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Registered charity · London

The Royal Literary Fund

The Royal Literary Fund is a registered charity (number 219952) based in London, governed by 22 trustees and chaired by Sir Ian Craig Blatchford since 2020. Latest income £4.3m (2025). Source: Charity Commission register, updated 25th October 2026.

Also known as RLF (Charity Commission)

  • 22 trustees
  • Income £4.3m (2025)
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Official record Charity Commission · updated 25th October 2026 · Sources · Free, no card or password

Network

The large node is The Royal Literary Fund. 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
Education/training, The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
Where
Throughout England And Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
Website
www.rlf.org.uk (opens in a new tab)
Registered
1964

Income and spending

  • YearIncomeSpending
  • 2025£4.3m£9.1m
  • 2024£4.2m£8.3m
  • 2023£3.2m£7.8m
Earlier years
  • 2022£4.7m£6.7m
  • 2021£3.1m£6.6m

Income trend, 2021 to 2025.

Charitable objects

(A) THE RELIEF OF POOR AND DISTRESSED AUTHORS OF PUBLISHED WORKS OF APPROVED LITERARY MERIT INCLUDING IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERIODICAL LITERATURE AND OF THE FAMILIES OF SUCH DECEASED AUTHORS WHO ARE THEMSELVES IN DISTRESS AND IN NEED OF RELIEF. (B) THE ADVANCEMENT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION AND THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE PUBLIC TASTE IN THE FIELD OF LITERARY WORK.

Grants received

4 grants · £60,000 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

Most recent

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.

22 trustees on the board

5.4y median 5.5y
average tenure
14y
longest tenure

Trustees past 6 years

7.9y
average years in governance

First-time vs portfolio trustees

First-time (17)

Portfolio (5)

5
company-linked trustees

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

Education/training 22The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty 22Arts/culture/heritage/science 2Economic/community Development/employment 1General Charitable Purposes 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 4Other services 2Education 1

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.
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
incomespending£4.3m latest income · spending exceeded income in 2024 and 2025
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.

120.0 months of spending held in free reserves · median for charities its size: 3.9 months · was 6.3 in 2021

12 from 5 in 2021
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
219952
Status
Registered
Governing document
ROYAL CHARTER 14 DECEMBER 2006. And Royal Charter granted on 09 Mar 2023as amended by an Order in Council on 09 Mar 2023
Contact on the register
02073537159 · edward.kemp@royalliteraryfund.org.uk
Edition
Register edition compiled 25th 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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