## ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS APRIL 2025 – APRIL 2026
The Philosophers’ Yard Charity number: 1204617
## **CONTENTS PAGE**
|Executive Summary|2|
|---|---|
|Delivery of charitable objects|3|
|Objective 1: Promoting Intellectual Growth|6|
|Objective 2: Philosophy Entering Everyday Lives|8|
|Objective 3: Bridging Communities Through Dialogue|10|
|Accounts and financial statement|13|
|Aims for the 2026-27 Financial Year|14|
|Annexes||
|A. Annual Receipt and Payment Accounts|16|
**www.thephilosophersyard.com**
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## **EXECUTIVE SUMMARY**
This report presents a summary of the activities and developments of The Philosophers’ Yard during the 2025-26 financial year.
The growth in the number of events and in the number of event attendees has been sustained over the past 12 months. Average attendees at quarterly main events are 50 and at monthly meetups are 33. Encouragingly, the expansion of The Philosophers’ Yard’s activities has not diminished the quality of attendees’ experiences, in fact it has been quite the opposite. Attendee feedback has rated the extent to which attendees feel safe, welcome and respected at events at 4.9 out of 5.
To deepen attendees’ understanding of philosophy and to foster the skills required to inquire more deeply about oneself and the world, The Philosophers’ Yard launched the Philosophical Practices course, running pilots in May and November 2026. The Philosophers’ Yard has also sought to bring philosophy to community groups and organisations, delivering a series of workshops and engaging in collaborative spaces.
In this period of transformation and evolution, the trustees of The Philosophers’ Yard have revisited the strategic purpose and organisational structure of the charity. A new theory of change articulates the purpose of the organisation centred on three longterm objectives: Promoting intellectual growth; Philosophy entering everyday lives; and Bridging communities through dialogue.
We are working to embed this theory of change in practices and activities and have updated the evaluation approach to provide the information that will allow us to track our progress towards meeting these goals.
As the ambition of The Philosophers’ Yard grows, so will the need for additional capability and capacity. The Philosophers’ Yard remains a 100% volunteer-led organisation and has expanded its internal capacity by welcoming new trustees, volunteers, and interns. This year, The Philosophers’ Yard has also made good progress towards diversifying income streams – with a much greater level of income from ticketing and fundraising. Securing income from corporate organisations and sponsorship remains an area for future growth.
It is our hope that this report will convey to you that The Philosophers’ Yard has tapped into something valuable that is being enjoyed by a broad cross section of the community. The promise of the next year and those beyond is to provide a foundation from which the organisation can soar.
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## **DELIVERY OF CHARITABLE OBJECTS**
The Philosophers’ Yard was established as a charity in September 2024. No updates were made to The Philosophers’ Yard’s charitable objects or constitution during 202526. Its charitable objects remain _to advance the education of the public in general on matters of philosophy, including the inner lives of human beings, societal norms and structures, and existence and metaphysics_ . It has fulfilled these objects in the 202526 financial year through events and courses held in Birmingham, UK (see later sections of the report for more details).
The Philosophers’ Yard’s theory of change articulates how the objects and purpose of the organisation translate into a set of outcomes, activities and inputs, driven by the values of curiosity, creativity and community.
**Figure 1: Theory of Change (Feb 2026)**
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## **The Public Benefit**
The Philosophers’ Yard aims to maximise benefit to the public by continuing to make all its events and activities accessible:
- It continues to provide **flexible ticketing prices** , including free tickets to ensure that cost does not provide a barrier to participation.
- Where permission is granted by speakers and contributors, recordings of talks and performances are **shared via YouTube** for people to enjoy for free after the event.
- • The Philosophers’ Yard employs a **democratic model** for selecting the themes of events and activities.
- All events use creative and welcoming ‘ice-breaker’ activities to ‘ground’ attendees.
- Events follow a **structured, tailored, and guided** format led by knowledgeable and experienced professionals and experts and promote discourse between people from diverse backgrounds.
- The vast majority of events end with breakout rooms, providing a welcoming format to share and develop ideas.
## **Trustees and Delivery Team**
In 2025-26, The Philosophers’ Yard added one new trustee, Sam Braham, who was a former event attendee and volunteer. Iola Jones and Frankie Carter have stood down as trustees.
The remainder of the delivery team is comprised of:
- Ten volunteers.
- Three interns (funded through the University of Birmingham for periods of 20 days per internship).
In March 2026 a volunteering campaign was launched to provide additional capacity and capability to support the continued delivery of core functions into the new financial year.
The Philosophers’ Yard currently has no employees.
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## **OBJECTIVE ONE: PROMOTING INTELLECTUAL GROWTH**
The Philosophers’ Yard’s first objective, requires it to continue to provide a platform – via its main events and meetups - to foster thoughtful dialogue, exploration, and engagement with big ideas. Additionally, the Philosophical Practices course now provides a structured approach for individuals to strengthen their skills in questioning, reasoning and reflective thinking. The Crime and Consequence ethical roleplay game builds on this approach by providing an engaging and accessible entry point into philosophical ideas.
## **Summary of events and activities**
**Main Events** take place quarterly and offer attendees access to rich philosophical insights from a diverse range of speakers and practitioners. These sessions revolve around a central topic, democratically chosen by participants, and feature experts such as university researchers, faith leaders, charity workers, and politicians. Each event opens with a form of creative expression - live music, spoken word, or meditation - and concludes with breakout discussions, providing space for meaningful conversation in small groups.
**Figure 2: Main Event, June**
**Philosophy Meetups** are held monthly and offer a more informal setting for members to connect and converse. These gatherings begin with icebreaker questions and are followed by a short talk from a community member or guest speaker. The emphasis is on open dialogue and building community through shared curiosity.
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**The Philosophical Practices course** introduces participants to the practices of meditation, authentic relating and the Socratic Method, providing the practical skills that deepen intellectual engagement with philosophical ideas and personal growth.
**The Crime and Consequence ethical role play game** is a tool created by The Philosophers’ Yard to introduce participants to ideas of ethics and morality via the medium of an immersive game centred on a fictional murder.
## **List of events and activities delivered in 2025-26**
A full list of events and courses that the Philosophers’ Yard has organised throughout 2025-26 is provided in the table below.
## **Table 1: List of events and activities, 2025-26**
|**Main Events**|**Philosophy Meetups**|**Philosophical Practices**
**course**|
|---|---|---|
|•Meaning in Life, June
•Education, October
•Nationalism, January|•Existentialism and
Absurdism, June
•Power of Perspective,
July
•Thought Experiments,
August
•Logic and Intuition,
September
•Political Authority,
October
•Samurai Philosophy,
December
•Mental Health,
January
•Justice and Fairness,
February
•Health Inequalities,
March|•Cohort 1, May
•Cohort 2, November|
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## **OBJECTIVE TWO: PHILOSOPHY ENTERING EVERYDAY LIVES**
One of the main aims of The Philosophers’ Yard is to demonstrate the relevance and applicability of philosophy to personal and societal issues. At a time where the threats of polarisation and disinformation are ever increasing, it is essential to equip people to engage with ideas. We want to extend the reach of The Philosophers’ Yard, engaging across different platforms and meeting people where they are, through external workshops and partnerships.
## **Reach**
The Philosophers’ Yard has more than 700 followers on Instagram and a similar number on a centralised mailing list. There continues to be growth among all key platforms of engagement (see chart below):
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Figure 3: Number of followers on key engagement platforms
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Mailing list Instagram LinkedIn Eventbrite WhatsApp YouTube
community
23-24 24-25 25-26
**----- End of picture text -----**
One of the opportunities moving into the new financial year is to maximise the strong following we have across a range of platforms to drive continued engagement. We currently distribute a quarterly newsletter on Philosophers’ Yard activities and use social media platforms to notify followers on upcoming events. There is an opportunity to evolve this approach, both by providing accessible philosophical content that people can engage with between events and by making better use of some of the assets that we already have at our disposal for sharing ideas with new audiences e.g. by transforming our YouTube videos into short form content.
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## **External engagement**
While engagement with in-person events has been strong, one area of potential growth could come from outreach – going out to where community groups, educational institutions and companies and organisations are based to raise awareness of The Philosophers’ Yard.
In 2025-26 this work began with a series of external engagement opportunities, including:
- Delivering Crime & Consequence to a cohort of the Health Leadership Academy.
- Judging student participants at the Birmingham Philosothon (see image).
- Presenting on The Philosophers’ Yard’s operating model and evaluation strategy to the West Midlands Combined Authority’s research, insights and intelligence team.
- Engaging with student volunteers at the Indian Kitchen Takeover.
The market for corporate engagement and sponsorship is a potentially fruitful opportunity for The Philosophers’ Yard to pursue, especially given
the expertise it has developed in delivering high quality public events and teaching materials. This experience has now been codified in the **Dialogue across Difference framework** , which offers a toolkit for organisations and event organisers who are seeking to create diverse and welcoming environments.
While the corporate market is a notoriously difficult market to break into, The Philosophers’ Yard now possesses a set of high-quality training and development materials that could be used to expand activities into this space over the coming years.
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## **OBJECTIVE THREE: BRIDGING COMMUNITIES THROUGH DIALOGUE**
The Philosophers’ Yard is only effective because it has been able to bring together a diverse range of people who are committed to sharing their knowledge and opinions generously and respectfully.
## **Attendance Data**
Since we began, the overall number of participants at Philosophers’ Yard events has surpassed 1300. Our average attendance over the past 12 months has been just under 50 for main events and 33 for meetups (see below).
Figure 4: Average attendance at Main Events over the past three years
Figure 5: Attendance at Meetups 2025-26
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The Philosophers’ Yard continues to have an incredibly diverse set of attendees. In the charts below, demographic data for the city of Birmingham, where available, is provided in the inner circle (source, census 2021), with data from attendees of Philosophers’ Yard events in the outer circle.
Note: As under 18s cannot attend Philosophers’ Yard events, census ‘age’ data for Birmingham has been adjusted to only include data for eligible individuals.
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## **Evaluation**
The Philosophers’ Yard remains committed to learning. Evaluation activities are included at all events to determine those aspects of delivery that are working well or could be improved. The quantitative and qualitative questions that are asked in event feedback forms have been updated to reflect our theory of change.
The three quantitative questions that we ask at every event are:
1. How much did you enjoy today’s event? **Currently 4.6 out of 5** , which represents the overwhelmingly positive experience that attendees have at Philosophers’ Yard events.
2. To what extent did today’s event make you think differently about yourself, others, or the world? **Currently 3.6 out of 5** , which is reflective of the different entry points that attendees may have to a topic and that it will understandably be difficult for a standalone event to transform someone’s perspective.
3. Did you feel safe, welcome, and respected during this session? **Currently 4.9 out of 5** , which is incredibly pleasing and signals that The Philosophers’ Yard is a place where people feel part of a welcoming community.
We are proud to have created such a diverse, safe and curious space where different members of the community are able to freely exchange ideas. Looking to the future, there is an opportunity for us to bolster our approach to evaluation by documenting stories of people’s experiences of The Philosophers’ Yard and the impact it has had outside of events and to consider the intersectionality of other characteristics on participation. For example, the impact of class and level of education on attendance and participation, and how might we learn from this to ensure that we are making philosophy more accessible.
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## **ACCOUNTS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT**
A summary financial statement for the 25-26 financial year is provided below. The full set of annual receipt and payment accounts is provided at Annex A.
It is particularly pleasing to see the increase in income from ticket sales and fundraising as a proportion of overall income. Ticket sales have jumped from 5% to 15% of income generated and fundraising is at 5%. This is in keeping with our strategy of diversifying income streams to support the long-term sustainability and self-sufficiency of the charity. As well as stabilising and increasing these sources of income, the other major future opportunity is to secure corporate income and sponsorship.
## **INCOME**
|**INCOME**||
|---|---|
|Grants|5,200i|
|Fundraising / donations|772|
|Event ticket sales|1126ii|
|Training and Development sales|548|
|Sponsorship|-|
|Corporate sales|-|
|In-kind support|5,130iii|
|**Total**|**12,775**|
|**PAYMENTS**||
|Events (Main events)|2,327iv|
|Events (Meetups)|784|
|Training and Development|1334|
|Volunteer expenses|356|
|Marketing and Communications|248v|
|Overheads / operations|74|
|In-kind support|5,130|
|**Total**|**10,253**|
|**VARIANCE**|**2,522**|
## Notes:
I in 2025/26, The Philosophers’ Yard received grants from The Royal Institute of Philosophy, the William A Cadbury Trust, the Cole Charitable Trust, and the Heart of England Community Foundation. ii We employ a flexible ticketing model for all events, with the option for attendees to request a free ticket.
iii The Philosophers’ Yard is part of the University of Birmingham’s B-Experienced Internship programme and has been given three interns (fully funded through the university). Note: this is not included in the receipts and payment account as payment is managed by the university.
iv The main costs in delivering events are speakers and contributors fees and expenses, venue hire, the design of marketing collateral, the cost of the event photographer and videographer, and refreshments. v Outside of events, there are general marketing and communications costs, which include the hosting and development of the website and the marketing of The Philosophers’ Yard.
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## **AIMS FOR THE 2026-27 FINANCIAL YEAR**
## **Review of aims for the 2025-26 Financial Year**
The 2025-26 annual report set out the following three aims:
|**Aim**|**Target(s)**|**Status**|**Detail**|
|---|---|---|---|
|Embed a Clear Theory of
Change: Integrate the
organisation’s theory of
change across all
practices, policies,
communications, and
monitoring and evaluation
frameworks|•Agree a theory of
change and a set of
KPIs
•Update the website,
policies and evaluation
forms to reflect the
above|Partially
met|A theory of change has
been developed and
the process of
embedding it has
begun but will continue
into the next year|
|Launch and assess new
educational initiatives -
including the
Philosophical Practices
course - using participant
feedback to enhance
content and delivery|•Launch Practices
course with at least 12
participants
•Deliver at least five
external workshops|Partially
met|The Practices course
launched with 15
participants.
Engagement took
place with four external
organisations but is yet
to generate income|
|Secure additional income
through grants and
fundraising, while
adopting a long-term,
sustainable approach to
funding and programme
delivery|•Secure at least one
additional grant
•Total income to be in
excess of £10k|Met|TPY secured four new
grants and income
(including in-kind
support) is above
£12.5k|
## **Aims for the 2026-27 Financial Year**
The key aims of The Philosophers’ Yard for the 2026-27 financial year are to:
**Embed the new Theory of Change:** Integrate the organisation’s theory of change across all practices and policies, developing a plan for meeting agreed outcomes over the short, medium and long term.
By the end of 2026-27, the theory of change will have been approved and operationalised by trustees and there will be a clearer vision for how TPY will work to use its existing assets to champion the application of philosophy to personal and societal issues.
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**Identify new team members and embed the new organisational structure:** Recruit additional volunteers and trustees to build capacity and remove ‘single points of failure’, and introduce a new structure for managing volunteers.
By the end of 2026-27, at least 10 new volunteers, interns or trustees would have been recruited and will be embedded within an improved organisational structure with clear reporting lines within defined workstreams.
**Strengthen financial sustainability** : Continue progress towards diversifying sources of income through higher ticketing revenue and pursuing income from corporate sales and/or sponsorship.
By the end of 2026-27, The Philosophers’ Yard will have secured at least one additional grant and for the first time, would have secured sales or sponsorship from an external organisation.
## **Declaration**
This annual report has been reviewed and approved by the charity trustees and signed on behalf of the trustees by the Chair.
Daniel Stone **Chair of Trustees** Date of approval: 06/05/2026
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## **ANNEX A: ANNUAL RECEIPT AND PAYMENT ACCOUNTS**
||**The Philosophers' Yard**|**The Philosophers' Yard**|**The Philosophers' Yard**|**No.**
**1204617**|**No.**
**1204617**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Receipts and payments accounts**|||||
||**For the**
**period from**|01-Apr-25|**To**||01-Apr-26|
||**Unrestrict**
**ed funds**
**to the**
**nearest**
**£**
**1,700**
**772**
**1,126**
**548**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**4,146**
**-**
**-**
**4,146**
**1021**
**356**
**75**
**986**
**74**|**Restrict**
**ed funds**
**to the**
**nearest**
**£**
**3,500**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**5,130**
**8,630**
**-**
**-**
**8,630**
**2,090**
**-**
**173**
**348**
**-**|**Endowme**
**nt funds**
**to the**
**nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||
|**A1 Receipts**||||||
|Grants|**1,700**|||||
|Fundraising / Donations|**772**|||||
|Event ticket sales|**1,126**|||||
|Training and development (sales)|**548**|||||
|Sponsorship|**-**|||||
|Corporate sales|**-**|||||
|Internships (via University of B'ham)|**-**|||||
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**4,146**|||||
|||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**||||||
||**-**|||||
|**_Sub total_**|**-**|||||
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**||||||
|Events|**1021**|**2,090**|**-**||**3,111**|
|Volunteer expenses|**356**|**-**|**-**||**356**|
|Marketing & Communications|**75**|**173**|**-**||**248**|
|Training and development|**986**|**348**|**-**||**1,334**|
|Overheads / operations|**74**|**-**|**-**||**74**|
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|Internships (via University of B'ham)||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**-**||**5,130**||**-**||**5,130**||**4,500**|
|**_Sub total_**||||||||||
||**2,512**||**7,741**||**-**||**10,253**||**10,363**|
|||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**||||||||||
|**purchases, (see table)**||||||||||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|||
|**_Sub total_**||||||||||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||||||||||
|**_Total payments_**|**2,512**||**7,741**||**-**||**10,253**||**10,363**|
|||||||||||
|**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**||||||||||
||**1,634**||**889**||**-**||**2,523**||**2,433**|
|**A5 Transfers between funds**||||||||||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**A6 Cash funds last year end**||||||||||
||**2,496**||**-**||**-**||**2,496**||**65**|
|**_Cash funds this year end_**||||||||||
||**4,130**||**889**||**-**||**5,019**||**2,498**|
|**Section B Statement of assets and**|**liabilities at the end of the period**|**liabilities at the end of the period**|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||
|**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**|**Details**
Main bank account
**_Total cash funds_**
**Details**
**Details**|**Unrestrict**
**ed funds**
**to nearest**
**£**
**4,130**
**-**
**-**
**4,130**
**Unrestrict**
**ed funds**
**to nearest**
**£**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to**
**which**
**asset**
**belongs**|**Restrict**
**ed funds**
**to**
**nearest**
**£**
**889**
**-**
**-**
**889**
**Restrict**
**ed funds**
**to**
**nearest**
**£**
**-**
**-**
**Cost**
**(optiona**
**l)**
**-**|**Endowme**
**nt funds**
**to nearest**
**£**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**Endowme**
**nt funds**
**to nearest**
**£**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**Current**
**value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|**-**|
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**----- Start of picture text -----**
- -
Fund to
Cost Current
which
(optiona value
asset
l) (optional)
Details belongs
B4 Assets retained for the
- -
charity’s own use
- -
Fund to Amount When due
which due (optional)
liability (optiona
Details relates l)
B5 Liabilities
-
-
Signed by one or two trustees on Date of
behalf of all the trustees Signature Print Name
approval
Samuel Braham 07/04/26
Daniel Stone 04/04/26
**----- End of picture text -----**
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