MUSICIANS BENEVOLENT FUND

Registered charity 228089 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q6942595 · Wikipedia · also known as HELP MUSICIANS UK, Help Musicians, MBF · also registered in Scotland as SC049625 (OSCR)

The Musicians Benevolent Fund relieves need amongst professional musicians and their dependants and advances musical education for young musicians.

Objects

THE OBJECTS FOR WHICH THE ASSOCIATION IS ESTABLISHED (THE "OBJECTS") ARE FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT: (A) TO RELIEVE POVERTY AND FINANCIAL HARDSHIP AND TO ADVANCE EDUCATION AMONG: (1) MUSICIANS; (2) THOSE PERSONS (NOT BEING MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION) WHO WORK OR HAVE WORKED IN PROFESSIONS OR OCCUPATIONS CLOSELY CONNECTED WITH MUSIC AND WHO IN THE OPINION OF THE ASSOCIATION HAVE RENDERED VALUABLE SERVICE TO MUSIC; (3) THE SPOUSES, CHILDREN AND OTHER DEPENDENTS OF THOSE SET OUT IN (1) AND (2) ABOVE; AND (B) TO ADVANCE MUSICAL EDUCATION AMONG MUSICIANS AND ALSO AMONG MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC. NOTHING IN THESE ARTICLES SHALL AUTHORISE AN APPLICATION OF THE ASSOCIATION’S PROPERTY FOR PURPOSES WHICH ARE NOT CHARITABLE IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 7 OF THE CHARITIES AND TRUSTEE INVESTMENT (SCOTLAND) ACT 2005 AND/OR SECTION 2 OF THE CHARITIES ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 2008.

Area of benefit: NATIONAL

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 · Education/training · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

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

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total income decreased by 20% to £5.7 million, primarily due to a reduction in legacy income, while total expenditure was £9.2 million. The charity reported a net loss of £1.1 million after investment gains, bringing total reserves down to £47.9 million from £49.0 million in the prior year. The trustees note that the current level of funding is not sustainable in the long term and intend to reduce reserves in a controlled manner until they reach an appropriate level.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Buzzacott Audit LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Employees paid over £60,000: 10 (FY2024) → 14 (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
• 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
• 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.

Property (HM Land Registry)

2 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold); recorded price paid £97k. 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)

Reported reserves equal ~9.7 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 30.6% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (01/05/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (17/09/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (10/05/2021) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (28/04/2021) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (06/08/2018) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Clifford Gary Fluet
• Isabel Garvey
• James Lewis Benner · trustee of 1 other charity
• Jonathan Peter Higgins
• Louisa McCann · trustee of 1 other charity
• Nicola Cornwell
• Robert Duncan James Shennan · trustee of 2 other charities
• Roger James Boulton
• Samuel Donald Jackson
• Stephanie Tina Haughton-Campbell
• Stephen Christopher Neil Swift · trustee of 1 other charity
• Victoria Charlotte Davies

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 THE LOAN FUND FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

• THE LOAN FUND FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS income £81k
• MUSIC MINDS MATTER income £1.3m
• THE AUSTRALIAN MUSICAL FOUNDATION IN LONDON income £33k
• WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF MUSICIANS CHARITABLE FUND income £508k
• THE MUSIC WORKS (CHARITY) income £1.8m
• FUTURE TALENT MUSICIANS income £468k

Side by side with its peers

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