NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES

Registered charity 525775 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Founded by Royal Charter in 1907, NLW is one of the legal deposit libraries of the UK and has benefited from this status since 1911. Through this privilege, by purchase, donation or legacy it has built up a significant collection specialising in Wales, the Welsh and the other Celtic peoples that includes a wide range of media: books, records, maps, pictures, films & for the benefit of the public.

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the Library achieved a net income of £5.196m for the year, with total incoming resources of £22.33m against total resources expended of £17.6m. The trustees report that unrestricted public reserves decreased to £440k, while total fund balances stood at £112.9m, supported by significant unrestricted private funds and restricted capital reserves. The auditor confirmed the accounts were prepared on a going concern basis with no material uncertainties identified.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Audit Wales. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Employees paid over £60,000: 9 (FY2024) → 8 (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — National Library of Wales, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru (matched by registered charity number).

Property (HM Land Registry)

2 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

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

Reported reserves equal ~0.4 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (91% 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: 6.5% of total income — above the median for charities its size (3.8%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (26/01/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (29/12/2016) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Ashok Ahirchair
• Andrew Evans
• David Hay
• Dr Andrew Cusworth
• Dr Andrew Prescott
• Dr Janet Wademan
• Dr Mohini Gupta
• Gronw Percy
• Hannah Lindsay
• Heledd Bebb
• JOSEPHINE WILLIAMS
• John Trevor Allen
• Michael Gibbon K.C.
• Quentin Howard · trustee of 1 other charity
• Susan Davies

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

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

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 Friends of the Nations' Libraries.

• Friends of the Nations' Libraries income £458k
• NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WALES income £49.2m
• CYNGOR LLYFRAU CYMRU-THE BOOKS COUNCIL OF WALES income £7.5m
• Libraries Connected income £2.7m
• CWMNI PLAS GLYN'Y-WEDDW LIMITED income £1.3m
• LLENYDDIAETH CYMRU - LITERATURE WALES income £1.3m

Side by side with its peers

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