THE ROYAL AFRICAN SOCIETY

Registered charity 1062764 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The RAS continued running its various programmes and publications in 2022, including African Affairs, African Arguments, the Africa APPG, Film Africa festival, public events programme and a high profile 120th anniversary celebration.

Causes: Arts/culture/heritage/science · Other Charitable Purposes · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the Royal African Society closed the year with total funds of £48,752, a significant decrease from the previous year's £36,095 brought forward, resulting in a net movement in funds of £12,657. The Trustees note that the reserves policy guideline to maintain a five-month operational reserve was not met in 2025 due to a tough operational environment, although steps were taken in 2026 to meet it. The auditors confirmed that the use of the going concern basis of accounting is appropriate and identified no material uncertainties regarding the Society's ability to continue as a going concern.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Chariot House Limited. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

• Arts Council England — “In 2019, the Royal African Society received substantial financial support (over £10,000) from the following donors, funders and partners: Ar…” (source page)

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~0.2 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (79% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 10.0% of total income — above the median for charities its size (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (11/06/2014) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Arunma Otehchair · trustee of 1 other charity
• Adam Mahomed Habib · trustee of 1 other charity
• BABAJIDE HUSSEIN KEHINDE OLANREWAJU
• Babacar Ka
• Edward Hammond Rivers Marlow
• GREGORY LENNOX TORGEIR KRONSTEN
• Hannah OLeary
• NIKE JONAH · trustee of 1 other charity
• Professor Philip Jonathan Clark

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE ROYAL WELSH AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY LIMITED.

• THE ROYAL WELSH AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY LIMITED income £7.8m
• THE AFRICA CENTRE LIMITED income £643k
• ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND income £1.9m
• AFRICAN FOUNDATION FOR DEVELOPMENT AFFORD income £386k
• ROMAN CATHOLIC PURPOSES ADMINISTERED IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOCIETY OF AFRICAN MISSIONS income £1.1m
• THE ROYAL ECONOMIC SOCIETY income £2.4m

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.