We’re looking for passionate, skilled individuals to join our Board of Trustees and help shape the future of animal welfare and human well-being at Hugs, which will celebrate 10 years in 2027. Our Trustees and Senior Leadership Team are on the start line of preparing a new Strategic Plan. This means you will help guide our next phase of growth and delivery.

We’re particularly looking for people with experience in Equine Welfare, Finance, Legal, HR or Fundraising who can share their knowledge, offer strategic guidance and help us continue transforming lives through the power of rescued animals, nature and compassionate support. In return, you’ll become part of an incredible team making a real difference to both animals and people. It’s a voluntary role, but one that can be incredibly rewarding! 🥰

Ideally new Trustees will be able to fulfil at least some of the following qualities:

✅ Essential

Above all, be committed and enthusiastic individuals, willing to support our ways of working through our charity values of Kindness, Dignity and Respect.

To have a good all round business acumen from their career experience.

To be committed to excellence in Charity Governance and have competent understanding of the Duties of a Trustee. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-essential-trustee-what-you-need-to-know-what-you-need-to-do-cc3/the-essential-trustee-what-you-need-to-know-what-you-need-to-do

Be willing to bring fresh perspectives to the Board, challenge constructively and kindly and decide diligently.

Be willing to assist in identifying new funding opportunities, developing partnerships, raising the profile of the charity and helping to support the charity’s strategic ambitions.

Have experience in an area of either Equine Welfare, Legal, Finance, HR or Fundraising.

💚 Desirable

To have previous/recent trustee experience with 3 years’ service or more, although Hugs will provide/arrange full training for Trustees who are new to this role.

To have familiarity with the Charities SORP.

Where necessary, be willing to learn aspects of safeguarding such that trustees have oversight of services which are safe, trauma-informed and person-centred.

If you’re ready to give back and bring your skills to a cause that matters, we’d love to hear from you!

📩 Please send your CV with a covering letter to tell us why you’d like to join our Board and the skills or experience you can bring to trustees@hugsfoundation.org.uk 🙌. The closing date for applications is 30th November 2026 but the post may close sooner if a suitable candidate is found. If you would like an informal chat about becoming a Trustee for Hugs, please let us know in your covering letter.

Please share with someone who might be perfect for the role!

#EquineWelfare #HumanWellbeing #TrusteeRoles #UKCharity #AnimalWelfare #HorseRescue #MakeADifference #CharityTrustees #JoinOurBoard #MentalHealth #VolunteerOpportunity #EquineAdvocate #SafeguardingMatters #TrusteeVacancy

Hugs takes the protection of your information extremely seriously. We are therefore writing to let you know about a cyber-security incident involving one of our trusted service providers, Beacon CRM, which we use to manage our supporter database. We are sorry to be sharing this news. We know this will be concerning to all. We want to reassure you that we’re taking it seriously and that your safety is our utmost priority. From what we know so far, their investigation to date confirms their assessment that a copy of the database which holds all Beacon customer data, including attachment files, was made and likely downloaded in a readable format by the threat actor. However, there is no update as to whose data (Beacon is used by multiple organisations) and there is currently no evidence to suggest that any of this information has been misused.

What has happened? 

Our database provider, Beacon have told us that on 29 July 2026, they discovered unauthorised access to their systems, caused by compromised login credentials. Their investigation is ongoing with the support of specialist cyber-security experts and we are being updated on a regular basis on their findings. Based on the information currently available from them, they have confirmed that copies of their database backups were made, and the evidence so far confirms that a copy of the database which holds all Beacon customer data, including attachment files, was made and likely downloaded in a readable format by the threat actor. At present, we have no evidence that your personal information has been misused. However, as a precaution we wanted to make you aware of the incident.

What data may be involved?

The information we hold about you in Beacon may include:
• your name
• postal address
• email address
• telephone number
• donation history
• Gift Aid declaration (where applicable)

Importantly, we do not keep referrals or similar sensitive information on this system. Please be assured that The Hugs Foundation does NOT hold any financial records such as card details or bank account information within Beacon. Our supporters are advised to keep an eye out for phishing emails. 

What Beacon is doing.

Beacon has told us that they are:
• running a full forensic investigation with independent cyber-security specialists.
• reported the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and are following their recommendations and those of their specialist cyber-security experts.
• working with law enforcement and relevant regulators.
• monitoring the dark web for any sign this data has been shared or sold – so far, nothing has been found
• resetting passwords and strengthening authentication on affected accounts.

What we, The Hugs Foundation, are doing.

We are:
• working closely with Beacon as they investigate further.
• updating security measures for any software we have linked to Beacon.
• reviewing our own security practices and access controls.
• documented the incident under our data breach procedures and are following regulatory obligations, we have notified the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as well.
• assessed the potential risks to individuals, with support from the ICO, who have confirmed it is not high risk.

What you can do.

There is no action you need to take immediately. As a precaution, we recommend you to:
• be alert to any unusual and unexpected emails, calls or texts claiming to be from The Hugs Foundation or Beacon. We will never ask you to confirm your personal details or share credit card/debit card or bank account details.
• avoid clicking links or opening attachments unless you are confident they are genuine.
• never share passwords or one-time codes with anyone who contacts you unexpectedly.
• contact us directly using the details below if anything seems suspicious, rather than replying to a suspicious message.

We sincerely apologise for the concern this incident may cause and appreciate your understanding while the investigation continues. Protecting the personal information entrusted to us by our supporters is extremely important. As the investigation continues should we receive further information that affects you, we will contact you again as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, please contact Laura Dennis, Charity Manager via laura@hugsfoundation.org.uk

In May we had the pleasure of welcoming Harriet, The High Sheriff of Cornwall to Hugs. Harriet has chosen young people in Cornwall as her focus for her shrieval year so it was amazing to be able to share the well-being support we deliver for children and young people.
With the sun shining it was lovely to showcase our beautiful animals and great facilities.

We would also like to give a shout out to PR4Photos for capturing the morning.

We are delighted to introduce our new trustee, Natalie Wilkerson. Many of you will know or have met Natalie, who has been involved with Hugs for several years. For those who don’t and those who want to find out more, please see the below information from Natalie. 

“I have over 30 years’ experience in HR and Recruitment in both the corporate and charity sectors and have run my own Consultancy for a number of years. Passionate about recruiting, specifically volunteers, many of my roles have also included safeguarding responsibilities. I have a wealth of experience in creating and implementing policies and procedures to bring efficiency and dynamic changes to organisations. In addition, I have worked or volunteered in animal welfare for over 10 years and since a child reading about Ada Cole’s mission to be the voice for horses and animals in general, I developed a passion to be able to make a difference to their welfare. There have always been animals in my life and almost always they have been rescues that came with histories which were very sad. Currently we share our home with 2 horses, 1 Shetland pony, Harry the dog, 8 cats and a tortoise which keeps me pretty busy but with lots of time outside in the fresh air! I am also the Branch Coordinator for the Launceston & District Cats Protection and enjoy, with a great team of other volunteers, being able to transform the lives of cats and kittens that come into our care. I have been involved with The Hugs Foundation since 2021, and with previous trustee experience, I am delighted to become a trustee for this wonderful charity. I hope my skills and experience will help to continue the charity’s success in the well-being of both equines, other animals and humans.”

Yesterday we were delighted to welcome Martin Clunes, alongside the fantastic Lisa and CEO James from The British Horse Society to The Hugs Foundation.

Martin is a long-standing equestrian and passionate advocate for horse welfare, and The British Horse Society plays a leading role nationally in improving standards, education and welfare across the equine world.

It was a fantastic opportunity to showcase our rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming work here in Cornwall, share experiences around the realities of equine welfare on the ground and highlight our well-being work too. Thank you so much to The Hugs team for everything they do to showcase our charity 💚 Collaboration like this matters and ultimately, it’s our ponies who benefit 💜 Watch this space 🤩