ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY

Registered charity 213693 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q1292443 · Wikipedia · also known as THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY, THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY PRIZE FUND, THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY PRIZES FUND

The RPS seeks to create a future for music through the encouragement of creativity, the recognition of excellence and the promotion of understanding. Artistic activities focus on composers and young musicians and through a series of awards and discussion it seeks to raise the public consciousness of the finest music making today and create a forum for debate about the direction of classical music.

Objects

TO ENCOURAGE AN APPRECIATION BY THE PUBLIC OF THE ART OF MUSIC, IN PARTICULAR TO DO SO THROUGH THE PROMOTION OF THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN SOCIETY AND THROUGH ACTIVITIES WHICH FALL WITHIN THE CONCEPTS OF PROMOTING AN UNDERSTANDING OF MUSIC, ENCOURAGING CREATIVITY IN MUSIC AND GIVING RECOGNITION TO EXCELLENCE IN MUSIC AND MUSICIANS

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: Arts/culture/heritage/science · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

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

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity achieved a small surplus on unrestricted funds, increasing its unrestricted reserves to £160,780. This figure is noted as being close to the trustees' target of six months' operating costs, which they measure at just over £170,000 for the 2025-26 financial year.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). Discloses 6 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
• 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
• 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.

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

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 00186522

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.

• CHAPMAN, Guy Mark — director, appointed 08/07/2026on trustee list
• MIDDLETON, Joseph Paul — director, appointed 23/04/2026on trustee list
• THARP, Kenneth Olumuyiwa — director, appointed 23/01/2026not on trustee list
• BUCKLEY, Jo — director, appointed 18/10/2023on trustee list
• SHAH, Rikesh — director, appointed 04/05/2021on trustee list
• DIXON, Angela Christine — director, appointed 06/05/2020not on trustee list
• ROBEY OBE, Victoria Susan Hull, Lady — director, appointed 29/11/2017not on trustee list

Official officers record.

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/08/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~3.8 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 7.1% of total income — above the median for charities its size (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (24/10/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (10/01/2022) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Angela Christine Dixon MBE · trustee of 1 other charity
• Dr Hannah French
• Guy Chapman
• JO BUCKLEY
• Joseph Middleton
• Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE
• Lady Victoria Susan Hull Robey CBE · trustee of 3 other charities
• RIKESH SHAH · trustee of 1 other charity

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.

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 ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA LIMITED.

• ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA LIMITED income £11.8m
• THE ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY income £12.6m
• COVENTRY PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY income £26k
• YORKSHIRE PHILHARMONIC CHOIR LIMITED income £60k
• LONDON PHILHARMONIC CHOIR income £95k
• PHILHARMONIA LTD income £11.1m

Side by side with its peers

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