TBF TRUST

Registered charity 271602 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THE BARNABAS FUND, THE IN CONTACT TRUST · also registered in Scotland as SC050502 (OSCR)

The charity seeks to maintain, advance and promote the Christian faith, and to relieve poverty and suffering, particularly of Christians suffering discrimination and persecution because of their faith. Grants are made to enable local project partners to support persecuted Christians in their areas. Assistance is also given to connected charities in circumstances that fall under these objects.

Objects

TO MAINTAIN ADVANCE AND PROMOTE THE CHRISTIAN FAITH BY SUCH MEANS AS THE TRUSTEES SHALL IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION THINK FIT AND FOR SUCH CHARITABLE PURPOSES FOR THE RELIEF OF POVERTY SUFFERING AND DISTRESS AMONG THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD BY THE PROVISION OF FINANCIAL AND OTHER ASSISTANCE.

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: Education/training · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Overseas Aid/famine Relief · Religious Activities · Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Wiltshire, South West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity held unrestricted reserves of £120,437 and total funds of £10,211,061, with the majority held in an investment portfolio valued at £9,734,377. Per the trustees' report, the charity faced significant operational challenges due to a Charity Commission statutory inquiry and the closure of its bank accounts by Lloyds Bank, though it continues to operate using Barclays Bank and support from another charity. The trustees maintain that the charity has adequate resources to continue as a going concern despite these risks.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Griffin Stone Moscrop & Co. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Charity Commission inquiry

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 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
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Serious incident reporting 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.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 2 were received after the due date: year ending 31/03/2025 (received 22/06/2026, 142 days after the 31/01/2026 due date); year ending 31/03/2023 (received 19/06/2024, 140 days after the 31/01/2024 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Dr Patrick Sookhdeo — Founder/Leader (Implied by context of founding and memorial) (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.

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~1.9 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (75% 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: 13.5% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• CAROLINE JULIA CHENEVIX KERSLAKE · trustee of 2 other charities
• Canon Dr Christopher Michael Neville Sugden · trustee of 4 other charities
• Kuan Seng Ng
• Manoharan Samuel Thambusamy
• Rev Gavin Hugh Mitchell

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

Operates in: Bangladesh · Chad · Egypt · Lebanon · Mongolia · Nepal · Pakistan · Ukraine

Income and spending

Common questions

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 AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED (UNITED KINGDOM).

• AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED (UNITED KINGDOM) income £13.5m
• OXFORD BIBLE CHURCH TRUST LIMITED income £331k
• TAVISTOCK COMMUNITY CHURCH TRUST income £62k
• FIRM FOUNDATION TRUST income £36k
• BARCLAY HALL CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP TRUST income £39k
• THE RECONCILIATION TRUST income £0

Side by side with its peers

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