AUTOGRAPH ABP

Registered charity 1127712 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

To advance the education of the public in the subject of photography.

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

Latest income

£1.6m

Latest spending

£1.4m

Registered

2009

Accounts read

FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the group reported a surplus on unrestricted funds of £169,559 for the year ended 31 March 2025, resulting in accumulated unrestricted reserves of £1,573,030. Per the trustees' report, these free reserves of £449,550 exceed the stated policy target of three months' running costs, which equates to £317,974.

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

What the accounts disclose

Highest-paid employee band: £80,001 - £90,000 — above the median for charities its size (£70k)

“One employee received remuneration of between £80,000 and £90,000” — page 27

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Largest income source: Arts Council England (63% of income)

“revenue funding from the Arts Council of £1,012,880”

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Reserves policy: three months running costs excluding programme costs covered by restricted and designated funds (held: £450k)

“hold unrestricted reserves of three months running costs excluding programme costs covered by restricted and designated funds. At the end of March 2025 this equates to £317,974.”

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Payments to trustees: Mark Sealy received £81,693 for his role as Executive Director.

“During the year, no management committee received any remuneration, except for Mark Sealy who received £81,693 (2024 - £78,551) for his role as Executive Director.” — page 27

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Trading subsidiary: Sense of Place Ltd, Autograph Trading Ltd

“Autograph ABP has two wholly owned subsidiaries: Autograph Trading and Sense of Place Ltd.” — page 10

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Knox Cropper LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

Top pay band moved from £70,001 - £80,000 (FY2024) to £80,001 - £90,000 (FY2025).

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

Leadership, per the charity’s website

Mark Sealy — Director (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.

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

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

Total income

£1.6m

Total spending

£1.4m

Cost of raising funds

£335k

Reserves (reported)

£450k

Employees

21

Reported reserves equal ~3.8 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.8 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: 20.8% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

ANTHONY JAMES STEVENSON
Camille Vivien Beckmann
Candace Lamae Allen
Caro Howell · trustee of 2 other charities
David Cutler · trustee of 1 other charity
Gary Younge
Guy Nicholson
Jennifer Ricketts · trustee of 1 other charity
John Ellis · trustee of 1 other charity
MARK ANTHONY SEALY · trustee of 1 other charity
Pawlet Brookes · trustee of 1 other charity
SHABNAM AMINI

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

Operates in: Throughout England

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/03/2025	£1.6m	£1.4m
31/03/2024	£1.6m	£1.5m
31/03/2023	£1.1m	£1.2m
31/03/2022	£1.3m	£1.2m
31/03/2021	£1.4m	£1.0m

Common questions

Is AUTOGRAPH ABP financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the group reported a surplus on unrestricted funds of £169,559 for the year ended 31 March 2025, resulting in accumulated unrestricted reserves of £1,573,030. Per the trustees' report, these free reserves of £449,550 exceed the stated policy target of three months' running costs, which equates to £317,974. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Knox Cropper LLP.

What does the highest-paid employee of AUTOGRAPH ABP earn?

Per its FY2025 accounts, the highest-paid employee was in the £80,001 - £90,000 band.

Who funds AUTOGRAPH ABP?

Funders whose own accounts filings name AUTOGRAPH ABP as a grant recipient include THE FREELANDS FOUNDATION LIMITED.

Known funders

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

Funder	Year	Amount	Purpose (as stated by the funder)
THE FREELANDS FOUNDATION LIMITED	FY2024	£40k	Autumn 2023 Fund

Government & lottery funding

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

Funder	Date	Amount	Purpose
City Bridge Foundation	15/02/2024	£4k	Grant to Autograph ABP
City Bridge Foundation	11/05/2023	£94k	Grant to Autograph ABP
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	03/08/2020	£28k	"COVID19 AUTOGRAPH ABP"
City Bridge Foundation	17/07/2020	£40k	Grant to Autograph ABP
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	02/08/2017	£100k	"Building A Resilient Archive for the Future"
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	30/09/2014	£97k	"In a different light - building autograph ABP's collection of photography, expanding the narratives on black representation"
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	29/11/2011	£414k	"Missing Chapter"
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	05/09/2007	£661k	"Archive and Research Centre for Culturally Diverse Photography"

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.

Funder	Similar charities funded	Amount to them
THE MATERIAL WORLD FOUNDATION LIMITED	1	£113k
THE ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER FOUNDATION	1	£76k
FRAZER TRUST	1	£5k
THE THEATRES TRUST CHARITABLE FUND	1	£2k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with OPEN AWARDS.

OPEN AWARDS income £2.7m
The Centre for British Photography income £217k
THE LIVERPOOL INSTITUTE FOR PERFORMING ARTS income £15.0m
15BILLIONEBP income £1.6m
PHILADELPHIA ASSOCIATION LIMITED income £221k
SAPPHIRE SCHOOL OF GYMNASTICS LTD income £849k

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
AUTOGRAPH ABP	£1.6m	£80,001 - £90,000	—	unclear	—	no doubt
OPEN AWARDS FY2025	£2.7m	—	—	unclear	—	no doubt
The Centre for British Photography FY2025	£217k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
THE LIVERPOOL INSTITUTE FOR PERFORMING ARTS FY2025	£15.0m	—	2	unclear	—	no doubt
15BILLIONEBP FY2025	£1.6m	£70,001 - £80,000	—	below	—	no doubt
PHILADELPHIA ASSOCIATION LIMITED FY2025	£221k	—	0	above	278156.0%	no doubt

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