Skip to content
Governance Register
Sign inFind yourself
Find yourselfSign in
Search How it works For organisations For professionals

Edition

United Kingdom (current)IrelandUnited StatesNew ZealandCanadaAustraliaScotlandNorthern Ireland

Registered charity · London

The British Museum Friends

The British Museum Friends is a registered charity (number 1086080) based in London, governed by 20 trustees and chaired by George Osborne since 2021. Latest income £6.9m (2025). Source: Charity Commission register, updated 18th October 2026.

  • 20 trustees
  • Income £6.9m (2025)
How am I connected?
More
View network map Report an issue

The people who lead this organisation are listed below. Create a free account to save it, get alerts and check how you are connected.

Official record Charity Commission · updated 18th October 2026 · Sources · Free, no card or password

Network

The large node is The British Museum Friends. Red nodes are organisations, white nodes are people. Dashed links are historical or inferred. Click any node to explore.

Who leads it

Current trustees as listed by the Charity Commission, which does not publish previous trustees.

Do you help lead this organisation? Set up its network · How it works

People on this board also govern

Similar charities are matched by type of organisation or purpose and listed by latest income; shared trustees are formal board links. Neither is proof the organisations work together.

About

What it does
Education/training, Arts/culture/heritage/science
Where
Camden
Website
www.britishmuseum.org/membership.aspx (opens in a new tab)
Linked company
The British Museum Friends
Registered
2001

Income and spending

  • YearIncomeSpending
  • 2025£6.9m£6.8m
  • 2024£6.2m£6.4m
  • 2023£6.1m£9.1m
Earlier years
  • 2022£8.0m£8.6m
  • 2021£5.1m£1.4m

Income trend, 2021 to 2025.

Charitable objects

THE OBJECTS OF THE FRIENDS ARE TO SUPPORT AND ASSIST THE BRITISH MUSEUM IN MAINTAINING AND EXPANDING ITS COLLECTIONS AND SERVICES TO SCHOLARS AND TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC AND TO ASSIST OTHER CHARITABLE MUSEUMS TO ANY EXTENT THAT IN THE OPINION OF THE FRIENDS MIGHT HELP THE BRITISH MUSEUM IN THE AFOREMENTIONED MANNER.

Grants received

6 grants · £15,058,108 total

360Giving data, published by funders. Coverage only includes funders who publish their grants to 360Giving, so these figures are a floor, not a complete picture.

Top funders

  • ARCADIA · £15,053,258 (4 grants)
  • LUND TRUST · £4,850 (2 grants)

Most recent

  • LUND TRUST £2,6002025-02-17
  • LUND TRUST £2,2502021-02-01
  • ARCADIA £11,075,6802021-01-15
  • ARCADIA £2,295,6842018-05-01
  • ARCADIA £336,3042014-09-30
Board analysis

Board DNA

How this board is put together, from Charity Commission trustee records and Companies House - deterministic, no AI.iBoard compositionCounted from the dated Charity Commission trustee register: the current board only, past trustees excluded.

3.2y median 2y
average tenure
7y
longest tenure
11.5y
average years in governance

First-time vs portfolio trustees

First-time (17)

Portfolio (3)

19
company-linked trustees

Sector coverage iSector coverageThe charitable fields this board's trustees govern in elsewhere, by Charity Commission classification. Excludes this charity.

Arts/culture/heritage/science 20Education/training 20Other Charitable Purposes 1Recreation 1

Commercial experience iCommercial experienceThe industries this board's members are company directors in, by Companies House SIC code. Excludes this organisation's own company.

Other services 22Arts and leisure 9Professional services 8

Succession forecast iSuccession forecastThe number of board seats likely to open in the next twelve months - summed across the board from each dated trustee’s tenure - and the profile worth recruiting next. From the filed record, deterministic.

🔒 Succession forecast is a Pro feature - the board seats likely to open in the next year and the ideal next trustee. Explore Pro →

Health of the organisation facts side by side - the conclusion is yours

Income v spending, filed accountsiIncome v spendingTotal gross income and expenditure from filed annual returns, Charity Commission, last 5 years.
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
incomespending£6.9m latest income
ReservesiReserves12 x free reserves / annual expenditure, from the Part B annual return. The sector median is computed across all Part B filers in the same income band.

3.4 months of spending held in free reserves · median for charities its size: 3.7 months · was 49.0 in 2021

17
EmployeesiEmployeesHeadcount as filed in Part B annual returns, per financial year. Shown exactly as filed; year-on-year figures may be filed on different bases, so a comparison is only shown when the filings are plausibly comparable.

Sources

Official record from the Charity Commission register for England and Wales. Governance Register calculates the connections.

Record details
Registered charity number
1086080
Status
Registered
Governing document
MEMORANDUM AND ARTICLES INCORPORATED 29/12/2000AS AMENDED BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION(S) DATED 10/10/2011AS AMENDED BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION(S) DATED 11/12/2012
Companies House
Company number 04133346 · Active
Contact on the register
020 7323 8000 · friends@britishmuseum.org
Edition
Register edition compiled 18th October 2026
Labels
Official record from the register · Calculated derived by Governance Register. Anything added by an organisation or person is labelled as provided by them.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Report an issue · How we handle data