Who pays: the charities serving the armed forces community
Charities that say they work with veterans or the armed forces community take 30.1% of their income from government (24.0% without the largest 1%), against 17.0% for every charity in England over £25,000 and 11.4% for charities recording the armed forces purpose.
| Charities | With any government income | Government’s share of income | Half or more from government | In 360Giving since 2022 | Median reserves (months of total spending) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Say they work with the armed forces community | 588 | 40.8% | 30.1% | 12.6% | 61.7% | 4.3 |
| Record the armed forces purpose | 523 | 17.6% | 11.4% | 3.8% | 32.3% | 8.3 |
| Every charity in England over £25,000 | 71,857 | 27.0% | 17.0% | 8.0% | 30.6% | 4.4 |
Government income is what each charity declares on its annual return to the Charity Commission; reserves are months of total spending, where the return gives both; a charity’s own reserves policy may count only part of its spending. A group figure, never one charity’s.
Public money for the armed forces community in open data
In 2024-25 central government recorded £30.5m of grants for veterans and the armed forces community, in 257 awards: the Cabinet Office £18.0m (12 awards); the Ministry of Defence £12.5m (244 awards); the Department of Health and Social Care £20,000 (1 award). £8.3m of it went to 77 registered charities.
| Programme | Department | Awards | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armed Forces Charities (Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust) | Ministry of Defence | 108 | £9.2m |
| Armed Forces Families Fund | Ministry of Defence | 58 | £2.9m |
| Armed Forces Day FY24/25 | Ministry of Defence | 78 | £422,717 |
| 12 other programmes, each with fewer than 3 awards | £18.1m |
Over time
Central government’s grants for veterans and the armed forces community, year by year, as its own yearly grant records give them:
| Year | Awards | Amount | To registered charities |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | 567 | £15.7m | £10.9m |
| 2021-22 | 448 | £21.2m | £13.4m |
| 2022-23 | 340 | £8.1m | £3.5m |
| 2023-24 | 339 | £27.5m | £12.3m |
| 2024-25 | 257 | £30.5m | £8.3m |
A grant recorded in a year is not money spent in it, and a programme is matched on its words, so one with a plain name can be missed. The years before 2020-21 are left out: their records do not say which year they belong to. Cabinet Office, government grants records published to 360Giving (2020-21 to 2023-24) and the Government Grants Register 2024-25; Open Government Licence v3.0.
The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust’s own grants, awarded between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2026: 354 grants, £55.4m. Where the Trust records a grant as serving one English region, per veteran living there:
| Region | Grants | Amount | Veterans (Census 2021) | Per veteran |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 13 | £3.2m | 100,725 | £31.90 |
| East of England | 29 | £5.5m | 193,881 | £28.29 |
| North East | 28 | £2.9m | 109,358 | £26.72 |
| South West | 37 | £4.6m | 264,747 | £17.33 |
| South East | 40 | £4.5m | 317,084 | £14.06 |
| North West | 30 | £2.9m | 228,741 | £12.70 |
| West Midlands | 12 | £1.1m | 167,598 | £6.79 |
| East Midlands | 0 | £0 | 170,527 | none recorded |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 0 | £0 | 185,125 | none recorded |
The Trust records no grant as serving East Midlands or Yorkshire and The Humber alone. 148 grants (£27.9m) are recorded as UK-wide, England-wide or for another nation, and 17 (£2.8m) as serving several regions; they are not in the table.
A grant recorded in a year is not money spent in it. A region is the one the Trust records the grant serving; per veteran uses the veterans Census 2021 counted there. Money is shown by department, programme and place, never beside a named recipient, and a programme with fewer than 3 awards is not named.
Sources
Built from public information: the Charity Commission for England and Wales’s register of charities and annual returns, and charities’ own filed reports; the Cabinet Office’s government grants records (360Giving, 2020-21 to 2023-24) and Government Grants Register 2024-25; the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust’s grants data published to 360Giving; ONS Census 2021. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The Directory of Social Change’s figures are quoted from its report, with the page each is on.