ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM

Registered charity 1197541 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Our purpose is to share the story of the Royal Air Force, past, present and future, using the stories of its people and our collections, to engage, entertain, inspire and encourage learning. Our overall vision is to inspire everyone with the RAF story, the people who shape it and its place in our lives.

Objects

2 THE OBJECTS FOR WHICH THE MUSEUM IS HEREBY CONSTITUTED SHALL BE TO EDUCATE AND INFORM THE PUBLIC AND MEMBERS OF OUR ROYAL AIR FORCE ABOUT:2.1 THE HISTORY AND TRADITIONS OF OUR ROYAL AIR FORCE, AND 2.2 THE ROLE OF OUR ROYAL AIR FORCE IN RELATION TO THE ARMED FORCES OF THE REALM, OTHER AIR FORCES AND AVIATION GENERALLY, IN PARTICULAR, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY, BY COLLECTING, CONSERVING, PRESERVING, MANAGING, EXHIBITING AND STORING DOCUMENTS, ITEMS, ARTEFACTS AND OTHER MATERIALS IN THE COLLECTION.

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

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

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

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the Museum operates on a going concern basis with total net assets of £140,925,000 and cash reserves of £16,365,000. The trustees maintain a reserves policy targeting approximately two months of operational expenditure, which they confirm is currently met. Although the Museum reported an unrestricted operational surplus of £15,000 after depreciation, it recorded an overall net loss of £1,220,000 driven by significant depreciation charges on property and exhibitions.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Comptroller and Auditor General. Discloses 3 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
• Campaigns and political activity 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
• Volunteer management

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 — RAF Museum (matched by registered charity number).

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title 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.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (6,128 followers) · instagram (60K followers)

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

Reported reserves equal ~1.4 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (73% 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: 3.2% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.7%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Anita Bernie
• Caroline Rolfe · trustee of 1 other charity
• David Cooper CBE
• Dean McCumiskey
• Hemma Gooljar · trustee of 1 other charity
• John Banks
• Jonathan Ian Field
• Josh Chana
• Matthew Gilpin
• Sir Stephen Hillier
• Waseem Mahmood OBE · trustee of 1 other charity

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

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

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

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

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 ARMY FLYING MUSEUM LIMITED.

• ARMY FLYING MUSEUM LIMITED income £1.1m
• GATWICK AVIATION MUSEUM income £222k
• THE ROYAL AIR FORCE CLUB income £13.1m
• THE FLEET AIR ARM MUSEUM income £27k
• AVIATION HERITAGE FOUNDATION LIMITED income £34k
• THE ROYAL AIR FORCE BENEVOLENT FUND income £27.7m

Side by side with its peers

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