Briess Family Charitable Trust
Briess family trust in London NW3 that gave £62,800 in 2025/26 by category – including £33,250 for Holocaust education and Jewish charities – without naming any recipient
| Briess Family Charitable Trust
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Trust |
| Founded | 1977-02-01 (registered) |
| Registration ID | Registered charity 272721 |
| Headquarters | London NW3 |
| Area served | Barnet, Camden, City Of London, Israel |
| Key people | P Briess (chair) |
Briess Family Charitable Trust (also registered as the H J B Charitable Trust) was established by a trust deed of 27 November 1976, amended on 14 August 2018 and 28 April 2022, and registered on 1 February 1977; its office is in London NW3 (PDF p.4).[1][2] It supports registered charities in refugee relief, education and training, Holocaust memorialisation and education, environmental and wildlife conservation and medical and scientific research, and does not consider unsolicited applications (PDF p.4).[2] The trustees are Peter Briess, Bridget Kohner and Dr David Andrew Briess; the independent examiner is Jeremy Harrod FCCA of Grant Harrod Lerman Davis (PDF p.3).[2] In the year to 31 January 2026 it gave £62,800: medical research £20,750; Holocaust education and Jewish charities £33,250; children's charities £2,000; health and humanitarian £5,800; animal charities £1,000 (PDF p.4).[2] Cash fell from £62,813 to £25,722 and investments were valued at £226,808 (PDF p.6–7).[2]
Objects and activities
The charity's registered objects read: "TO SUCH CHARITIES OR FOR SUCH CHARITABLE PURPOSES AS THE SETTLORS MAY JOINTLY FROM TIME TO TIME DIRECT AND SUBJECT TO AND IN DEFAULT OF ANY SUCH DIRECTION MAY NOT EXTEND AS THE TRUSTEES MAY AT THEIR UNCONTROLLED DISCRETION DETERMINE"[1]
The register describes its activities as: "The Briess Family Charitable Trust is an independent grant-making family-run trust and makes donations to registered charities at the discretion of the Trustees. The Briess Family Charitable Trust does not accept unsolicited applications for support."[1]
Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes, Education/training, The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives, Disability, The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty, Overseas Aid/famine Relief, Arts/culture/heritage/science, Environment/conservation/heritage.[1]
Areas of operation recorded on the register: Barnet, Camden, City Of London, Israel.[1]
Trustees
Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[1]
| Trustee | Appointed | Chair | Other trusteeships |
|---|---|---|---|
| P Briess | not recorded | Yes | — |
| David Andrew Briess | not recorded | — | |
| Bridget Kohner | 2018-11-21 | — |
Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)
| Capture date | Trustees listed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-01-07 | David Andrew Briess; P Briess (chair); Bridget McGing (from 21 November 2018) | [3] |
Finances
| Financial year end | Income | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-01-31 | £5,172 | £34,795 |
| 2023-01-31 | £4,042 | £72,485 |
| 2024-01-31 | £75,891 | £91,226 |
| 2025-01-31 | £189,577 | £158,051 |
| 2026-01-31 | £64,311 | £101,402 |
Source: register annual-return history.[1]
Funding in Israel
- No spending in Israel is identified; the accounts do not mention Israel (PDF p.4, 9).[2]
Israeli partners
No Israeli partner is named.[2]
Activity beyond the Green Line and support for the IDF
Findings are graded by confidence. "Partner" findings concern the Israeli recipient organisation, not proven use of UK funds.
| Finding | Confidence |
|---|---|
| No place in Israel is named.[2] | Not established |
Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is stated.[2]
Controversies and regulatory action
- No Charity Commission inquiry, Official Warning or Gazette insolvency notice naming this charity was found, and its register entry shows no regulatory alert;[4] it is not among the charities named in the Commission's cheque-cashing class-inquiry announcements (May, September and December 2025) or in the September 2026 statement of results.[5][6][7][8] The charities in the Commission's settlements class inquiry (opened August 2026) have not been named, so it is not known whether this charity is among them.[9]
- Wrong year and outdated SORP. The report is presented "for the year ended 31 January 2025" although the accounts are for 2026, and cites the SORP "issued March 2005" (PDF p.4).[2]
- Recipients not named. Grants are given only by category (PDF p.4, 9).[2]
Other registers and records
Scotland and Northern Ireland
No entry was found on the Scottish Charity Register for this charity (register export dated 14 October 2026, searched by name).[10] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[11]
The Gazette
Searches of The Gazette notice feeds (all notices, insolvency and company) for the charity's name found no insolvency, winding-up or strike-off notice.[12]
Grants recorded by 360Giving
No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[13]
Sanctions screening
The charity's name, its current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, trustees and officers named in the accounts read for this profile and (for charitable companies) its Companies House officers were screened against the UK Sanctions List and the OFSI Consolidated List. No match was found. Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor (UK sanctions ID RUS1127) does not appear among this charity's trustees or officers.[14]
Land and property
The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[1] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[15]
Parliament
Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Briess Family Charitable Trust", "H J B Charitable Trust" returned 0 contributions in total.[16]
Web archive
The UK Government Web Archive holds 2 archived Charity Commission register pages used in this profile (cited in the sections above). The 2021 archived full print showed the status "Charity reporting is up to date" and "Other regulators: No information available".[3]
External links
- No current official website.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities public extract (tables charity, charity_trustee, charity_annual_return_history, charity_area_of_operation, charity_classification, charity_other_names), extract dated 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Charity Commission, Briess Family Charitable Trust (272721): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 16 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Register entry 272721, full print (capture of 20210107) UK Government Web Archive.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Register of Charities, charity overview page (register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/ followed by the organisation number) for each of the 25 batch-20 charities, all retrieved successfully on 16 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none was shown for any of them. Seventeen registered charities showed "Charity reporting is up to date (on time)"; the other eight (Friends of Milbat, British Friends of Atid, River Progress Foundation, Morris Family Israel Trust, Afikim, the Cohen Charitable Trust, the Adrienne and Leslie Sussman Charitable Trust and Encompass) showed "Removed charity".
- ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator concludes investigation into 4 charities as class inquiry continues GOV.UK, 9 September 2026, with Statement of the results of a class inquiry (same date).
- ↑ Charity Commission, Charity regulator opens inquiry into charities working in illegal Israeli settlements GOV.UK, 5 August 2026 (a fact-finding statutory class inquiry initially involving 8 charities which "are not being publicly named at this time").
- ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-20 charity names found no matching Scottish registration (a name-only hit for "Sheila & Denis Cohen Charitable Trust" was not established to be connected with the Cohen Charitable Trust and is disregarded).
- ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 16 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-20 charity names returned zero results).
- ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Briess Family Charitable Trust' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
- ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-272721 360Giving, queried 16 October 2026.
- ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-20 screening covered 272 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, Companies House officers of the five charitable companies, and trustees, examiners and other people and bodies named in the accounts and sources read for this batch; matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname match for any person was found; token matches were surname-only coincidences (for example Weiss, Sara, Masri, Cohen) or generic words in organisation names (Limited, Company, Trust).
- ↑ HM Land Registry, Search for land and property information GOV.UK – the service returned HTTP 403 (bot protection) to automated access in October 2026; no titles were looked up or purchased. Candidate title numbers below come from the free CCOD / OCOD datasets (October 2026 release), not from paid title registers.
- ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Briess Family Charitable Trust" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).