BOOKTRUST

Charity overview
Activities - how the charity spends its money
Reading changes lives. Booktrust ensures all children and families have the opportunity to enjoy and be confident in their reading. We provide expertise for parents and professionals to make quality choices of reading for children. We engage with communities in the promotion of reading. And we advocate for national and local policies to recognise the social and economic importance of reading.
Income and expenditure
Data for financial year ending 31 March 2024
Total income:
£12,022,881
Donations and legacies | £1.91m | |
Charitable activities | £10.02m | |
Other trading activities | £30.18k | |
Investments | £63.57k | |
Other | £0 |
Total expenditure:
£12,097,942
Raising funds | £1.10m | |
Charitable activities | £11.00m | |
Other | £0 |
£148,288 investments gains (losses)
Total income includes £1,007,971 from 79 government contract(s) and £6,660,900 from 4 government grant(s)
Charitable expenditure
Charitable expenditure with investment gains
Charitable expenditure
Some charities generate all, or a substantial part, of their income from investments which may have been donated to the charity as endowment or set aside by the charity from its own resources in the past. Such investments usually take the form of stocks and shares but may include other assets, such as property, that are capable of generating income and/or capital growth.
In managing their spending and investments charities need to strike a balance between the needs of future and current beneficiaries. They also need to take account of spending commitments that may stretch over a number of future years. To do this, charities will normally adopt an investment strategy designed to generate both income and capital growth. To maximise returns trustees may commit to investment strategies for several years.
Investments can experience large swings in value so trustees may, in a particular year, decide to realise and spend part of their charity’s capital or to invest part of its income.
By clicking the investment gains checkbox the charitable spending bar is adjusted to take account of capital growth as well as income. This shows the balance the charity is striking, between spending on current beneficiaries and retaining resources for future beneficiaries.
Raising funds and other expenditure | £1.10m | |
Charitable expenditure | £11.00m |
Raising funds and other expenditure | £1.10m | |
Charitable expenditure | £11.00m | |
Retained for future use | £73.23k |
People

97 Employee(s)
10 Trustee(s)
Employees with total benefits over £60,000
Number of employees | |
---|---|
£60k to £70k | 4 |
£70k to £80k | 4 |
£80k to £90k | 2 |
£100k to £110k | 2 |
£110k to £120k | 1 |
Fundraising
Trading
Trustee payments
What, who, how, where
- Education/training
- Arts/culture/heritage/science
- Children/young People
- People With Disabilities
- People Of A Particular Ethnic Or Racial Origin
- The General Public/mankind
- Provides Services
- Provides Advocacy/advice/information
- Sponsors Or Undertakes Research
- Throughout England And Wales
- Northern Ireland
Governance
- 01 July 1963: Standard registration
- 01 June 2023: Funds received from 1080300 THE JANE GIBSON CHARITABLE TRUST FUND
- BOOK TRUST (Previous name)
- BOOKTRUST (Previous name)
- NATIONAL BOOK LEAGUE (Previous name)
- Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
- Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
- Complaints handling
- Complaints policy and procedures
- Conflicting interests
- Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
- 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
- Paying staff
- Risk management
- Safeguarding policy and procedures
- Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
- Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
- Social media policy and procedures
- Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
- Trustee expenses policy and procedures
Trustees
Trustees are the people responsible for controlling the work, management and administration of the charity on behalf of its beneficiaries. Generally trustees are treasurer, chair, board member etc. The trustees are responsible for keeping this list up to date and can do this by updating their details as they happen through the online service
10 Trustee(s)
Name | Role | Date of appointment | Other trusteeships | Reporting status of other trusteeships | ||||
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John Joseph Coughlan | Chair | 28 February 2018 |
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Ellen Kristina Broome | Trustee | 01 September 2024 |
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Edward David Poultney | Trustee | 01 September 2024 |
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Professor Tim Michael Hobbs | Trustee | 01 September 2024 |
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Hilary Anne Murray Hill | Trustee | 03 May 2022 |
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Professor Matthew Ellis Rowland Cripps | Trustee | 01 October 2021 |
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Victoria Kate Sellick | Trustee | 25 June 2021 |
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Gautam Shashichandra Dalal | Trustee | 25 June 2021 |
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Nigel Jeremy Langstaff | Trustee | 25 June 2021 |
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June O'Sullivan MBE | Trustee | 19 December 2018 |
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Financial history
Financial period end date
Income / Expenditure | 31/03/2020 | 31/03/2021 | 31/03/2022 | 31/03/2023 | 31/03/2024 | ||
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Total gross income | £9.99m | £10.39m | £11.07m | £11.92m | £12.02m | |
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Total expenditure | £10.34m | £10.22m | £11.55m | £13.77m | £12.10m | |
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Income from government contracts | £1.10m | £961.76k | £861.11k | £957.35k | £1.01m | |
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Income from government grants | £6.59m | £6.66m | £6.64m | £6.97m | £6.66m | |
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Income - Donations and legacies | £1.24m | £1.78m | £1.76m | £1.92m | £1.91m | |
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Income - Other trading activities | £0 | £0 | £0 | £30.35k | £30.18k | |
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Income - Charitable activities | £8.70m | £8.59m | £9.27m | £9.95m | £10.02m | |
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Income - Endowments | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | |
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Income - Investment | £31.71k | £22.55k | £13.92k | £29.49k | £63.57k | |
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Income - Other | £12.75k | £4.52k | £22.58k | £0 | £0 | |
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Income - Legacies | £1.17k | £89.81k | £100 | £0 | £863 | |
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Expenditure - Charitable activities | £9.44m | £9.39m | £10.69m | £12.79m | £11.00m | |
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Expenditure - Raising funds | £897.53k | £821.09k | £862.70k | £984.00k | £1.10m | |
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Expenditure - Governance | £46.58k | £37.42k | £69.42k | £52.00k | £67.00k | |
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Expenditure - Grants institution | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | |
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Expenditure - Investment management | £42.08k | £34.88k | £64.04k | £42.21k | £34.78k | |
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Expenditure - Other | £5.53k | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
Assets and liabilities
Definitions for assets and liabilities
These are assets, other than investments, which are held for more than 12 months and used to run and administer the charity such as buildings, offices, exhibits and fixtures and fittings.
Long term InvestmentsInvestments are assets held by the charity with the sole aim of generating income which will be used for their charitable purposes such as deposit accounts, shares, rental property and unit trusts.
Investment assets are re-valued every year and included in the balance sheet at their current market value.
Long term investments are held for more than 12 months.
These are assets held generally for less than 12 months such as cash and bank balances, debtors, investments to be sold within the coming year and trading stock.
Defined benefit pension scheme asset or liabilityThis is a surplus or deficit in any defined benefit pension scheme operated and represents a potential long-term asset or liability.
Total liabilitiesThese are all the amounts owed by the charity at the balance sheet date to third parties such as bills due but not yet paid, bank overdrafts and loans and mortgages.
Asset / Liability | 31/03/2020 | 31/03/2021 | 31/03/2022 | 31/03/2023 | 31/03/2024 | ||
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Own use assets | £0 | £0 | £4.15m | £1.82m | £0 | |
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Long-term investments | £5.35m | £6.47m | £2.50m | £2.50m | £0 | |
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Other assets | £3.65m | £4.32m | £5.35m | £4.47m | £8.35m | |
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Defined benefit pension scheme asset or liability | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | |
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Total liabilities | £1.78m | £2.26m | £3.73m | £2.67m | £2.16m |
Accounts and annual returns
Title | Reporting year | Date received | Received | Download |
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Annual return | 31 March 2024 | 28 January 2025 | On Time | |
Accounts and TAR | 31 March 2024 | 28 January 2025 | On Time | Download Open in new window |
Annual return | 31 March 2023 | 29 January 2024 | On Time | |
Accounts and TAR | 31 March 2023 | 29 January 2024 | On Time | Download Open in new window |
Annual return | 31 March 2022 | 19 January 2023 | On Time | |
Accounts and TAR | 31 March 2022 | 19 January 2023 | On Time | Download Open in new window |
Annual return | 31 March 2021 | 25 January 2022 | On Time | |
Accounts and TAR | 31 March 2021 | 25 January 2022 | On Time | Download Open in new window |
Annual return | 31 March 2020 | 19 January 2021 | On Time | |
Accounts and TAR | 31 March 2020 | 19 January 2021 | On Time | Download Open in new window |
Governing document
It is not the full text of the charity's governing document.
MEMORANDUM AND ARTICLES INCORPORATED 28/11/1925 AS AMENDED BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION(S) DATED 30/09/1982 AS AMENDED BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION(S) DATED 25/09/1986 AS AMENDED BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION(S) DATED 28/09/1994 AS AMENDED BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION(S) DATED 28/09/1999 NOW ARTICLES ADOPTED BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION DATED 21/09/2011 AS AMENDED BY CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION ON CHANGE OF NAME DATED 23/03/2006 as amended on 02 Jul 2019 as amended on 09 Oct 2023
Charitable objects
TO PROMOTE ENCOURAGE FOSTER OR STRENGTHEN THE HABIT OF READING AND THE WIDER AND MORE GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF BOOKS OF BY AND AMONG ALL PEOPLE.
Area of benefit
NOT DEFINED
Contact information
- Address:
-
1 Aire Street
Leeds
LS1 4PR
- Phone:
- 0113 457 0026
- Email:
- Accounts@booktrust.org.uk
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