Common questions about Musicians Benevolent Fund's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Musicians Benevolent Fund a good charity? +
Musicians Benevolent Fund scores 85 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 84% of its spending goes to charitable activities (3-yr avg) and its accounts are up to date. That reflects how transparent and financially healthy it looks on paper — it does not measure the real-world impact of its work, so treat it as one factor alongside the cause you care about. CharityCompare never tells you where to donate.
Is Musicians Benevolent Fund a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Musicians Benevolent Fund as a registered charity (charity number 228089). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=228089&subId=0. Check the current entry and the identity of anyone requesting money. Registration does not verify a particular appeal; Clarity Score summarises filing transparency, not programme impact.
What is Musicians Benevolent Fund's charity number? +
Musicians Benevolent Fund's charity number is 228089. Check that number on the official register (Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI) or this CharityCompare profile before you donate — scammers sometimes reuse real numbers on fake appeals.
What is Musicians Benevolent Fund's charity rating? +
Musicians Benevolent Fund scores 85 out of 100 on CharityCompare (4 stars — Good). The Clarity Score (method v1.1) sums four pillars from UK regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 pts), Financial Health (30), Financial Efficiency (20), and Community Support (10). Stars use the same bands as those labels — 90+ is 5★ Exceptional. It is not an impact ranking.
Does Musicians Benevolent Fund have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Musicians Benevolent Fund. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (none flagged on this profile). For formal complaints about a charity, contact the Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI or the Fundraising Regulator as appropriate.
How much of my donation reaches Musicians Benevolent Fund? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 84% of Musicians Benevolent Fund's total spending went to charitable activities (3-yr avg across disclosed years). That is the closest official figure to "how much of your donation reaches the cause" — it is an average across all spending in the filing, not a pound-by-pound breakdown of an individual gift.
What are Musicians Benevolent Fund's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 16% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 18% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Musicians Benevolent Fund. Musicians Benevolent Fund's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports 14 employees paid more than £60,000, including 4 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £140,001–£150,000 (1 employee). Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.
How much income does Musicians Benevolent Fund receive? +
Musicians Benevolent Fund reported £5.7m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: declining.
Are Musicians Benevolent Fund's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-05-21). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Musicians Benevolent Fund based? +
Musicians Benevolent Fund's registered contact address is in London (WC1X 9JS). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, with a focus on poverty relief.
How much is Musicians Benevolent Fund's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Musicians Benevolent Fund's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports 14 employees paid more than £60,000, including 4 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £140,001–£150,000 (1 employee). Charities normally disclose the chief executive's pay, or the pay of their highest-paid staff, in the remuneration note of the trustees' annual report and accounts.
Where does Musicians Benevolent Fund's money come from? +
Musicians Benevolent Fund reported £5.7m total income for the year ending 31 December 2025. The largest sources were donations and legacies £4.9m (86%), investments £726k (13%), trading and fundraising events £45k (1%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £3.8m.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Musicians Benevolent Fund? +
The register records Musicians Benevolent Fund as registered with HMRC for Gift Aid, so a UK taxpayer can usually add 25p to every £1 they give by making a Gift Aid declaration.
Are Musicians Benevolent Fund's trustees paid? +
Musicians Benevolent Fund's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
What was Musicians Benevolent Fund previously called? +
The register lists this previous name for Musicians Benevolent Fund: Mbf.
When was Musicians Benevolent Fund registered as a charity? +
Musicians Benevolent Fund was entered on the register on 17 October 1963. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 00252783).
How does CharityCompare score Musicians Benevolent Fund? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Musicians Benevolent Fund's regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 points — filing history, trustees, policies), Financial Health (30 — reserves, income trend, debt), Financial Efficiency (20 — cause spend and fundraising cost, on a graduated scale) and Community Support (10 — volunteer-to-staff ratio). An open statutory inquiry scores 0. The score measures reporting on paper, not programme impact. CharityCompare is free for donors, takes no commission on donations, and scores cannot be bought.
How often is this page updated? +
This profile was last updated on 6 September 2026 from the latest UK regulator data available to CharityCompare, and Musicians Benevolent Fund's most recent accounts cover 2025. Scores and figures refresh whenever we re-ingest the register, so the page reflects our latest data pull rather than a one-off review.