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Registered charity · Stratford-upon-Avon

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is a registered charity (number 209302) based in Stratford-upon-Avon, governed by 11 trustees and chaired by Viscountess Penelope Ann Cobham CBE since 2017. Latest income £8.4m (2024). Source: Charity Commission register, updated 18th October 2026.

Also known as The Shakespeare Trust (Charity Commission)

  • 11 trustees
  • Income £8.4m (2024)
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Official record Charity Commission · updated 18th October 2026 · Sources · Free, no card or password

Network

The large node is The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. 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.

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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
General Charitable Purposes, Education/training, Arts/culture/heritage/science, Environment/conservation/heritage
Where
Warwickshire
Website
www.shakespeare.org.uk (opens in a new tab)
Registered
1963

Income and spending

  • YearIncomeSpending
  • 2024£8.4m£10m
  • 2023£8.7m£9.1m
  • 2022£5.8m£7.3m
Earlier years
  • 2021£3.2m£6.1m
  • 2020£8.2m£8.1m

Income trend, 2020 to 2024.

Income source mix, 2024: Government grants 3%. From the charity's annual return.

Charitable objects

(1) TO PROMOTE IN EVERY PART OF THE WORLD THE APPRECIATION AND STUDY OF THE PLAYS AND OTHER WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND THE GENERAL ADVANCEMENT OF SHAKESPEARIAN KNOWLEDGE; (2) TO MAINTAIN AND PRESERVE THE SHAKESPEARE BIRTHPLACE PROPERTIES FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE NATION; (3) TO PROVIDE AND MAINTAIN FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE NATION A MUSEUM AND A LIBRARY OF BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS RECORDS OF HISTORIC INTEREST, PICTURES, PHOTOGRAPHS AND OBJECTS OF ANTIQUITY WITH PARTICULAR BUT NO EXCLUSIVE REFERENCE TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, HIS LIFE, WORKS AND TIMES.

Grants received

22 grants · £7,072,657 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

  • Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport · £3,808,496 (7 grants)
  • The National Lottery Heritage Fund · £2,907,244 (7 grants)
  • Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport · £321,800 (3 grants)
  • Department for Culture, Media and Sport · £24,000
  • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · £11,117 (4 grants)

Most recent

  • The National Lottery Heritage Fund £244,9442026-02-03
  • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs £2,4722022-04-01
  • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs £4,7912022-04-01
  • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs £5802021-04-01
  • Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport £46,8002021-03-23
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.

11 trustees on the board

5.6y median 7y
average tenure
9y
longest tenure
9.1y
average years in governance

First-time vs portfolio trustees

First-time (8)

Portfolio (3)

3
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 11Education/training 11General Charitable Purposes 10Environment/conservation/heritage 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.

Arts and leisure 4Tech and media 3Other services 2

Gaps to watch

  • Several long-serving trustees could step down together

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.
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
incomespending£8.4m latest income · spending exceeded income in 2023 and 2024
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.

1.5 months of spending held in free reserves · median for charities its size: 3.7 months · was 3.5 in 2020

164 from 257 in 2020
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
209302
Status
Registered
Governing document
SHAKESPEARE BIRTHPLACE ETC., TRUST ACT, 1961.
Contact on the register
01789201810 · info@shakespeare.org.uk
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.

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