BRITISH HUMANIST ASSOCIATION
Registered charity 285987 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as HUMANISTS UK
The British Humanist Association (Humanists UK) promotes Humanism and supports and represents people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs. Humanists UK provides educational resources on Humanism and humanist funerals and other ceremonies, and campaigns against religious privilege and discrimination on grounds of religion or belief.
Causes: Education/training · Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity · Other Charitable Purposes · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2024 accounts
The accounts state that the charity ended the year with a deficit of £70k, which was lower than budgeted, and total funds held amounted to £4,279,741. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted reserves of £4,061,378 are currently more than sufficient to meet the stated reserves policy target of three months of budgeted expenditure (£940k).
Automated summary of the FY2024 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Employees paid over £60,000: 7
“Seven employees had combined salary and employer National Insurance payments in excess of £60,000” — page 41
Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Reserves policy: three months of expenditure (held: £4.1m)
“The trustees consider that the target for reserves held by Humanists UK should be equivalent to three months of expenditure.” — page 24
Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Subscription to Humanists International
“The Association paid an annual subscription to Humanists International of £28,328 (2023: £28,536) and contributed £3,500 (2023: £9,167) to Humanist International projects.”
“The Chief Executive of Humanists UK is also a Director and Trustee of ACEVO of which Humanists UK is a member and paid £469 in membership fees (2023: £469).” — page 49
Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Membership fees to ACEVO
“The Association paid an annual subscription to Humanists International of £28,328 (2023: £28,536) and contributed £3,500 (2023: £9,167) to Humanist International projects.”
“The Chief Executive of Humanists UK is also a Director and Trustee of ACEVO of which Humanists UK is a member and paid £469 in membership fees (2023: £469).” — page 49
Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Membership fees to Religious Education Council
“The Association paid an annual subscription to Humanists International of £28,328 (2023: £28,536) and contributed £3,500 (2023: £9,167) to Humanist International projects.”
“The Chief Executive of Humanists UK is also a Director and Trustee of ACEVO of which Humanists UK is a member and paid £469 in membership fees (2023: £469).” — page 49
Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by Knox Cropper LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.
In the news
Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).
Leadership, per the charity’s website
- Deborah Hyde — Chief Executive/CEO (source)
- Janet Ellis — Chair (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.
Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2024)
Cost of raising funds
£241k
Reported reserves equal ~13.3 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 6.8% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).
Register events
- Received assets from another charity (20/07/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
- Received assets from another charity (18/10/2023) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
- Amy Walden
- Charley Jarrett
- David Iain Deboys
- Emma Shepherd
- Ginny Collins
- Kate West
- Kay Jones · trustee of 1 other charity
- Keiron McCabe
- Nicole Maxine Saunders
- Professor Simon Walker-Samuel
- Rebecca Jackson
- Roland Arthur Davis
- Satnam Lehal
- Sharda Dean
- Tamar Ghosh
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Guernsey · Isle Of Man · Jersey · Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales
Income and spending
Common questions
Is BRITISH HUMANIST ASSOCIATION financially healthy?
Per its FY2024 accounts: The accounts state that the charity ended the year with a deficit of £70k, which was lower than budgeted, and total funds held amounted to £4,279,741. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted reserves of £4,061,378 are currently more than sufficient to meet the stated reserves policy target of three months of budgeted expenditure (£940k). Its FY2024 accounts were audited by Knox Cropper LLP.
Who funds BRITISH HUMANIST ASSOCIATION?
Funders whose own accounts filings name BRITISH HUMANIST ASSOCIATION as a grant recipient include THE A B CHARITABLE TRUST, THE Y B CHARITY.
Known funders
Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.
Government & lottery funding
Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).
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 BRITISH HUMANE ASSOCIATION.
Side by side with its peers
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