READ - THE READING AGENCY

Registered charity 1085443 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THE READING AGENCY, THE READING AGENCY FOR LIBRARIES, TRA

The Reading Agency works every day towards a world where everyone is reading their way to a better life - from toddlers to children to young adults, prisoners and older people - irrespective of age or economic background. It advocates that reading can tackle life's big challenges, from social mobility to mental health.

Objects

TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC BY THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF READING AND THE PROMOTION OF LITERACY SKILLS

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED. IN PRACTICE ENGLAND AND WALES

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Camden, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net outgoing resource of £355,843 for the year, resulting in a decrease in total reserves from £1,168,178 to £812,335. Unrestricted reserves stood at £554,334, which the trustees consider adequate to maintain a positive cash balance and cover at least three months of working capital. The trustees confirmed that adequate resources continue to be available to fund the charity's activities for the foreseeable future.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by M J Bushell Audit LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — The Reading Agency (matched by registered charity number).

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~2.1 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (78% 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: 1.3% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Aimee Jane Felone · trustee of 1 other charity
• DEREK O'GARA
• David Richard Shelley
• Davinia-Louise Green
• Dr Neil Gareth Churchill · trustee of 2 other charities
• Elizabeth Clare Norbury · trustee of 1 other charity
• Mandy Teresa de Waal
• Maureen Carmel Corish
• Mohammed Zoinul Abidin · trustee of 4 other charities
• Paul Nicholas Kelly
• Sue Lesley Williamson
• Susan Claire Hall
• THOMAS MOODY-STUART
• Teresa Mary Cremin

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.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

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 READER ORGANISATION.

• THE READER ORGANISATION income £4.6m
• THE READING FOUNDATION income £517k
• WORLDREADER income £100k
• READ FOR GOOD income £1.5m
• ADULT LITERACY TRUST income £360k
• BOOKMARK READING CHARITY income £4.1m

Side by side with its peers

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