part helping to address the consequences of the biodiversity and climate emergencies. We may be small, but we punch above our weight!

For many charitable trusts, 2024 continued to be a challenging year, mitigating the impacts of the ‘funding double whammy’ of increased competition for funding and rising operational overheads, driven by the cost-of-living crisis. Therefore, I am particularly pleased to report that for the second financial year in a row we have achieved an operational and overall financial surplus. This has been achieved by growing and diversifying our income, whilst maintaining a firm hand on the expenditure tiller.

However, a financial surplus only tells half of the story of how well a charity is performing. We must deliver our mission to understand and protect freshwater environments and be advocates for one of the most vulnerable ecosystems on the planet.

Our impact is only possible because of the support and friendship of our donors, partners, the communities where we work and, above all, through the efforts of our dedicated, passionate and determined staff, board, fellows and members.