Stella Maris

Registered charity 1069833 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as APOSTLESHIP OF THE SEA · also registered in Scotland as SC043085 (OSCR)

Stella Maris (formerly known as the Apostleship of the Sea) provides practical, pastoral and spiritual support to seafarers, fishers and their families through a network of port chaplains & volunteers. We visit ships directly & work in seafarers' centres. Main needs are: spiritual support; communication with family; transport; port information; news; clothing; help during crisis.

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Religious Activities · Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity · Other Charitable Purposes · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total funds increased to £6,473,847, with consolidated reserves standing at this figure. The trustees have determined a minimum reserves balance of approximately £4.5m is required, leaving approximately £2m in free unrestricted reserves available for investment in charitable activities.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Price Bailey LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Reserves position vs the charity's own policy moved from "within" (FY2024) to "above" (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Stella Maris (matched by registered charity number).

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

Reported reserves equal ~23.9 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 21.3% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 5.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (17/06/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (25/04/2019) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Christopher McDade
• Edward Donati
• James Cashman
• James Muir
• John Stanley Hood
• Karen Young
• Maria Lourdes Crowe
• Rev David Burke
• Rev Edward Nicholas Hugh Gilbert Bishop
• Robert Ashdown
• Rt Rev Paul James Mason · trustee of 5 other charities
• Theresa Crossley
• William Ogbonna Azuh

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

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · South Africa · 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 MISSION TO SEAFARERS.

• THE MISSION TO SEAFARERS income £5.8m
• THE STELLA MARIS SCHOOL income £311k
• SAILORS' SOCIETY income £1.6m
• The Seafarers' Charity (King George's Fund for Sailors) income £3.9m
• THE SHIPWRECKED FISHERMEN AND MARINERS' ROYAL BENEVOLENT SOCIETY income £1.6m
• ROYAL NATIONAL MISSION TO DEEP SEA FISHERMEN income £3.8m

Side by side with its peers

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