Strategic rural advice for charities
Helping The Donkey Sanctuary make the most of its assets while improving the lives of mules and donkeys
2 minutes to read
The Donkey Sanctuary was founded in 1969 by Dr Elisabeth Svendsen MBE and became a registered charity in 1973. The charity’s work improves the lives of donkeys and mules in countries around the world through a combination of international branches, subsidiary entities, holding bases and collaborations with other like-minded organisations. In the UK, the charity operates from eight farms that are currently home to about 3,000 donkeys and mules.
As part of a wider assessment of its approach to donkey management, the charity asked Knight Frank to conduct a land-use review of its UK sites. The purpose was to study the way The Donkey Sanctuary uses the land across its farms, map current usage, identify ways of maximising the amount of land available for grazing and review the amount of land being used for haylage production and other nongrazing purposes.
Although net zero and other environmental issues could be examined, the long-term welfare and wellbeing of the donkeys and mules was the principal objective. Summer housing development was identified as a key growth area which will allow the land to be maximised for the benefit of the donkeys.
John Williams of Knight Frank’s Rural Consultancy South Western team oversaw the review. “We identified that the farms were an extremely valuable asset for The Donkey Sanctuary,” he says. “Even though, in large part down to their work, the number of mistreated donkeys needing a home in the UK is falling gradually, we identified that the current portfolio gave contingency to the current pressures and considerable scope for future land diversification to meet the charity’s other strategic aims whilst protecting core objectives, particularly around ESG.
“With the suggested introduction of a collaborative portfolio-led management strategy we concluded that a growing focus on environmental support and corporate social responsibility offered a number of exciting opportunities. This will allow supplementary land uses that will benefit not only the donkeys but the wider landscape, habitat creation, biodiversity and the environment overall.”
Kevin Nacey, The Donkey Sanctuary’s Director of Resources, found the review particularly helpful. “It is always good to seek out professional insights and keep up to date with best practice,” he says. “We were confident we were doing most things right and looking after our land assets pretty well, but it was great to get confirmation of that as well as hints and tips to make further improvements.
“The Knight Frank team suggested the development of a land strategy based on our primary objective and using our strengths, including our passion for the donkeys. From time to time it is really important to check we are spending our funds wisely and this work provided us with this reassurance which is really important to us. As a bonus, their additional recommendations made a lot of sense. We are now in the process of incorporating this into our asset management plans.”
To find out more about the team and how they can support your business, please visit Knightfrank.co.uk/rural