Finance Score: 3
Governance Score: 8
Support Score: 11
  • Liabilities <10%: +3
  • Excess reserves: -3
  • Strong growth: +2
  • Multiple Deficits: -2
  • Fundraising costs low: +3
  • 12+ Trustees: -1
  • Good trustee age range: +3
  • Dynamic board: +3
  • Gender balanced board: +3
  • Grant maker support: +11
Overall GiG Score: 22 ?

THE STORY MUSEUM 

The Story Museum has three core charitable aims: a) to establish and maintain a museum dedicated to children's literature and the City of Oxford; b) to conserve, interpret and develop collections and heritage assets relevant to these subjects; c) to provide learning opportunities for and promote literacy and creativity among children, young people and families.
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • The charity has received backing from multiple prominent grant makers recently
  • This charity has a robust balance sheet
  • There has been strong growth in spending over the last 5 years
  • Fundraising costs are low relative to funds raised
  • The Board appears to be well diversified in terms of age and gender and dynamic in terms of composition

Regulatory & Governance issues to consider:

  • One or more trustees receive payments or benefits from the charity for providing services to the charity
  • There are 14 trustees whereas the Charities Commission recommends a maximum of 12

Financial issues to consider:

  • This charity has substantial assets and unrestricted reserves of £6,470,925 available, equivalent to 38 months of spending and so may not be able to utilise additional funding
  • On several occasions in recent years income has been less than spending
Established: 19 years

www.storymuseum.org.uk

fundraising@storymuseum.org.uk

07973396285

Charity Commission for England and WalesCompanies HouseFacebookInstagramX
UN SDGs
?

Financial Data ?

Income & Spending ?
Sources of Income ?
Y/E Income
£k
Spending
£k
Surplus/
Deficit
Fundraising
Cost £k
Total
Funds £k
Unrestricted
Funds £k
Mths
Rsrvs
Staff Volun-
teers
31/03/23£1,824£2,035£-211£141£6,490£6,47138.25030
31/03/22£1,361£1,761£-400£105£6,701£6,67845.54444
31/03/21£1,875£1,326£550£94£7,102£7,10264.34150
31/03/20£3,161£1,113£2,048£114£6,552£6,54270.53131
31/03/19£1,933£1,084£849£136£4,504£4,46149.432100
31/03/18?£1,067£664£404£77£3,655£3,56364.4340
31/08/17£1,054£1,090£-36£107£3,251£3,24835.7290
31/08/16£1,161£896£265£74£3,287£3,25543.6170
31/08/15£793£741£52£78£3,023£2,96147.9110
31/08/14£929£623£306£55£2,971£2,90155.950
31/08/13£999£509£490£93£2,664£2,2905450
31/08/12£466£841£-375£0£0£0n/a00
31/08/11£548£353£195£82£2,550£1013.430
31/08/10?£2,639£464£2,174£67£2,355£2085.430
31/05/09*£371£219£152£0£0£0n/a00
31/05/08£137£131£6£0£0£0n/a00
31/05/07*£73£94£-20£0£0£0n/a00
31/05/06£102£95£7£0£0£0n/a00

Financial Ratios
Fundraising Costs/Relevant Income: 7.7%
Fundraising Costs/Total Spending: 6.9%
Highest pay band: Less than £60,000
Liabilities/Assets: 6%
Liabilities/Income: 23%
Unrestricted Funds/Total Funds: 100%
Reserves/Spending: 38.2 months
Net Current Assets/Spending: 2 months
Quick Ratio: 2.3
Asset Split ?
Listed activities
  • Arts/Culture/Heritage/Science
  • Education/Training
  • Environment/Conservation/Heritage
How it operates
  • Acts as an umbrella or resource body
  • Provides advocacy/advice/information
  • Provides buildings/facilities/open space
  • Provides human resources
  • Provides services
  • Sponsors or undertakes research
Where it operates
  • Throughout England And Wales,
Who it helps
  • Children/Young People
  • The General Public/Mankind
Who works here?
  • 50 employees
  • 30 volunteers

Who's supporting them? ?

Donations from Grant Makers ?

We have details on the following significant donations. Multi-year donations are allocated to the years for which they are earmarked.

Major supporters in last 5 years
DCMS£767,185
Esmee Fairbairn£175,000
The Foyle Foundation£95,000
Wolfson Foundation£75,000
Oxfordshire Community Foundation£37,000
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months
To be used for
The Foyle Foundation - Learning (MGS)
£60,000 28/11/2023
towards programme delivery and operating costs over the next 12 months
The Foyle Foundation - Learning (MGS)
£35,000 21/04/2022
towards the Pathways Programme: creating routes into employment and career development opportunities in the cultural sector for young people from areas of socio-economic disadvantage
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Maggie' School Project 2021
£6,000 17/03/2022
To support the Learning & Participation team's work with the Maggie's Schools includig Maggie's Day November 2021.
DCMS - Culture Recovery Fund: Emergency Resource Support
£85,000 16/03/2022
This fund aims to provide emergency funding awards to culturally significant organisations that were financially sustainable before Covid-19 but are now at imminent risk of failure and have exhausted ....more
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Maggie’s School Project 2021:
£9,000 24/11/2021
Grant to Story Museum
DCMS - Culture Recovery Fund: Continuity Support
£85,000 22/10/2021
To support cultural organisations who have received funding from the Culture Recovery Fund: Grants programme, in the first or second rounds, and can clearly demonstrate the financial need for further ....more
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Maggies School Project 2020
£10,000 27/08/2020
To support the learning and participation team's Extreme Reading at Home project
Wolfson Foundation - Grant to The Story Museum
£75,000 11/06/2020
Exceptional additional funding towards redevelopment (original grant ref. 20947)
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to The Story Museum
£25,000 05/05/2020
6
towards unrestricted core costs as a COVID-19 fast response grant
DCMS - National Portfolio Organisations 2018-2020
£178,220 01/04/2020
The wider aim of the scheme is: We are the national development agency for creativity and culture. By 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given ....more
DCMS - The Story Museum
£170,000 01/04/2020
To support Arts and Culture throughout England
DCMS - Cultural Capital Kickstart Fund
£163,965 01/04/2020
To support Arts and Culture throughout England
DCMS - The Story Museum - 2021
£85,000 01/04/2020
To support Arts and Culture throughout England
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to The Story Museum
£150,000 28/08/2019
36
Towards core costs to offer immersive exhibitions, events and outreach work to celebrate storytelling in all forms as the organisation completes a capital redevelopment.
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Maggie's Schools Project 2019
£12,000 23/04/2019
To support the learning and participation team to work with the 'Maggie's Schools' to deliver Maggie's Day and Extreme Reading.
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Young Producers - #iwill
£5,000 05/09/2018
5
To establish a panel of young people meeting regularly with input from professional external artists working across a range of media in order to co-programme a live event, co-produce a new ....more
Garfield Weston Foundation - Major Grants award
£100,000 21/06/2018
Chapter 2 Redevelopment
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Maggie’s School Project 2018
£12,000 17/04/2018
To support the Learning & participation team to work with the 8 ‘Maggie’s Schools’ to deliver Maggie’s Day and Extreme Reading
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Maggie's Schools Programme
£12,000 19/06/2017
Year 1 of the Maggie's Schools programme covering Maggie's Day 2017, Extreme Reading Adventures summer 2017 and paid internship to support Extreme Reading Adventures
Wolfson Foundation - Grant to The Story Museum
£150,000 08/12/2016
Redevelopment of the building
National Lottery Heritage Fund - Grant to Story Museum
£1,196,800 21/09/2016
The Story Museum - Building a world of stories
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Extreme Reading
£5,873 17/08/2016
Extreme Reading project at the Story Museum in conjunction with the Evans family in memory of Maggie Evans.
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Maggie's Day
£5,200 12/05/2016
Maggie's Day at the Story Museum
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Extreme Reading Adventures
£5,000 18/03/2016
Extreme reading adventures - payment for intern at Story Museum
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Maggie's Day
£5,000 01/07/2015
Maggie's Day at the Story Museum
Oxfordshire Community Foundation - Maggie's Day
£4,500 11/07/2014
Connect people with the arts, culture and heritage
Esmee Fairbairn - Grant to The Story Museum
£120,000 27/02/2013
Towards the salary of the head of learning and participation and programme development costs to increase beneficiary numbers, diversify literacy-related learning opportunities and to maximise earned ....more
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (14)
Current Trustees appointed
Gender Split
Based on 13/14 persons

Age Range of Trustees: 40-71
  • ANDREW RYAN Appointed: 2019, Occupation: Commercial Director
  • BRIAN BUCHAN Appointed: 2015, Occupation: Retired Company Director
  • CAROLINE JONES Appointed: 2019, Occupation: Co-Director, The Story Museum, Oxford
  • GUY GADNEY Appointed: 2024, Occupation: Company Director
  • SARAH LOVE Appointed: 2024, Occupation: Accountant
Legal constitution
  • Charitable company registered in England & Wales on 26/01/2005, number: 1107809
  • Registered at Companies House on 29/05/2003, number: 04780380
Gift Aid
  • Registered with HMRC for Gift Aid
Policies in force
  • Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
  • Complaints handling
  • Complaints policy and procedures
  • Conflicting interests
  • Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
  • Financial reserves policy and procedures
  • Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
  • Internal risk management policy and procedures
  • Paying staff
  • Risk management
  • Safeguarding policy and procedures
  • Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
  • Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
  • Social media policy and procedures
  • Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
  • Trustee expenses policy and procedures
  • Volunteer management
Filing Record
18 returns made; AR09: 9 days late, AR07: 114 days late,
Main office

ROCHESTER HOUSE
42 PEMBROKE STREET
OXFORD
OXFORDSHIRE
OX1 1BP

Objectives

TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC IN RELATION TO CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND THE HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OXFORD, IN PARTICULAR BY:A) ESTABLISHING AND MAINTAINING A MUSEUM DEDICATED TO THESE SUBJECTS;B) CONSERVING, INTERPRETING AND DEVELOPING COLLECTIONS AND HERITAGE ASSETS RELEVANT TO CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND THE CITY OR OXFORD;C) PROVIDING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR AND PROMOTING LITERACY AND CREATIVITY AMONGST CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND FAMILIES.

Defined Area of Benefit:

NATIONAL

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales
360 Giving
CharityBase
Authorised officials of this charity can add information to this page (including a Donate Now button) for no cost

Tips for Selecting Charities

Which areas of philanthropy are most effective?
The text of this post is taken from an article on the Effective Altruism forum. It suggests that you can achieve the most impact by supporting causes that fight extreme poverty, improving animal welfare....more
Our Top Tips for Philanthropy
Here are some ideas to help you gain more satisfaction from your philanthropy and confidence that the causes you have selected are impactful. Engage your brain, as well as your heart You....more
How to become a Philanthropist
In this Blog we outline a strategy to help people who are new to philanthropy and for those who feel dissatisfied with the impact they are having. Effective philanthropy is immensely rewarding for donors,....more

Giving is Great