COLLECTIONS TRUST

Registered charity 273984 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q5146115 · Wikipedia · also known as M D A (EUROPE), THE MUSEUM DOCUMENTATION ASSOCIATION LIMITED

The Collections Trust is the UK's independent organisation for cultural collections. We campaign for the public right to access and engage with collections.We do this by:-Promoting best practiceEncouraging InnovationRepresenting the interests of the sector

Objects

TO PROMOTE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC BY THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUSEUMS AND SIMILAR ORGANISATIONS BY ALL APPROPRIATE METHODS.

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 · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Leicester, East Midlands, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity finished the year with an overall surplus of £54,821 and total funds carried forward of £253,511. Per the trustees' report, free reserves of £233,049 fall within the stated policy target range of £120,000 to £240,000, representing approximately five to six months of operating costs. The trustees confirmed there are no material uncertainties regarding the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

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 3 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
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• 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.

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

Reported reserves equal ~6.3 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (99% 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: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Chante St Clair Inglis
• David Trevor Jones
• Dr Aruna Bhaugeerutty
• Dr Christopher Robert Wingfield
• Jack Daniel Kirby
• KATHRYN ANNE HUNTER · trustee of 1 other charity
• Laura Pye · trustee of 1 other charity
• Natalie Golding · trustee of 1 other charity
• Paul Anthony Stevenson
• Paula Loreto Granados Garcia
• Robert Bending
• Ruth Margaret McKew
• Ruth Sloss · trustee of 1 other charity
• Samantha Johnson

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

Operates in: Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

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 THE NATIONAL GALLERY TRUST.

• THE NATIONAL GALLERY TRUST income £8.4m
• THE COMMONWEAL TRUST income £43k
• TOURING EXHIBITIONS GROUP income £239k
• THE ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST income £85.3m
• THE TALENT FOUNDRY TRUST income £2.0m
• THE TC FOUNDATION income £229k

Side by side with its peers

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