The charities that also serve the armed forces community
588 charities in England say in their own latest filed report that they work with veterans or the armed forces community. 470 of them do not record the Charity Commission’s armed forces purpose, so a register search by purpose never finds them. Among the largest: Turning Point, The Royal British Legion, The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, Age UK, Nacro, We Are With You, Shelter and Ruskin Mill Trust.
Each is the charity’s own word in its latest filed report (England, income over £25,000, a year ending in 2024 or later). It does not say how many veterans a charity helps, or that a veteran would be accepted. In a check of 40 of these lines drawn at random, 36 said what they are counted as saying.
What they do
What the 470 record on the register as their charitable purposes. A charity can record several, so the shares add to more than 100%.
| Purpose (the register’s words) | Charities | Share of the 470 |
|---|---|---|
| Education/training | 265 | 56.4% |
| General Charitable Purposes | 191 | 40.6% |
| The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives | 150 | 31.9% |
| Disability | 149 | 31.7% |
| The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty | 132 | 28.1% |
| Economic/community Development/employment | 112 | 23.8% |
| Amateur Sport | 72 | 15.3% |
| Other Charitable Purposes | 70 | 14.9% |
| Arts/culture/heritage/science | 67 | 14.3% |
| Accommodation/housing | 61 | 13.0% |
Who they serve
| Beneficiaries (the register’s words) | Charities | Share |
|---|---|---|
| The General Public/mankind | 255 | 54.3% |
| Children/young People | 219 | 46.6% |
| People With Disabilities | 210 | 44.7% |
| Elderly/old People | 187 | 39.8% |
| Other Defined Groups | 176 | 37.4% |
| Other Charities Or Voluntary Bodies | 152 | 32.3% |
| People Of A Particular Ethnic Or Racial Origin | 62 | 13.2% |
How large they are
Latest income, from the register. Together they took £2.18bn.
| Latest income | Charities |
|---|---|
| under £100,000 | 101 |
| £100,000 to £1m | 222 |
| £1m to £10m | 109 |
| £10m and over | 38 |
Where they are
By the address the charity gives the register, beside the veterans the Census 2021 counted living in each English region. An address is where a charity is based, not everywhere it works.
| Region | Charities based there | Veterans (Census 2021) | Per 100,000 veterans |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 108 | 100,725 | 107.2 |
| South East | 88 | 317,084 | 27.8 |
| North West | 58 | 228,741 | 25.4 |
| South West | 49 | 264,747 | 18.5 |
| West Midlands | 41 | 167,598 | 24.5 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 31 | 185,125 | 16.7 |
| not placed | 29 | — | — |
| East of England | 27 | 193,881 | 13.9 |
| East Midlands | 25 | 170,527 | 14.7 |
| North East | 14 | 109,358 | 12.8 |
Purposes and beneficiaries are what each charity records on the register, not a measure of its work with the armed forces community. A charity’s region is where it is based; a national charity based in London works across the country. Group figures, never one charity’s.
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.