Motability Foundation uses income from the Motability Endowment Trust (MET) and donations from Motability Operations to fund our work.
We do not seek donations from members of the public or corporations.
Our funding strategy is designed to provide long-term financial stability, so that we can provide support for disabled people over many years.
In the last financial year, we provided:
- £59.3m grants to 10,473 Motability Scheme customers to support them to access and use the Scheme.
- £5.85m access to mobility grants for 3,541 people, including some Scheme customers.
- £14.7m grants to 31 other charities and organisations, supporting 45,147 people to travel over the grant period.
- £2m grants to 23 organisations for innovation
We regularly review all our grant programmes and how effective they are, always focused on delivering as much impact as possible.
We may change our mix of grant programmes or the amount of funding we provide from year to year. This means we can respond to external factors, and make sure that we have funds to provide grants sustainably now and in the future.
As Motability Foundation does not have guaranteed levels of annual income, we plan our expenditure to ensure we can continue providing grants for several years, even if income levels are low.
In 2024/25 our income sources were:
- £52.4m from our investments
- £0.5m from other income sources
We have exclusively contracted Motability Operations, a separate company, to deliver the Motability Scheme with our oversight. Each year, they price their leases to make a small profit (1.5%) to sustain the long-term future of the Scheme. The profit is needed to help fund the year-on-year growth in the Scheme and protect the Scheme against an unexpected market downturn. Profit is made when the costs of providing the Scheme’s vehicles are less than the income from customers and the residual value of cars when sold at the end of leases.
Motability Operations does not pay shareholder dividends. Instead, any surplus profit is invested back into disabled people’s mobility, whether this is through sustaining the Scheme, investing in the move to electric vehicles (EVs), support for Scheme customers or making a donation to the Motability Foundation.
Like other car leasing companies, Motability Operations’ profitability is unpredictable. Motability Operations regularly revalues its fleet to assess that vehicles accurately reflect their fair value. Any gains or losses that come out of the revaluation exercise impact profitability. This only turns into cash profits when the cars are sold at the end of a customer’s lease.
If a cash profit is made by re-selling Scheme vehicles, as in recent years due to the high value of used cars, then Motability Operations can make donations to the Motability Foundation.
However, available profit can change and donations are not guaranteed.
In 2019 some of our previous donations were used to create an endowment fund called the Motability Endowment Trust (MET).
MET invests money donated to the Motability Foundation. The investments create a steady income, which the Motability Foundation uses to help fund its work. It provides the long-term financial certainty needed to sustain our support for disabled people over many years.
Motability Foundation’s tax strategy is designed to comply with all relevant tax legislation such that we pay the right tax in the right place at the right time. Visit our tax strategy page to find out more.