ARMED FORCES COVENANT FUND

Registered charity 1177627 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust makes grants to support the Armed Forces Community. The Covenant Fund is delivered by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust. It has £10M a year to fund projects that support the Armed Forces Community.

Objects

4.1 TO ADVANCE SUCH GENERAL CHARITABLE PURPOSES FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT AS THE TRUSTEE MAY AT ITS ABSOLUTE DISCRETION DETERMINE, SUCH PURPOSES TO BE FURTHERED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE ARMED FORCES COVENANT AND/OR TO SUPPORT THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED ALONGSIDE THE ARMED FORCES AND RELOCATED TO THE UK, IN PARTICULAR (BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY) BY PROVIDING CHARITABLE ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT TO THOSE WHO SERVE OR HAVE SERVED IN OR ALONGSIDE THE ARMED FORCES, WHETHER REGULAR OR RESERVE, THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED IN THE PAST, AND IN ALL CASES THEIR FAMILIES, DEPENDANTS AND CARERS, INCLUDING (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) BY FUNDING PROJECTS WHICH4.1.1 ADVANCE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BY HELPING TO INTEGRATE MILITARY AND CIVILIAN COMMUNITIES AND ALLOW THE ARMED FORCES COMMUNITY TO PARTICIPATE FULLY AS CIVILIANS, INCLUDING PROVIDING INFORMATION, ADVICE, HELP AND EXPERTISE TO THOSE WHO SERVE OR HAVE SERVED, DURING AND AFTER THEIR TRANSITION INTO CIVILIAN LIFE, INCLUDING SUPPORTING THEIR RESETTLEMENT AND, IF NEEDED, HELPING THEM GAIN EMPLOYMENT;4.1.2 PREVENT OR RELIEVE POVERTY, FINANCIAL HARDSHIP OR OTHER CHARITABLE NEED;4.1.3 RELIEVE UNEMPLOYMENT;4.1.4 ADVANCE HEALTH, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE PROMOTION OF GOOD MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH AND PREVENTION OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE OR MISUSE; 4.1.5 PROVIDE (OR ASSIST IN THE PROVISION) OF FACILITIES IN THE INTERESTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE FOR RECREATION OR OTHER LEISURE TIME OCCUPATION OF INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE NEED OF SUCH FACILITIES BY REASON OF THEIR YOUTH, AGE INFIRMITY OR DISABILITY, FINANCIAL HARDSHIP OR SOCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES WITH THE OBJECT OF IMPROVING THEIR CONDITIONS OF LIFE;4.1.6 EDUCATING THE PUBLIC WITH A VIEW TO PROMOTING A NATIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE ARMED FORCES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SUPPORTING REGIMENTAL MUSEUMS, HERITAGE PROJECTS AND GARDENS OF REMEMBRANCE;4.1.7 PROMOTE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE ARMED FORCES BY THE PROVISION AND SUPPORT OF FACILITIES AND ACTIVITIES FOR THE EFFICIENCY AND WELL-BEING OF SERVICE PERSONNEL. 4.1.8 PROMOTE THE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF CHARITIES, THE EFFECTIVE USE OF CHARITABLE RESOURCES AND THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR.4.2 VOLUNTARY SECTOR MEANS CHARITIES AND VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS; AND, FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS DEFINITION:4.2.1 CHARITIES ARE ORGANISATIONS WHICH ARE ESTABLISHED FOR EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE PURPOSES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW OF ENGLAND AND WALES; AND4.2.2 VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS ARE INDEPENDENT ORGANISATIONS, WHICH ARE ESTABLISHED FOR PURPOSES THAT ADD VALUE TO THE COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE, OR A SIGNIFICANT SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY, AND WHICH ARE NOT PERMITTED BY THEIR CONSTITUTION TO MAKE A PROFIT FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS DO NOT INCLUDE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OR OTHER STATUTORY AUTHORITIES.

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 · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Disability · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Economic/community Development/employment · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Leeds, Yorkshire and The Humber, England (from the postcode on the register)

Latest income

£30.9m

Latest spending

£30.0m

Registered

2018

Accounts read

FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted reserves were £664,027, covering approximately six months of staff costs. The trustees confirm that the trust can meet its liabilities as they fall due for the foreseeable future, with funding expected to continue. The external auditor issued an unqualified opinion, confirming the financial statements give a true and fair view.

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

What the accounts disclose

Employees paid over £60,000: 5

“The total number of employees whose emoluments for the year exceeded £60,000 is given in Notes 6 and 7” — page 28

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Largest income source: Office for Veterans Affairs (52% of income)

“Office for Veterans Affairs (Various programmes) £16.1m” — page 26

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Reserves policy: sufficient funds to maintain liquidity and to increase our robustness in the event of a sudden contraction of grant funding (held: £664k)

“Our working reserves policy has been to ensure that we hold sufficient funds to maintain liquidity and to increase our robustness in the event of a sudden contraction of grant funding.” — page 26

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Moore Kingston Smith. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

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

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

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
Financial reserves policy and procedures
Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
Internal risk management policy and procedures
Investment
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.

Self-declared on the annual return for the financial year ending 31/03/2025

Government income: £30,167,691 — grants £30,167,691 (11); 98% of the £30,874,242 total gross income on the same return
Employees paid over £60,000: 5 (£60,001–£70,000: 1; £70,001–£80,000: 3; £80,001–£90,000: 1)
Trustee benefits, answered Yes to: any trustee benefit; other trustee benefit
Grant-making is its main activity

Self-declared on the annual return for the financial year ending 31/03/2024

Government income: £35,553,231 — grants £35,553,231 (10); 99% of the £35,748,238 total gross income on the same return
Employees paid over £60,000: 5 (£60,001–£70,000: 2; £80,001–£90,000: 3)
Grant-making is its main activity

Self-declared on the annual return for the financial year ending 31/03/2023

Government income: £14,683,051 — grants £14,683,051 (4); 94% of the £15,601,542 total gross income on the same return
Employees paid over £60,000: 4 (£60,001–£70,000: 3; £80,001–£90,000: 1)
Grant-making is its main activity

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

In the news

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

Cwmbran councillors to consider Armed Forces Covenant Fund partnership bid southwalesargus.co.uk · 25/09/2026
Cwmbran councillors to consider Armed Forces Covenant Fund partnership bid freepressseries.co.uk · 25/09/2026
Cwmbran councillors to consider Armed Forces Covenant Fund partnership bid freepressseries.co.uk · 25/09/2026
Scotty’s receives funding from Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust to support military children pre-bereavement cobseo.org.uk · 08/05/2025
Trust launches Armed Forces Covenant Fund domestic abuse programme for 2024/25 cobseo.org.uk · 06/08/2024
Appointment of Hans Pung as Chair of the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust cobseo.org.uk · 11/01/2024
Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trusts Grants Awarded To Wittering raf.mod.uk · 16/09/2021
AIRSHOW NEWS: The Historic Army Aircraft Flight Trust receives grant from The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust air-shows.org.uk · 22/07/2020

Leadership, per the charity’s website

Anna Wright — Chief Executive (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.

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

Total income

£30.9m

Total spending

£30.0m

Reserves (reported)

£664k

Employees

Reported reserves equal ~0.3 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (98% 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: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.7%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

THE ARMED FORCES COVENANT FUND TRUSTEE

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

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/03/2025	£30.9m	£30.0m
31/03/2024	£35.7m	£34.5m
31/03/2023	£15.6m	£15.9m
31/03/2022	£28.2m	£27.6m
31/03/2021	£26.8m	£26.5m

Common questions

Is ARMED FORCES COVENANT FUND financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that unrestricted reserves were £664,027, covering approximately six months of staff costs. The trustees confirm that the trust can meet its liabilities as they fall due for the foreseeable future, with funding expected to continue. The external auditor issued an unqualified opinion, confirming the financial statements give a true and fair view. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Moore Kingston Smith.

Who funds ARMED FORCES COVENANT FUND?

Funders whose own accounts filings name ARMED FORCES COVENANT FUND as a grant recipient include THE ROYAL LANCERS CHARITABLE TRUST.

Known funders

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

Funder	Year	Amount	Purpose (as stated by the funder)
THE ROYAL LANCERS CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2024	£4k	Donations and Gifs - Restricted
THE ROYAL LANCERS CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2023	£4k	Donations and Gifs - Restricted
THE ROYAL LANCERS CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2022	£2k	Donations and Gifs - Restricted

Government & lottery funding

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

Funder	Date	Amount	Purpose
UK government	01/09/2023	£3.0m	Veteran Mobility Fund
UK government	01/04/2019	£9.7m	Veterans' Health & Well Being Fund FY19/20
UK government	01/04/2019	£3.0m	Veterans' Community Centres'
UK government	01/04/2018	£1.7m	Financial Assistance/Support
UK government	01/04/2018	£6.0m	Financial Assistance/Support
UK government	01/04/2018	£300k	Financial Assistance/Support
UK government	01/04/2018	£41k	Financial Assistance/Support
UK government	01/04/2018	£18k	Financial Assistance/Support

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 ARMED FORCES EQUINE CHARITY	2	£41k
WALKING WITH THE WOUNDED	1	£371k
The Peter Willmott Foundation	1	£6k
THE EARL FITZWILLIAM CHARITABLE TRUST	1	£3k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE VETERANS' FOUNDATION.

THE VETERANS' FOUNDATION income £17.3m
ARMED FORCES EDUCATION TRUST income £555k
ARMED FORCES PARLIAMENTARY TRUST income £120k
THE ARMY CENTRAL FUND income £2.4m
North Army Trust Fund income £102k
ARMED FORCES COMMUNITY SUPPORT HUB income £69k

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
ARMED FORCES COVENANT FUND	£30.9m	—	5	above	—	no doubt
THE VETERANS' FOUNDATION FY2025	£17.3m	£60,001 - £70,000	1	unclear	—	no doubt
ARMED FORCES EDUCATION TRUST FY2025	£555k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
ARMED FORCES PARLIAMENTARY TRUST FY2025	£120k	—	—	above	—	no doubt
THE ARMY CENTRAL FUND FY2026	£2.4m	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
North Army Trust Fund FY2025	£102k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt

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