MUSICIANS BENEVOLENT FUND

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

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.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Buzzacott Audit LLP.

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.

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 4.8 months; 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

• 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 · trustee of 1 other charity
• 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.

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 MAYOR OF LONDON'S FUND FOR YOUNG MUSICIANS.

• THE MAYOR OF LONDON'S FUND FOR YOUNG MUSICIANS income £878k
• THE MUSIC IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS TRUST income £1.1m
• THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF MUSIC SOCIETIES income £1.0m
• THE ASSOCIATED BOARD OF THE ROYAL SCHOOLS OF MUSIC income £50.9m
• OXFORD PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA TRUST income £3.1m
• FRIENDS OF THE EDWARD SAID NATIONAL CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC UK income £105k