INTERNATIONAL P.E.N.

Registered charity 1117088 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as PEN INTERNATIONAL, THE INTERNATIONAL P.E.N., THE INTERNATIONAL P.E.N. FOUNDATION

Promotion of cooperation amongst writers everywhere in the world. Promotion of freedom of expression and defence of those whose freedom of expression is suppressed whether by imprisonment or otherwise.

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Economic/community Development/employment · Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2024 accounts

The accounts state that the charity recorded a surplus of £94k on unrestricted funds for the year ended 31 December 2024, following a period of financial difficulty. The trustees report that undesignated reserves of £148k are currently below the stated policy target of three months' expenditure, but the organization remains a going concern with sufficient funding secured from key institutional supporters.

Automated summary of the FY2024 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by HW Fisher Audit. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

In the news

Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).

• Ukrainian libraries to receive a further 15,000 books from Book Aid International through PEN Ukraine’s Unbreakable Libraries project — PEN International | Promoting Literature & Defending Freedom of Expression Worldwide pen-international.org · 13/03/2024
• Ukrainian libraries to receive 25,000 books from Book Aid International, in collaboration with PEN Ukraine, English PEN and PEN International — PEN International | Promoting Literature & Defending Freedom of Expression Worldwide pen-international.org · 08/08/2023

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 05683997

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Arne Svingen — International Secretary (source)
• Tanja Tuma — Vice Chair of the Board (source)
• Eric Lax — Treasurer (source)
• Romana Cacchioli — Executive Director (source)
• Emmanuel Asamoah — Finance, HR and Admin Director and Company Secretary (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Funders the charity credits

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

• Charlotte Aitken Trust — “Charlotte Aitken Trust” (source page)
• Kursbuch Kulturstiftung — “Kursbuch Kulturstiftung” (source page)
• Evan Cornish Foundation — “Evan Cornish Foundation” (source page)
• Hawthornden Foundation — “Hawthornden Foundation” (source page)
• Fondazione Feltrinelli — “Fondazione Feltrinelli” (source page)
• Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs — “Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs” (source page)
• Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs — “Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs” (source page)

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• ELF, Mads Julius — director, appointed 05/09/2025on trustee list
• SVINGEN, Arne — director, appointed 01/10/2024on trustee list
• ECHLIN, Kimberley Ann, Dr — director, appointed 01/10/2024on trustee list
• DUNDAR, Ege — director, appointed 22/11/2023on trustee list
• TUMA, Tanja — director, appointed 07/10/2022not on trustee list
• LAMWAKA, Beatrice — director, appointed 07/10/2022on trustee list
• SEISDEDOS, Jose Gabriel — director, appointed 01/10/2021on trustee list
• TRIPATHI, Salil Jaysukh — director, appointed 01/10/2021on trustee list
• LAX, Eric Martin Arthur — director, appointed 19/08/2019on trustee list
• SONMEZ, Burhan — director, appointed 27/09/2018on trustee list
• CACCHIOLI, Romana Angela — secretary, appointed 16/04/2025
• ASAMOAH, Emmanuel — secretary, appointed 01/01/2020

Official officers record.

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

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

Reported reserves equal ~2.3 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (76% 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: 0.2% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Arne Svingen
• Beatrice Lamwaka
• Burhan Sonmez
• Dr Kimberley Ann Echlin
• Ege Dundar
• Eric Lax
• Jose Gabriel Seisdedos
• Mads Julius Elf
• Salil Tripathi
• Tanya Tuma

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

Operates in: Southwark

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 ENGLISH PEN.

• ENGLISH PEN income £663k
• MEDIA LEGAL DEFENCE INITIATIVE income £3.0m
• INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS GUILD income £1.0m
• JUSTICE FOR JOURNALISTS FOUNDATION income £245k
• THE ROYAL LITERARY FUND income £4.3m
• POETRY LONDON LTD income £130k

Side by side with its peers

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