The Sylvia and Colin Shepherd Charitable Trust

Analysis

The Sylvia and Colin Shepherd Charitable Trust is a registered charity in England and Wales, based in York. It was registered in March 1977, 49 years ago. Its declared purposes cover the advancement of health or saving of lives, disability, arts/culture/heritage/science and environment/conservation/heritage, which this site groups under health and saving lives. Legally it is a charitable trust. It says it makes grants to organisations.

In the financial year ending April 2025, The Sylvia and Colin Shepherd Charitable Trust reported income of £737k and spending of £539k, leaving 27% of income unspent that year. Across the 5 years on record, from April 2021 to April 2025, income grew from £308k to £737k (+140%), an average of +24% a year. The sharpest change came in the year to April 2025, when income rose by 53%. Over the whole period it spent 92% of the income it received.

Among 24,651 England and Wales charities whose main cause is health and saving lives and that reported income, The Sylvia and Colin Shepherd Charitable Trust sits at the 87th percentile: it is larger than about 87% of them. Against every charity in England and Wales with reported income it ranks in the 92nd percentile. Charities of a similar size with the same main cause include The Busoga Trust (£737k), Cardiff Young Men's Christian Association (£737k) and The Shanta Foundation (£736k).

In its latest detailed accounts, income came from investments 100%. Charitable activities took 94% of spending and raising funds 0.0%. Grants to other organisations totalled £507k. Reserves of £24.0m would cover about 503 months of spending at that rate.