THE BIRMINGHAM ROYAL INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND

Registered charity 516477 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q4916792 · Wikipedia · also known as BRIB

The education and welfare of blind people or those people significantly handicapped by defective vision or threatened by blindness by securing the provision of assistance and support in the greater Birmingham area.

Objects

TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF, AND TO RELIEVE THE POVERTY, SICKNESS, HARDSHIP AND DISTRESS OF THE BLIND (SUCH TERM INCLUDING PERSONS WHO THOUGH NOT TOTALLY BLIND ARE SIGNIFICANTLY HANDICAPPED BY DEFECTIVE VISIONOR ARE THREATENED WITH BLINDNESS), EITHER GENERALLY OR INDIVIDUALLY, BY SECURING THE PROVISION OF ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT TO THE BLIND IN THE COMMUNITY AND SUCH OTHER CHARITABLE MEANS AS THE CHARITY SHALL FROMTIME TO TIME DETERMINE; TO PROMOTE THE EDUCATION OF PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS; TO PROMOTE THE RELIEF OF PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS; AND TO PROVIDE FACILITIES FOR RECREATION AND LEISURE TIME ACTIVITIES FOR THE BENEFIT OF PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS.

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: General Charitable Purposes · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Birmingham, West Midlands, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net decrease in funds of £38,885 for the year ended 31 March 2025, driven by a deficit on investments and reduced grant distributions to associated charities. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted reserves stood at £4,041,598, with £542,146 identified as free reserves available for distribution, while the governors maintain a designated investment reserve of £1,612,353 to support ongoing activities.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Blick Rothenberg Audit LLP. Discloses 5 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.

• 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
• Investment
• Risk management
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• 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, 1 was received after the due date: year ending 31/03/2023 (received 29/02/2024, 29 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

• Geoffrey Oakley — 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.

Property (HM Land Registry)

3 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (3 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

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

Reported reserves equal ~44.9 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (93% 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: 1.5% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Matthew Roger Bullockchair
• Beverley Jessop
• Jane Edgerton
• Marc Barnaby Reeves
• Mark Paul Draisey

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

Operates in: Birmingham City

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 BIRMINGHAM DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTRE.

• BIRMINGHAM DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTRE income £1.6m
• THE BIRMINGHAM SETTLEMENT income £2.4m
• THE ROYAL SOCIETY FOR BLIND CHILDREN income £4.5m
• BIRMINGHAM MUNICIPAL CHARITY income £25k
• BURY SOCIETY FOR BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED income £181k
• THE SUNDERLAND AND NORTH DURHAM ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND income £216k

Side by side with its peers

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