## **The Wilberforce Society**
Website: thewilberforcesociety.co.uk Registered Charity No: 1169450 Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 August 2025
## **The Wilberforce Society**
The Wilberforce Society (“ **TWS** ”) is a registered charity, governed by its Trustees. The Trustees hereby submit TWS’s Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 August 2025.
## **Trustees**
George Bangham (Chair) Jemima Baar Michael Campbell Nicholas Crawford Moni Owoade George Stokes
## **Trustees’ Responsibilities**
The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Annual Report and Accounts in accordance with applicable charity law. The trustees have given consideration to the major risks to which the charity is exposed and satisfied themselves that appropriate procedures are in place to manage those risks.
## **Objects**
The governing instrument is the Constitution, which came into effect in July 2015. The object of The Wilberforce Society is to advance the education of students and of the public more generally for the public benefit, in particular but not exclusively by:
- 1) promoting the discussion, the consideration of, and research into matters of public life or importance;
- 2) publishing results of research and discussion on matters of public life or importance;
- 3) hosting educational events including, but not limited to, conferences and lectures on topics of public life or importance; and
- 4) providing opportunities to encourage the exchange of ideas.
The Trustees have given consideration to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance and are satisfied that each of the activities detailed in this Annual Report and Accounts meet the public benefit requirement in advancing the education of students and of the public at large.
## **Trustees’ Report**
The Society had a successful year in 2024-25, under the leadership of Eliška Hauferova and Rafael Karapetian as successive Executive Chairs. A well-attended annual conference was held at the Cambridge Union in March 2025, and substantial policy papers written on 4 main topics: the UK’s trade relationship with the EU; behavioural economics in policymaking; government debt sustainability; and UK labour market flexibility. TWS’s Digital Journal has also seen substantial growth, with 28 articles written throughout the year, including 17 in collaboration with the Oxford Diplomatic Dispatch and 2 with the Telos Group. In total, more than 60 Cambridge students have applied to write for TWS over the past year. Alongside this, TWS has significantly grown The Policy Podcast, recording 28 episodes. Guests this year have included Lord Wilson of Dinton, Sir Desmond Swayne MP, Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, Professor Manfred Kets de Vries, and many more academics, politicians and others.
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Charity Name No (if any)
THE WILBERFORCE SOCIETY 1169450
Receipts and payments accounts
Period start date Period end date
For the period from Sep-24 To Aug-25 CC16a
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
funds funds funds Total funds Last year
to the nearest
£ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Paypal Memberships - - - - -
Manual Memberships 761 - - 761 819
Event Income 825 - - 825 644
CUDAR (alumni) donations 206 - - 206 206
Misc - - - - -
Branded Clothing Payments 36 - - 36 240
Grants - - - - 2,713
- - - - -
Sub total (Gross income for AR) 1,828 - - 1,828 4,622
A2 Asset and investment sales, (see
table).
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 1,828 - - 1,828 4,622
A3 Payments
Speaker Costs 500 - - 500 110
Subscriptions (Mailchimp, Wix etc.) 780 - - 780 501
Entertainment 733 - - 733 -
Branded Clothing Payments 236 - - 236 383
Publicity - - - - -
Event Refund - - - - 1,421
Misc - - - - -
Admin (SumUp) - - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total 2,247 - - 2,247 2,415
A4 Asset and investment purchases,
(see table)
Purchase of Fixed Asset - - - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total payments 2,247 - - 2,247 2,415
Net of receipts/(payments) [-] 419 - - - 419 2,207
A5 Transfers between funds - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 11,065 - - 11,065 8,856
Cash funds this year end 10,646 - - 10,646 11,063
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## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**|**Details**|||**Unrestricted**
**funds**|||**Restricted**
**funds**|||**Endowment**
**funds**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||**to nearest £**|||**to nearest £**|||**to nearest £**|
|**B1 Cash funds**|Current Account Balance|||**-**
**10,615-**|||**-**
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||PayPal Balance|||**-**
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||**_Total cash funds_**|||**-**
**10,615-**|||**-**
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||(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))|||Agreement
Error|||OK|||OK|
|||||**Unrestricted**
**funds**|||**Restricted**
**funds**|||**Endowment**
**funds**|
||**Details**|||**to nearest £**|||**to nearest £**|||**to nearest £**|
|**B2 Other monetary assets**||||**-**
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||**Details**|||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**|||**Cost (optional)**|||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|**B3 Investment assets**|||||||**-**
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Fund to which Current value
Details asset belongs Cost (optional) (optional)
B4 Assets retained for the charity’s - -
own use - -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Fund to which Amount due When due
Details liability relates (optional) (optional)
B5 Liabilities -
-
-
-
-
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all Date of
the trustees Signature Print Name approval
George Bangham George Bangham 6/6/2026
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