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← Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity

2025-07-31-accounts

Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity

Report and Financial Statements For the year ended 31 July 2025

Registered Charity No. SC043586

Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

Table of contents

Legal and Administrative Information 3
Report of the Trustees 4
Independent Examiner's Report 13
Receipts and Payments Account 14
Statement of Assets 15

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

Legal and Administrative Information

Status

The organisation was registered as a Charity on 5 July 2012.

The Charity was established under a Constitution, which established the objects and powers of the Charity. This Constitution was adopted on 28 January 2012 and amended on 9 June 2012, 30 January 2021 and 27 January 2024.

Trustees

The Trustees who served during the period were:

Mr S M Regan National Chair (appointed 25/01/2025) Mr WRS Aiken Charity Chair (appointed 25/01/2025) Mr I McCormick Secretary Mrs S Edwards Treasurer

Registered Office

26 The Green, Piercebridge, Darlington DL2 3SH

Accountants

Peter A Hodgson & Co Ltd, Hett Mill, Hett, Durham DH6 5LN

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

Report of the Trustees

The Trustees present their Annual Report together with the financial statements for the year ended 31 July 2025.

Objects and Public Benefit

The main effort of the Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity (AFBVC) is in the raising and granting of funds to support veterans and their immediate dependents in charitable need, as described in our grant policy and as agreed by the Charity Trustees.

Objects

The following Objects are approved by the Charity Commission for England and Wales and The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.

  1. To assist veterans, former serving members of the UK Armed Forces, who are in charitable need as a result of injury or other harmful experience suffered during their service, to resettle and rehabilitate into civilian life.

  2. To relieve the needs of veterans, former members of the Armed Forces, and their immediate dependents who are in charitable need.

Public Benefit

The Charity supports veterans who are finding it difficult to make their way in civilian life due to financial circumstances, and regardless of their geographical location within the UK. All Charity Trustees have regard to the Charity Commission’s Public Benefit Guidance when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant.

We are a UK Armed Forces veterans network that seeks to establish contact with as many serving and exForces personnel as possible. We aim to give our members and supporters a sense of purpose through the community we form and the support mechanism to help others to help themselves. We have successfully identified and integrated many troubled ex-service personnel - who are either mentally or physically scarred due to operational service - into our growing Charity. We encourage them to join us at events and give them a sense of purpose through that common bond and our fund-raising activities. We foster these communities through a network of 17 Regions (16 regional and one national group).

Although we are a veterans motorcycle group, we do not exclude anyone who wants to help us in our Charity work and who agrees to abide by our Constitution and Bye-Laws.

100% of public donations go to veterans and their families in need. No Trustees or Members of the charity receive any remuneration, payments or benefits from the Charity. All work is carried out by volunteers around their work, family and social commitments.

We seek to work with other veteran-friendly charities or voluntary bodies, in a multi-agency approach, to offer help more efficiently and effectively.

Structure, governance and management

Administration, coordination of effort, and the day to day management of the Charity is primarily carried out online under the governance of the Board of Trustees (BoT) and in accordance with our Constitution.

At the Annual General Meeting in January 2025 the 2025 to 2028 Manifesto was approved and adopted by Members. This document outlined the future strategy for the AFBVC and initiated a change in the Trustee structure, effectively splitting the role of Chair into 2 distinct roles:

In addition a Senior Leadership Team was established consisting of the 2 Chairs and the Vice Chair.

The BoT consists of the legal Trustees (listed above under Legal and Administrative Information), as well as Local Agreement Trustees including the Vice Chairman, Fundraising Manager, Media Manager and Grant Manager (when in post).

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

The BoT meets monthly during the year, with the exception of January during the purdah period before the Annual General Meeting. The National Chairman attends quarterly Trustee meetings to discuss strategic matters.

As well as having regard to the Charity Commission’s Public Benefit Guidance, all decisions are made within the framework of the approved policies and procedures for the Charity.

The BoT is solely responsible for the approval or otherwise of grant applications, which are investigated by nominated Grant Investigators. Grant payments are made by Grant Payment Officers. There are established guides and processes in place for the induction and training of Trustees, Grant Investigators and Grant Payment Officers.

This BoT has performed its duties well over this period, corresponding daily on grant and governance issues by email, in addition to the monthly online meetings held via video conferencing.

Liaison with Members and supporters is managed through the Vice Chair and the network of Regional Representatives, and via information posts on our internal Forum.

Achievements and Performance

The economic and social context

The financial climate continues to be difficult for veterans and their dependents in charitable need, and we continue our policy of meeting the needs of those in the ‘in-work poverty’ category. Those veterans whose income is below the living wage remain in a situation where they find it difficult to ‘make ends meet’.

The BoT is discussing a range of new initiatives suggested by the National Chair and this will continue into the next financial year, to ensure we remain focused on, and responsive to, the current needs of veterans.

The AFBVC Trustees’ Grant Policy was monitored and updated throughout the reporting year by the BoT. The latest version (August 2025) is included in this Report.

Grants and Campaigns

The provision of grants continues to be our main mechanism for supporting veterans and their immediate dependents in charitable need.

The AFBVC Grant Policy system includes the policy document approved by the UK Charity Commission, a live, online grant application form, a system for Board of Trustees (BoT) debate, online purchases and approval and a fast bank transfer system to deliver the funds granted. The grant form is available on the AFBVC website. A copy of the current Grant Policy can be seen on pages 8-10.

During this reporting period, we made grants to the value of £122,758 . This is an increase of £3,928 in the funds granted compared to the previous year. This total is broken down as payments of grants totalling £115,758, and £7,000 of designated funds granted to the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD).

The range of grants reflects our Grant Policy, with support to veterans being given in the following and other areas:

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

We also repeated our successful Summer and Winter campaigns, designed to help veteran families with children enjoy the Summer break and the Christmas holidays. Payments made were as follows (note that the Summer Campaign payments often cross the end of the financial year.).

Fundraising and awareness

Our fundraising initiatives by our regional members continue to raise income in the form of donations to our Charity. As such, again, the fundraising efforts have been outstanding within the reported financial year, with public donations from regional events and social media fundraising.

The total fundraising income this year was £121,473. Whilst this represents a decrease of £37,341 on the previous year, it matched the demand for grants and still leaves us with a significant balance. Efforts to increase our grant volume and get the funds out to veterans in need are described in the Future Strategy section below.

We have continued to raise public awareness of the AFBVC and the work it does to help fundraising efforts, and to ensure veterans can access the support that we can provide.

We continue to use Givey, Charitable Giving accounts including the PayPal Giving funds used by Facebook and other social media, to channel funds to us from an increasing number of online fundraising initiatives.

A range of new publicity material has been developed to support fundraising and membership drives at events we attend. Local Regions continue to look for new opportunities to reach our target demographic. In addition, for the first time we ran a stall at the annual Ride To The Wall at the National Memorial Arboretum, attended by over 6,000 bikes and 12,800 veteran motorcyclists and supporters.

Under the Fundraising Manager we also continue to seek Corporate funding to underpin our Trading Account and pay for the statutory payments we incur as a Charity, for equipment for stalls and to create products to sell.

Our volunteers

The contribution made by volunteers remains outstanding, and a true source of pride for the Charity. As well as forming a community in their own right, Members contribute to fundraising, developing new regional initiatives and meet-ups, and volunteer to become trusted officers such as our Regional Representatives, Grant Investigators and Grant Payment Officers, and as Trustees.

All these activities are carried out in our Members’ and active Supporters’ free time and without remuneration, payments or benefits from the charity. 100% of publicly donated funds go to support veterans and their immediate dependents in need.

Membership increased over the period the accounts cover from 285 to 333 . Current membership at the time of writing the Report is 347 , and we have more active Regions than ever before. In addition to the Members of the Charity, we have a similar number of active supporters in the Regions.

Resources and Policies

The AFBVC continues to adopt a more professional approach, both in our ways of working and in our image, whilst not losing our amateur, volunteer ethos.

Throughout the year the National Chairman and Board of Trustees worked on a range of new policies to clarify and embed good working practices.

A new website was developed to overcome some of the limitations of the old one, with a new improved Forum for Members and probationers created. The new website www.afbvc.co.uk makes it easier for both Members and those interested in our work to find out more about the charity and how they can contact us.

This process was undertaken following a review of the UK’s Online Safety Act 2023 and how it applies to our operations. Following this, trusted officers were offered email addresses linked directly to the website to build confidence in those receiving the emails, and a more consistent and professional look to communications. A new Social Media Policy was developed, and access to the Members Forum limited.

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

A detailed Risk Register was created (See Risk Section below) and a risk review process put in place.

Work began on a new online shop, and this will continue over the next 6 months.

A pressing issue for the AFBVC remains the need to find new opportunities to support veterans and to manage those Grant applications which we do receive. The limiting factor at present is the number of Grant Investigators we have who process such applications and the availability of a dedicated Grant manager to manage the entire process.

Forum and communications

The old AFBVC forum continued to show decreasing use during this period, and it is hoped that activity will be reinvigorated with the launch of the new website and Forum. Social media sites such as the Facebook Supporters page, are still increasingly used in a vital role towards effective fundraising and communications to the wider community of AFBVC members, veterans and supporters. Most regions now have their own Facebook or WhatsApp groups where they organise their local activities.

Summary

The key figures for the year quoted above are shown in Table 1 below.

Achievement and Performance July 2023 July 2024 July 2025
Membership of the Charity 273 285 333
Funds raised (all sources) £149,772 £158,814 £121,473
Funds granted (all types) £60,037 £118,830 £122,758

Table 1: Summary of Achievements and Performance 2023-2025

In summary, the AFBVC has had an excellent year supporting veterans and their immediate dependants in charitable need, and improving the way we work.

However, we have now generated significantly more funds than we have granted and we are committed to increase our reach with the veteran community and to find new ways to help them (see Future Strategies page 10 for details).

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

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AFB Veterans Charity Trustees Grant Policy 2025 (Green state)

1. The Core Objectives of the AFBVC are:

Who we can help

2. Requests for grant funding are invited from ex-UK Armed Forces personnel and their immediate dependents who can provide definitive proof of service:

3. A grant applicant must have or be able to quickly obtain Verification of Service (VOS), some form of photo Identification (ID) and a Verification of Address (VOA), on application. An email copy of your discharge documents together with some form of identification would be good (image of passport or driving licence) and recent official documents with your name and address on. If no VOS, ID or VOA is received within 14 days of application the grant will be closed. Please do not apply unless you have, or can quickly obtain VOS, ID and VOA. If you have no fixed abode, then you may still apply.

4. Applications can be considered from those who are unemployed, on low income, self-employed or working part-time. You will need to provide evidence that you are in receipt of benefits or suffering hardship.

5. Unfortunately we cannot accept requests from veterans who reside outside the UK (temporary residence in the UK will not be accepted).

What we can help with

6. We make grants in several categories as follows:

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

7. Please note the following caveats:

Exclusions

The AFBVC cannot fund:

What happens next?

8. A grant investigator will be in contact by email within 48 hours of receiving your application, this will be from an @afbvc.co.uk address. Make sure to also check your spam folder for this email.

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

9. All applicants will receive a response from the AFBVC whether or not their application has been successful. Feedback on grant outcomes is appreciated and is required in support of repeat applications.

12. Please note: A grant request will be cancelled if any AFBVC Trustee or Grant Investigator is subjected to abuse or threats whilst considering or processing a grant request. We operate a zerotolerance policy.

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Future Strategy

The AFBVC 2025 to 2028 Manifesto was adopted in January 2025 and outlines the strategic direction for the next 3 years. The headline objectives from the Manifesto are:

Significant progress has been made in several areas against the Manifesto, as outlined in Performance and Achievements above, but work will continue into 2026 to embed the infrastructure and approach for sustainable and effective operations.

The National Chairman will also be looking into the need for other new policies, including:

  1. Safeguarding Policy: To protect vulnerable individuals, especially children and at-risk adults.

  2. Equality and Diversity Policy: To promote an inclusive and fair environment.

  3. General Health and Safety Policy: To ensure the safety of volunteers.

  4. Conflict of Interest Policy: To manage any potential conflicts among trustees, officers or members with leadership responsibility.

  5. Data Protection Policy: To comply with GDPR and protect personal data.

  6. New form of Membership Whistleblowing Policy: To encourage the reporting of unethical behaviour to the National Vice Chair. This would be in addition to the Charity Whistleblowing Policy

The Red, Amber and Green states for the Grant process are being amended to reflect any impact of a shortage of resources to manage grants, rather than a shortage of funds. The Policy has also been rewritten for clarity and to offer new categories.

Other ongoing objectives remain the same as outlined last year:

  1. During the next reporting period, the BoT will continue to manage the charitable arrangements of the AFBVC and conduct their duties in accordance with the AFBVC Constitution, Bye-Laws, Grant Policy, Charity Commission, and the Fundraising Regulators guidelines. The BoT will continue to strengthen their links with the Regional Reps with the aim of working more effectively with the AFBVC membership so that, as a national Charity, we can work positively toward the Charity’s aims and objectives. The BoT, in the next financial period, will continue exploring initiatives to meet the increasing demands of running our growing Charity more effectively.

  2. We will endeavour to recruit more grant investigators as the number of grants is outstripping our capacity to meet the demand. This has led us to close the grant system down so that we can investigate and administrate ongoing grant requests.

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

  1. We remain committed to working with other charities and veteran-friendly organisations that assist veterans in need.

  2. We hope to continue to increase card payments (not for donations) for the benefit of trading and regions are encouraged to request card readers from the AFBVC Treasurer to this end.

  3. We will continue to use our online donation services and seek other such donation sites to help raise needed Charity funds.

  4. We continue to support groups on social media sites as they are proving to have beneficial effects on membership recruitment and Charity awareness. Even more regions now have their own groups on Facebook, which is proving useful for encouraging participation and fundraising (these groups continue to have oversight by an AFBVC Trustee).

  5. We will continue to try and raise public awareness of the AFBVC and the work it does, to help fundraising efforts and to ensure veterans can access the support we can provide.

  6. We are increasing our emphasis on our primary objective towards supporting veterans and their immediate dependants in charitable need via campaigns, supporting veterans’ projects and more collaborative work with other charities in addition to our grant work.

  7. We will continue to encourage the organising of meets and social events. Every effort will be made to foster comradeship and support for veterans and their families in the future, which includes AFBVC members and supporters.

  8. To continue to improve the public image of the AFBVC and its core mission.

Review of the business

The statement of Receipts and Payments on page 14 of these financial statements details all incoming and outgoing resources during the year. The Trustees consider the Charity’s affairs to be satisfactory.

Reserves policy

The Trustees have examined the Charity’s requirements for reserves in light of the main risks to the organisation. It has established a policy whereby the unrestricted funds not committed held by the Charity should not be below £3,000.

Profits from AFB Trading Ltd

The net profits from AFB Trading Ltd will be transferred annually to the AFBVC Charity Account after the acceptance of our accounts at the AGM. Part of the funds within the Trading Account are used to pay for the administration of the Charity, such as event equipment, public liability insurance and to pay the Fundraising Regulator annual registration fees.

Risk review

Following the Online Safety Act and adhering to relevant Government and Charity Commission guidance , the Trustees concluded their assessment of the major online risks to which the Charity is exposed, and systems were established to mitigate those risks. Internal risks are minimised by the implementation of procedures for authorisation of all transactions and projects and to ensure consistent quality of delivery for all operational aspects of the charitable company.

We implemented safety measures based on the identified risks, recorded our assessment and proposed mitigating measures, and put in place a process to review and update the assessment, especially when there are significant changes to the Forum or Ofcom's guidance

With reference to fundraising, the AFBVC are registered with the Fundraising Regulator UK and we have made a commitment to adhere to the highest standards of fundraising practice and to being transparent and accountable in our fundraising. The Trustees have put in place liability insurance to cover all fundraising activities such as street collections and events. We have a comprehensive Fundraising Guide for use in the Regions and nationally.

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

,

With regard to payments, no individual trustee can authorise any transactions without agreement from the other Trustees, usually through electronic communications. The grant policy has been put in place to guide the specific allocations of funds towards our Charity objectives, and we have a detailed Financial Management Policy and Handling Money Policy.

One improper payment was identified following a sophisticated scam. The scam email was received on 25 November, utilising enough detail of our internal way of communicating to convince the recipient it was a genuine request for funds. Enhanced procedures were then put in place to manage future payments both for grants and non-grant requests, action on suspected fraud attempts and longer-term actions to manage the workload of AFBVC Trustees. Action Fraud and the Charity Commission were informed throughout. The payment (£980) was refunded to us in full by the bank following a review of the situation.

Approved by the Trustees on 31 January 2026 and signed on their behalf by:

Mr S Regan - National Chair

Mr WRS Aiken - Charity Chair

Mrs S Edwards - Treasurer

Mr | McCormick - Secretary

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

Independent Examiner's Report

to the Trustees of Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity

I report on the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31 July 2025 which are set out on pages 14 to 15.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with terms of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. The charity trustees consider the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1)(d) of the Accounts Regulation does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts as required under section 44(1) (c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of independent examiner's statement

My examination was carried out in accordance with the Regulation 11 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.

Independent examiner's statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

  1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements

  2. to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 44(1) (a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations; and

  3. to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations

  4. have not been met; or

  5. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Peter A Hodgson FCCA Peter A Hodgson & Co Ltd

Chartered Certified Accountants Peter A Hodgson FCCA Hett Mill Hett Durham DH6 5LN 31 January 2026

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity

Receipts and Payments Account

For the year ended 31 July 2025

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Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity - Report and Financial Statements

{

.

Armed Forces Bikers Veterans Charity

Statement of Assets

For the year ended 31 July 2025

SSS

2025 2024
Unrestricted Designated Total Total
Funds Funds Funds Funds
£ £ £
Investment 1 ~ 1 1
Fixed Assets :
ComputerEquipment 262 - 262 334
CurrentAssets
Cash atbank
OtherDebtors
PayPal		 147062
2976
2610
152648		 152
-
_-
152		 147214
2976
2610
152800		 153064
137
1349
154550
TotalAssets £152911 £152 = £153063 £154885
Reserves
Balancebroughtforward
Transferbetweenfunds
Excess ofreceipts overpayments		 154733
(7000)
5178		 152
7000
(7000)		 154855
-
(1822)		 =115380
-
39505
£150877 £152 £153063 £154885

Approved by the Trustees on 31 January 2026 and signed on their behalf by:

Mr S Regan - National Chair

Mrs S Edwards - Treasurer

----- Start of picture text -----
Mr WRS Aiken - Charity Chair
Mr | McCormick - Secretary
----- End of picture text -----

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