Overall GiG Score: 9 ?
Finance Score: -1
Governance Score: 5
Support Score: 5
  • Large legacies income: +1
  • Multiple Deficits: -2
  • Good trustee age range: +3
  • Dynamic board: +3
  • Mainly male board: -1
  • Grant maker support: +5

CALIBRE AUDIO 

Calibre Audio brings the pleasure of reading to enrich the life quality and opportunities for people of all age groups with any print disability by providing access to audio books and content, and to raise awareness of related issues affecting such people
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • The charity has received backing from multiple prominent grant makers recently
  • This charity has received considerable income from legacies in recent years
  • The Board appears to be well diversified in terms of age and dynamic in terms of composition

Regulatory & Governance issues to consider:

  • The Board is predominantly male

Financial issues to consider:

  • There has been a change of accounting period recently, so trends may be hard to determine
  • On several occasions in recent years income has been less than spending
Established: 41 years

www.calibreaudio.org.uk

membershipservicess@calibre.org.uk

01296432339

Charity Commission for England and WalesCompanies HouseFacebookInstagramX
UN SDGs
?

Financial Data ?

Income & Spending ?
N.B. data has been adjusted to reflect year end change
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?£1,335£1,617£-282£189£611£4533.428115
31/12/21£1,334£1,497£-163£253£961£8566.940111
31/12/20£1,245£1,670£-425£229£1,103£1,0697.743132
31/12/19£938£1,458£-520£103£1,525£1,49312.342167
31/12/18£1,266£1,261£5£95£1,880£1,85717.742170
31/12/17£1,178£1,165£13£100£1,992£1,63816.9430
31/12/16£1,175£1,155£19£171£1,879£1,81818.9420
31/12/15£1,788£1,318£470£221£1,770£1,72315.7310
31/12/14£1,322£1,201£121£130£1,336£1,09510.9310
31/12/13£1,184£1,088£95£182£1,161£8829.7330
31/12/12£1,076£1,180£-105£199£1,069£99510.1330
31/12/11£870£1,266£-395£193£1,132£6856.5390
31/12/10£1,362£1,307£55£172£1,470£1,36512.5380
31/12/09£992£1,283£-291£265£1,371£4223.9400
31/12/08£1,038£1,248£-210£302£1,629£7216.9440
31/12/07£1,527£1,364£163£358£2,035£1,97717.4410
31/12/06£825£862£-37£0£0£0n/a00
31/12/05£926£997£-71£0£0£0n/a00
31/12/04£763£834£-71£0£0£0n/a00

Financial Ratios
Fundraising Costs/Relevant Income: 14.2%
Fundraising Costs/Total Spending: 11.7%
Senior Staff Costs/Total Spending: 11%
Highest pay band: £80,000-£90,000
Liabilities/Assets: 6%
Liabilities/Income: 4%
Unrestricted Funds/Total Funds: 74%
Reserves/Spending: 3.4 months
Net Current Assets/Spending: 4 months
Quick Ratio: 5.9
Asset Split ?
What it does
  • Arts/Culture/Heritage/Science
  • Disability
  • Education/Training
  • General Charitable Purposes
  • Other Charitable Purposes
Who works here?
  • 28 employees
  • 115 volunteers
Who it helps
  • Children/Young People
  • Elderly/Old People
  • Other Defined Groups
  • People With Disabilities
How it operates
  • Other charitable activities
  • Provides advocacy/advice/information
  • Provides buildings/facilities/open space
  • Provides services
  • Sponsors or undertakes research
Where it operates
  • Northern Ireland, Scotland, Throughout England And Wales,

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
Garfield Weston Foundation£30,000
National Lottery Community Fund£19,442
DCMS£9,960
RS Macdonald Charitable Trust£6,500
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months
To be used for
National Lottery Community Fund - 40 new audiobooks for thousands of people who can't read print
£9,657 10/02/2023
The funding will be used to add 40 new book tiles to their catalogue of free audio books. The project aims to provide easy and accessible opportunities for people living with visual impairments or a ....more
Garfield Weston Foundation - Main Grants award
£30,000 12/11/2021
Calibre Audio free audio book service for those with a reading disability.
National Lottery Community Fund - COVID-19 Calibre Audio New books
£9,785 12/11/2021
This project will support people with disabilities that prevent them from reading regular print formats by adding 100 more new titles to its library. The titles will help improve inclusion and bring ....more
Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust - Calibre Audio (formerly Calibre Audio Library) - 30/07/21
£1,500 10/08/2021
Core Funding
RS Macdonald Charitable Trust - Connecting, Stimulating and Empowering Disabled People in Scotland through Audiobooks
£6,500 16/12/2020
Older people facing visual impairment later in life can find it hard to adjust; this can lead to depression and social isolation. Audiobooks provide an antidote, bringing companionship, comfort and ....more
DCMS - Coronavirus Community Support Fund
£9,960 18/09/2020
"The fund aims to:1) To reduce closures of essential charities that provide essential services to vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 crisis by ensuring they have the financial resources to ....more
RS Macdonald Charitable Trust - Enhancing our Download Service
£5,300 30/05/2018
Calibre brings the pleasure of books to 1,311 print disabled in Scotland by providing a subscription free audio book library service by post and online. Last year Calibre launched it’s ....more
Masonic Trust - Audio Books
£30,000 20/07/2016
Increasing the number of audio books available in audio library for people with sight problems, dyslexia or disabilities that prevent them from reading printed books.
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (10)
Current Trustees appointed
Gender Split
Based on 9/10 persons

Age Range of Trustees: 25-77
  • HOWARD NEAD (Chair) Appointed: 2020, Occupation: Chief Growth Officer
Legal constitution
  • Charitable company registered in England & Wales on 18/03/1983, number: 286614
  • Registered at Companies House on 22/02/1983, number: 01701585
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
  • Financial reserves policy and procedures
  • Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
  • Internal risk management policy and procedures
  • Investing charity funds policy and procedures
  • Investment
  • 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
19 returns made; all on time
Main office

CALIBRE AUDIO
NEW ROAD
WESTON TURVILLE
AYLESBURY
HP22 5XQ

Objectives

The Charity's Objects are to enrich the life quality and opportunities for people of all age groups with a print disability by providing access to audio books and content, and to raise awareness of related issues affecting such people.

Defined Area of Benefit:

NOT DEFINED

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

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