THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS

Registered charity 208673 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Founded in 1886, the BSA is a UK-registered charity and is one of a network of British International Research Institutes (BIRI) that receive annual funding from the British Academy. The BSA exists to promote research of international excellence in all disciplines pertaining to Greek lands, from fine art to archaeometry and in all periods to modern times.

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

Latest income

£1.7m

Latest spending

£1.9m

Registered

1962

Accounts read

FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net movement in funds deficit of £116,824 for the year ended 5 April 2025, compared to a surplus in the prior year. The trustees confirm that unrestricted reserves are slightly below their stated policy target of three months' charitable expenditure, but they remain confident in the charity's ability to meet its obligations 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: £100,001 - £110,000 — in the top quarter for charities its size (median £70k)

“One employee earned between £100,000 and £110,000 per annum (2024: One between £100,000 and £110,000).” — page 33

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Largest income source: Grants from British Academy (61% of income)

“The British Academy is the School’s main provider of funding; during the year it provided £1,036,474 (2023/24: £965,267) of the total income of the School of £1,701,514.” — page 10

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Reserves position: below the charity's own stated reserves policy (held: £524k)

“At year end, Unrestricted Reserves are slightly below this level but the Trustees are confident of the BSA’s continued ability to meet its obligations as they fall due.” — page 10

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Donations received from trustees

“Donations of £15,550 (2024: £1,082) have been received from trustees during the year.” — page 35

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Trading subsidiary: J A Saunders Memorial Fund

“The J A Saunders Memorial Fund was a separately registered charity whose constitution required its Trustees to be nominated by the School. In September 1999 it was re-registered by the Charity Commission as a subsidiary of the School.” — page 51

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Moore Kingston Smith LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

Top pay band moved from £70,001 - £80,000 (FY2024) to £100,001 - £110,000 (FY2025).

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

Leadership, per the charity’s website

Professor Rebecca Sweetman — Director (source)
Dr Georgios Mouratidis — Assistant Director (source)
Dr Evangelia Kiriatzi — Fitch Laboratory 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.

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

British Academy — “Founded in 1886, the BSA is a UK-registered charity and is one of nine British International Research Institutes that receive annual funding…” (source page)

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 05/04/2025)

Total income

£1.7m

Total spending

£1.9m

Cost of raising funds

£79k

Reserves (reported)

£524k

Employees

32

Reported reserves equal ~3.3 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Other (65% 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: 4.7% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

Professor Roderick Beatonchair
Dr Andrew Shapland
Dr Angela Monaghan
Dr Daniel Stewart
Dr Edward Jones
Dr James Hua
Dr Liana Giannakopoulou
Dr Lyndsay Coo
Dr NICOLA BANNISTER
Dr Victoria McGuinness
Huw Smith
Kate Smith
Nicholas Alastair McFee Service
Patrick Harold Reeve
Professor Arlene Holmes-Henderson
Professor Carl Peter Heron
Professor Catherine Morgan · trustee of 1 other charity

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

Operates in: Greece · Throughout London

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
05/04/2025	£1.7m	£1.9m
05/04/2024	£1.7m	£1.9m
05/04/2023	£3.8m	£1.8m
05/04/2022	£1.2m	£1.6m
05/04/2021	£1.5m	£1.3m

Common questions

Is THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity reported a net movement in funds deficit of £116,824 for the year ended 5 April 2025, compared to a surplus in the prior year. The trustees confirm that unrestricted reserves are slightly below their stated policy target of three months' charitable expenditure, but they remain confident in the charity's ability to meet its obligations as they fall due. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Moore Kingston Smith LLP.

What does the highest-paid employee of THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS earn?

Per its FY2025 accounts, the highest-paid employee was in the £100,001 - £110,000 band.

Who funds THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS?

Funders whose own accounts filings name THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS as a grant recipient include THE BRITISH ACADEMY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HISTORICAL PHILOSOPHICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES, THE MICHAEL MARKS CHARITABLE TRUST, SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HELLENIC STUDIES.

Known funders

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

Funder	Year	Amount	Purpose (as stated by the funder)
THE BRITISH ACADEMY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HISTORICAL PHILOSOPHICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES	FY2024	£1.2m	Grants to institutions
THE BRITISH ACADEMY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HISTORICAL PHILOSOPHICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES	FY2025	£1.0m	British International Research Institutes
THE BRITISH ACADEMY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HISTORICAL PHILOSOPHICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES	FY2023	£867k	British International Research Institutes
THE BRITISH ACADEMY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HISTORICAL PHILOSOPHICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES	FY2022	£803k
THE MICHAEL MARKS CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2025	£10k
SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HELLENIC STUDIES	FY2025	£1k	Institutional grant

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 BRITISH INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AT ANKARA	2	£332k
THE MAURICE WOHL CHARITABLE FOUNDATION	1	£1.4m
THE NUFFIELD FOUNDATION	1	£518k
THE SINO-BRITISH FELLOWSHIP TRUST	1	£214k
THE LINBURY TRUST	1	£66k
THE PAUL MELLON CENTRE FOR STUDIES IN BRITISH ART	1	£55k
BRITISH ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE ASSOCIATION	1	£32k
ROYAL COMMISSION FOR THE EXHIBITION OF 1851	1	£20k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE BRITISH SOCIETY OF AESTHETICS.

THE BRITISH SOCIETY OF AESTHETICS income £194k
BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION income £308k
THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME income £2.7m
THE BRITISH ACADEMY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HISTORICAL PHILOSOPHICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES income £106.2m
THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AT ANKARA income £966k
BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR AMERICAN STUDIES income £112k

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS	£1.7m	£100,001 - £110,000	—	below	—	no doubt
THE BRITISH SOCIETY OF AESTHETICS FY2023	£194k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION FY2024	£308k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME FY2025	£2.7m	£110,001 - £120,000	—	above	—	no doubt
THE BRITISH ACADEMY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HISTORICAL PHILOSOPHICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES FY2025	£106.2m	—	—	unclear	—	no doubt
THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AT ANKARA FY2025	£966k	£60,001 - £70,000	1	above	—	no doubt

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