VARIETY THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY

Registered charity 209259 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THE HEART OF VARIETY LIMITED, THE VARIETY CLUB CHILDREN'S CHARITY, THE VARIETY CLUB CHILDREN'S CHARITY LIMITED, VARIETY CLUB · also registered in Scotland as SC038505 (OSCR)

(1) promote and provide for the care and upbringing of sick, disabled and disadvantaged children within the UK(2) advancement of education and the relief of financial need of children within the UK(3) provision of facilities for recreation and leisure time occupation for children in the interests of their social welfare with the object of improving the conditions of life for such children

Objects

1. TO PROMOTE AND PROVIDE FOR THE CARE AND UPBRINGING OF SICK, DISABLED AND DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN WITHIN THE UNITED KINGDOM; 2. THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION AND THE RELIEF OF FINANCIAL NEED OF CHILDREN WITHIN THE UNITED KINGDOM; 3. TO UNDERTAKE AND TO ASSIST OTHERS TO UNDERTAKE RESEARCH INTO ANY ILLNESS OR AFFLICTION AFFECTING CHILDREN WHICH WILL ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE AND TO PUBLISH THE USEFUL RESULTS OF SUCH RESEARCH; 4. THE PROVISION OF FACILITIES FOR RECREATION AND OTHER LEISURE TIME OCCUPATION FOR CHILDREN IN THE INTERESTS OF THEIR SOCIAL WELFARE WITH THE OBJECT OF IMPROVING THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE FOR SUCH CHILDREN

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

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 · Disability · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity generated a net surplus of £534,666 and maintained free unrestricted reserves of £1,161,312, which the Trustees consider appropriate given the economic environment. Per the trustees' report, the charity remains in a strong financial position with cash at bank of £2.71m and diversified income streams, allowing it to continue delivering its charitable objectives.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Saffery LLP. Discloses 4 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
• 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
• 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.

In the news

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

• Variety – the Children’s Charity Invites Moviegoers to Be Heroes Through Limited-Edition AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY Gold Heart Pin Campaign boxofficepro.com · 29/10/2026
• Variety – the Children’s Charity awards grants to 104 Iowa nonprofits businessrecord.com · 23/09/2026
• Fareway customers raise over $158,000 for Variety - the Children’s Charity dakotanewsnow.com · 13/08/2026
• Fareway customers raise over $158,000 for Variety - the Children’s Charity ktiv.com · 13/08/2026
• St. Louis Business 500: Q&A with Brian Roy, Variety the Children’s Charity of St. Louis stlmag.com · 19/01/2026
• PAK’nSAVE partners with Variety – the Children’s Charity to double Christmas donations for Kiwi families foodstuffs.co.nz · 09/12/2025
• Cilla Black’s Iconic Dress Auction to Support Variety, the Children’s Charity theatreweekly.com · 27/10/2025
• Variety - The Children's Charity of the Delaware Valley turns 6abc lobby into pop-up marketplace 6abc.com · 23/07/2025

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 00509811
• Trading subsidiary: VARIETY EVENTS LIMITED Companies House 02280720

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Variety, the Children's Charity (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Laurence Guinness — Chief Executive (source)
• Pooja Aggarwal — Director of Finance and Operations (source)
• Lyn Staunton — Development Director - North West (source)
• Lindsey Cape — Director of Fundraising and Communications (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).

• St. James’s Place Foundation — “St. James’s Place Foundation” (source page)
• The Geddes Family Trust — “The Geddes Family Trust” (source page)

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• FERGUSON, Rory James De Poulton — director, appointed 20/04/2026on trustee list
• YATES, Philip John — director, appointed 20/04/2026on trustee list
• CARNIE, Andrew — director, appointed 19/05/2025on trustee list
• REID, Stefanie Mcleod — director, appointed 19/05/2025on trustee list
• DAVIES KC, Helen Louise — director, appointed 03/05/2024not on trustee list
• GEDDES, Andrew Gordon — director, appointed 03/05/2024on trustee list
• BRYER, Tania Sara — director, appointed 22/05/2023on trustee list
• SHALSON, Talya Kim — director, appointed 27/02/2023on trustee list
• SAMMEROFF, Candice Laura — director, appointed 27/02/2023on trustee list
• WHITTLE, Benjamin Thomas — director, appointed 11/02/2022on trustee list
• MOHINDRA, Tesula — director, appointed 29/04/2021on trustee list
• GUINNESS, Laurence — secretary, appointed 08/12/2025

Official officers record.

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

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

Reported reserves equal ~2.1 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 19.0% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Andrew Carniechair
• Andrew Gordon Geddes
• Benjamin Thomas Whittle
• Candice Sammeroff
• Helen Louise Davies KC
• Philip John Yates
• Rory James de Poulton Ferguson
• Stefanie McLeod Reid
• Talya Shalson
• Tania Bryer · trustee of 1 other charity
• Tesula Mohindra

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

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · 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 UK CARE FOR CHILDREN.

• UK CARE FOR CHILDREN income £1.7m
• CHILD RIGHTS AND YOU UK income £84k
• THE CHILDREN'S FAMILY TRUST income £9.7m
• KIDS CARE LONDON income £780k
• KIDS MATTER income £892k
• THE SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND income £262.5m

Side by side with its peers

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