THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS' BURSARS ASSOCIATION

Registered charity 1121757 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

ISBA aims to support and advance the financial and operational performance in schools. It achieves this through: providing accurate and timely training, advising and assisting schools so as to help them benefit the public through achieving the highest standards of administration and ancillary services.

Objects

THE OBJECTS OF THE CHARITY ARE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION BY THE PROMOTION OF EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, ADMINISTRATION AND ANCILLARY SERVICES AT INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS IN SO FAR AS IT IS CHARITABLE TO DO SO.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED. IN PRACTICE: NATIONALLY IN 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: Education/training · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2024 accounts

The accounts state that free reserves of £1,751,452 were below the stated policy target range of £1,796,848 to £2,073,286. Despite a net outgoing resource of £33,929 driven by significant overspending on advice and guidance, the charity reports strong cash flow forecasts and sufficient reserves to continue operations without interruption.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Crowe U.K. LLP. Discloses 5 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
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• 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
• Volunteer management

Property (HM Land Registry)

2 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

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

Reported reserves equal ~7.8 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (51% 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: 9.9% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• AMANDA WEBB
• Adrian Bowcher
• Alison Jayne Higgins · trustee of 1 other charity
• Bryony Ellison
• Giles Kentigern Brand
• Ian Douglas Williams
• Miles Magub MacEacharn
• Nicola Marlow · trustee of 2 other charities
• Nigel Slater
• Peter Worlledge
• Vanessa Lakatos

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

Operates in: Argentina · Australia · Brazil · China · Egypt · Greece · Guernsey · Hong Kong · Ireland · Isle Of Man · Japan · Jersey

Income and spending

Common questions

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 INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION.

• THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION income £1.9m
• INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE FUND UK income £924k
• INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE ORGANIZATION (UK) LIMITED income £26.7m
• NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS AND NON-MAINTAINED SPECIAL SCHOOLS income £465k
• THE CHARTERED ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS SCHOOLS income £18.3m
• ISLINGTON BAMER ADVICE ALLIANCE (IBAA) income £141k

Side by side with its peers

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