THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL COVENTRY

Registered charity 1204257 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as COVENTRY CATHEDRAL

The Objects: (a) to advance the Christian religion in accordance with the faith and practice of the Church of England, in particular by furthering the mission of the Church of England; (b) to care for and conserve the fabric and structure of the Cathedral Church Building; (c) to advance any other charitable purposes which are ancillary to the furtherance of the purpose referred to above.

Objects

THE OBJECTS OF THE CHAPTER ARE(A) TO ADVANCE THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FAITH AND PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, IN PARTICULAR BY FURTHERING THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND;(B) TO CARE FOR AND CONSERVE THE FABRIC AND STRUCTURE OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH BUILDING;(C) TO ADVANCE ANY OTHER CHARITABLE PURPOSES WHICH ARE ANCILLARY TO THE FURTHERANCE OF THE PURPOSE REFERRED TO IN SUB-PARAGRAPH (A) OR (B).IN FURTHERING THE OBJECTS SET OUT IN PARAGRAPH (1), THE CHAPTER MUST ACT FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT WITHIN THE MEANING OF SECTION 4(3) OF THE CHARITIES ACT 2011.

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

Causes: Religious Activities · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Coventry, West Midlands, England (from the postcode on the register)

Latest income

£2.0m

Latest spending

£2.1m

Registered

2023

Accounts read

FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a deficit of £123k for the year, resulting in a decrease in unrestricted funds. The Trustees consider the current level of free reserves, which provides 3 months' cover, to be temporary due to an expected property sale in January 2026. The charity remains confident in its ability to meet liabilities as they fall due.

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

What the accounts disclose

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

“One employee had total emoluments within the year that fell within the band £70,000 - £80,000” — page 28

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Employees paid over £60,000: 1

“One employee had total emoluments within the year that fell within the band £70,000 - £80,000” — page 28

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Reserves policy: 4 months’ worth of the budgeted expenditure (reserves figure: £579k)

“The Trustees considers that the level of free reserves throughout the year should be a minimum of 4 months’ worth of the budgeted expenditure.” — page 14

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Pension scheme deficit: £16.1m

“This valuation showed assets of £514.9m, liabilities of £531.0m and a deficit of £16.1m.”

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Trading subsidiary: Coventry Cathedral Trading Limited

“The charity owns the whole of the issued share capital of Coventry Cathedral Trading Limited” — page 30

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Dafferns Audit Limited. Discloses 6 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

Top pay band moved from £60,001 - £70,000 (FY2024) to £70,000 - £80,000 (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
Investing charity funds policy and procedures
Investment
Safeguarding 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 31/12/2025

Volunteers: 70
Employees paid over £60,000: 1 (£70,001–£80,000: 1)
Has a trading subsidiary

Self-declared on the annual return for the financial year ending 31/12/2024

Volunteers: 50
Employees paid over £60,000: 1 (£60,001–£70,000: 1)
Has a trading subsidiary

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

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Coventry Cathedral (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

Reverend Canon Kate Massey — Acting Dean (source)
Simon Danks — Chief Operating Officer (source)
Reverend Canon Nitano Muller — Canon for Worship and Welcome (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).

Hill Group — “A special thank you to Hill Group for sponsoring 2024's big fundraising event, the Summer Garden Party.” (source page)
Benefact Trust — “In 2023, with the support and financial grant offered to us from Benefact Trust we were able to employ a part time Donor Coordinator.” (source page)

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold); recorded price paid £720k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

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

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

Total income

£2.0m

Total spending

£2.1m

Cost of raising funds

£540k

Reserves (reported)

£644k

Employees

40

Reported reserves equal ~3.7 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 27.6% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

ANDREW JAMES WALSTER
CHRISTIAN MICHAEL CLIFFE
David Joseph Johnston · trustee of 2 other charities
GRAHAM JOHN WARREN
Jake Sexton · trustee of 1 other charity
MARTIN ROYSTON WILLIAMS
RICHARD ELWIN SAPCOTE
ROBIN BRADFIELD THOMAS
Rev Kate Ishbel Massey
Rev Nitano Ashley Muller · trustee of 1 other charity

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

Operates in: Coventry City · Warwickshire

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/12/2025	£2.0m	£2.1m
31/12/2024	£2.0m	£1.9m

Common questions

Is THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL COVENTRY financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity reported a deficit of £123k for the year, resulting in a decrease in unrestricted funds. The Trustees consider the current level of free reserves, which provides 3 months' cover, to be temporary due to an expected property sale in January 2026. The charity remains confident in its ability to meet liabilities as they fall due. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Dafferns Audit Limited.

What does the highest-paid employee of THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL COVENTRY earn?

Per its FY2025 accounts, the highest-paid employee was in the £70,000 - £80,000 band, and 1 employees earned over £60,000.

Who funds THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL COVENTRY?

Funders whose own accounts filings name THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL COVENTRY as a grant recipient include THE COVENTRY DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE LTD, THE DULVERTON TRUST, THE HEADLEY TRUST, CATHEDRAL MUSIC TRUST, THE A S CHARITABLE TRUST.

Known funders

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

Funder	Year	Amount	Purpose (as stated by the funder)
THE COVENTRY DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE LTD	FY2025	£150k	Grants awarded to parishes and other organisations in the Diocese / Other organisations in the Diocese
THE COVENTRY DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE LTD	FY2021	Unverified read£120k	Grant to Cathedral
THE COVENTRY DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE LTD	FY2024	£88k	Grants to Cathedral
THE DULVERTON TRUST	FY2022	£40k	Conservation of the Spire
THE HEADLEY TRUST	FY2022	£30k	Towards remedial work to the tower and spire of the ‘old cathedral’ of Coventry.
CATHEDRAL MUSIC TRUST	FY2024	£29k
THE A S CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2022	£11k
THE GLAZIERS FOUNDATION	FY2022	£8k
THE OUSELEY CHURCH MUSIC TRUST	FY2024	£4k	to assist with funding vocal tuition for the trebles.
THE GLAZIERS FOUNDATION	FY2023	£4k	Stained glass restoration
CATHEDRAL MUSIC TRUST	FY2022	£3k	Financial support for cathedral music
THE EDWARD AND DOROTHY CADBURY TRUST	FY2021	£3k	Conservation and Heritage
THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST NICHOLAS WARWICK	FY2022	£1k
BERKSWELL CHARITIES	FY2022	£365	Donation

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).

Funder	Date	Amount	Purpose
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	12/05/2010	£48k	"Coventry Cathedral - Improvements to heritage visits"
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	20/01/1998	£49k	"St Michael's Cathedral Church, Coventry "Access for All""

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 PILLING TRUST FUND	3	£20k
DUCHY OF LANCASTER BENEVOLENT FUND	2	£12k
LEICESTER CATHEDRAL CHARITABLE TRUST	1	£3.6m
BENNY WALKER CHARITABLE TRUST	1	£1.6m
THE ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL TRUST	1	£1.1m
THE LEICESTER DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE	1	£374k
THE JULIA RAUSING TRUST	1	£300k
KEN DODD CHARITABLE FOUNDATION	1	£300k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE CATHEDRAL AND COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST MARY, ST DENYS AND ST GEORGE IN MANCHESTER.

THE CATHEDRAL AND COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST MARY, ST DENYS AND ST GEORGE IN MANCHESTER income £1.9m
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST MARTIN, LEICESTER income £1.7m
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY AND SAINT ETHELBERT IN HEREFORD income £2.7m
CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF THE HOLY AND UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF CARLISLE income £2.0m
CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF CHRIST AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, ROCHESTER income £2.7m
CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST THOMAS OF CANTERBURY PORTSMOUTH income £1.3m

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL COVENTRY	£2.0m	£70,000 - £80,000	1	unclear	—	no doubt
THE CATHEDRAL AND COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST MARY, ST DENYS AND ST GEORGE IN MANCHESTER FY2024	£1.9m	£90,000 - £99,999	1	unclear	—	no doubt
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST MARTIN, LEICESTER FY2024	£1.7m	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY AND SAINT ETHELBERT IN HEREFORD FY2025	£2.7m	more than £60,000	1	below	—	no doubt
CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF THE HOLY AND UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF CARLISLE FY2025	£2.0m	£70,001 - £80,000	4	unclear	—	no doubt
CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF CHRIST AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, ROCHESTER FY2025	£2.7m	—	—	below	—	no doubt

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