What Open Spaces Society does

Open Spaces Society is the United Kingdom's oldest conservation charity, founded in 1865 and headquartered in Henley-on-Thames. It is dedicated to the protection of open spaces, commons, village greens, and public paths in England and Wales, operating as a registered non-profit with a small staff of 10 employees. Its constituency spans 600+ member organizations — including local councils, parish-level groups, and national bodies — alongside individual and joint members, all of whom fund the Society through tiered subscriptions.

The Society's core products are casework support (approximately 1,000 cases handled per year), practitioner publications (notably the 4th edition Getting Greens Registered manual), training courses, and advocacy campaigns such as Grant a Green (launched 2021). It maintains a distributed correspondent network of 134 locations that supplies grassroots intelligence and supports local campaigns, and it holds a unique lantern slide archive from 1900-1940. Partnerships with Wildlife and Countryside Link, the Foundation for Common Land, and the Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) extend its reach into coalition advocacy and research outputs.

Revenue is generated from membership fees (individual £33, joint £40, life £660, corporate tiers £45-£385), donations and legacies, sales of publications, and income from training courses. Go-to-market is principally through the website, social media, the correspondent network, and direct engagement with local authorities and community groups. No proprietary technology platform or AI-driven capability is evident; operations are predominantly human-expert-led.

Name

Open Spaces Society

Legal name

Open Spaces Society

Website

https://oss.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1865

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Open Spaces Society is the UK's oldest conservation charity (founded 1865), protecting open spaces, commons, village greens, and public paths in England and Wales through membership-supported casework, advocacy, publications, and training for 600+ member organizations and individual members.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Conservation and Open Space Advocacy Services

NAICS

Environment, Conservation and Wildlife Organizations (813312), Social Advocacy Organizations (8133)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Land Trusts & Protected Areas (BPAGAGAC)

Keywords

• Conservation charity services
• Open space protection
• Membership organisation
• Commons and village greens
• Rights of way advisory

Headquarters

HQ city

Henley-on-Thames

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Subscriptions: Annual membership fees from individuals, couples, local groups, parish councils, national organisations, district councils, county councils, and unitary authorities. Provides access to expert guidance, publications, training, and legal fund support.
2. Donations and Appeals: Public donations supporting legal-action fund and specific campaigns including Grant a Green campaign. Legacy donations also accepted.
3. Publications Sales: Sale of publications including 'Getting Greens Registered' manual and other information sheets providing guidance on protecting open spaces, commons, and village greens.
4. Training Courses: Professional training courses for local councils, national park authorities, access users, commons managers and anyone with an interest in commons, greens and open spaces.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The Open Spaces Society is a membership-based conservation charity that protects open spaces, commons, village greens, and public paths in England and Wales. It sells annual, joint, and lifetime memberships to individuals plus tiered memberships to local groups, parish councils, district/county councils, and national organisations, providing expert casework guidance, legal-fund access, professional training, and publications such as the Open Space magazine.

Product overview

The Open Spaces Society operates as a membership-based conservation charity offering a unified portfolio of services focused on protecting open spaces, commons, village greens, and public paths in England and Wales. The core offering consists of membership programs (Individual, Joint, Life, and organizational memberships for local groups, councils, and national organizations) that provide expert casework support, professional training courses, and access to publications including the Getting Greens Registered manual and Open Space magazine. The society runs the Grant a Green campaign to encourage voluntary registration of open spaces as protected greens. Key services include casework assistance (handling nearly 1,000 cases annually), commons re-registration support, guidance on adverse possession, and legal prosecution support for village green offences. The organization relies on membership fees and public donations to fund its advocacy work.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• 19 town and village greens registered since Grant a Green campaign launch in 2021
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Wildlife and Countryside LinkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe largest environment and wildlife coalition in England. The Open Spaces Society is a member and has signed up to the diversity and anti-racism statement issued by the coalition.
• Foundation for Common LandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on guidance documents including 'A Common Purpose Guide' - guidance for those contemplating management on common land, integrating local and national interests.
• Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI), Gloucester UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCCRI has published a Commons e-book as a conference companion in collaboration with the society.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• National Trust: The UK's largest conservation charity, similarly protecting open spaces, countryside, and heritage sites across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Operates a comparable membership-based model serving local authorities and individual supporters with a much larger endowment and staff base.
• Common Ground: Small UK charity focused on local distinctiveness, orchards, village greens and common land. Highly comparable mission overlap with OSS on village greens and commons protection, with a similarly small organisational footprint and campaign-led model.
• The Ramblers: UK walking charity campaigning for rights of way, footpaths, and access to the countryside. Directly aligned with OSS's footpaths/rights-of-way work and overlapping member demographic, though its core focus is on walking rather than open-space registration.
• National Parks England: Represents the 10 national park authorities in England, focused on protecting and promoting the nation's finest landscapes. Comparable as an advocacy body aligned with open-space protection, though it operates as an umbrella for statutory authorities rather than a membership charity.
• Woodland Trust: UK's largest woodland conservation charity operating a membership model and protecting land through acquisition and registration. Comparable as a conservation membership charity, though its asset (woodland) and acquisition-led model differ from OSS's regulatory/legal-aid approach.
• CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England): Countryside charity campaigning for the protection and enhancement of the English countryside. Highly comparable mission to OSS on planning threats, open spaces, and rural amenity, with overlapping local-authority and individual supporter base.
• The Wildlife Trusts: A federation of 46 local wildlife trusts and a UK-wide charity dedicated to nature conservation. Directly comparable as a membership-based environmental charity with a regional/local network structure and grassroots engagement model, although focused more broadly on wildlife and habitats than specifically on commons/village greens.

Broad incumbents

• RSPB: One of Europe's largest conservation charities with millions of members, focused primarily on birds and habitats. A broad incumbent in the UK conservation charity space; overlaps with OSS on membership model, advocacy, and habitat protection but serves a much wider and more commercialised mission.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/openspacessoc
• Facebookfacebook.com/OpenSpacesSociety
• Instagraminstagram.com/openspacessociety
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-open-spaces-society

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Open Spaces Society