Gainsborough Trust

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Marks family trust giving about £100,000 a year to unnamed religious institutions and needy families in Israel; its objects name Modi'in Illit

Gainsborough Trust

Type Trust
Founded 1992-02-20 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 1008543
Headquarters Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem
Area served Israel

The Gainsborough Trust (registered charity 1008543) is a UK-based charitable trust that names Modi'in Illit (also known as Kiryat Sefer) in its objects and activity summary. Modi'in Illit is the largest Israeli settlement city in the West Bank by population. B'Tselem has treated the turning of Modi'in Illit into a municipality as part of Israel’s settlement policy in the occupied West Bank.[1][2]

The trust also records activities in Israel (as well as England and Wales in the activity wording). Area of benefit on the governing document is England and Israel; the register’s “where it operates” field is Israel.[3][4]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "TO PROVIDE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO OHR SOMEACH AND NEVE YERUSHALYIM AS WELL AS INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES IN SEVERE FINANCIAL STRAITS AS WELL AS OTHER RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN ENGLAND AND ISRAEL AND TO PROMOTE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE INHABITANTS OF MODIIN ILLIT ISRAEL AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS THE PROVISION OF FACILITIES FOR RECREATION AND OTHER LEISURE TIME OCCUPATION AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES OF INDIVIDUAL WHO HAVE NEED OF SUCH FACILITIES BY REASON OF THEIR YOUTH AGE INFIRMITY OR DISABILITY FINANCIAL HARDSHIP OR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CIRCUMSTANCES OR FOR THE PUBLIC AT LARGE IN THE INTEREST OF SOCIAL WELFARE OR WITH THE OBJECT OF IMPROVING THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE OF THE SAID INHABITANTS."[5]

The register describes its activities as: "To collect and distribute funding for educational purposes in Israel as well as England and Wales, and also to benefit inhabitants of Modiin Illit, Israel and the surrounding areas with facilities for health and recreation and financial distress."[5]

Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes, Education/training, The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty, Overseas Aid/famine Relief, Religious Activities, Recreation.[5]

Areas of operation recorded on the register: Israel.[5]

People

Trustees (current register)

Name Role Date of appointment Other charities
Neil Daniel Marks Trustee Not stated None on record
Susan Merle Marks Trustee Not stated None on record

[6]

Board of directors circa 2015

Neil Marks | Susan Marks

The same two names appear on the Commission register in 2026, with no other current trusteeships listed.

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2021-01-06 Susan Merle Marks; Neil Daniel Marks [7]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-03-31 £111,586 £121,653
2022-03-31 £63,327 £63,378
2023-03-31 £69,501 £69,155
2024-03-31 £96,472 £96,784
2025-03-31 £108,102 £102,813

Source: register annual-return history.[5]

Archived accounts

Accounts no longer on the live register were found in the UK Government Web Archive:

  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2017[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2018[9]

Funding in Israel

  • FY2025 donations paid £101,835 (2024: £95,969): institutions £54,242 (higher education £36,166, basic Jewish education £18,076) and individuals £47,593 (destitute families £45,096, poor brides £2,497); no recipient or place is named (PDF p.6, 11).[10]

Israeli partners

No partner is named in the accounts; the registered objects name Ohr Someach and Neve Yerushalyim.[10][5]

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.

Evidence of activity beyond the 1949 armistice line
Finding Confidence
The registered objects provide for facilities for the inhabitants of Modi'in Illit, which Peace Now lists as a West Bank settlement.[5][11] High
The accounts do not name Modi'in Illit or any other place, so whether funds were spent there is not established (PDF p.4, 11).[10] Not established

Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is stated.[10]

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;[12] 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.[13][14][15][16] 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.[17]
  • Examiner's report wording and date. The independent examiner's report, headed for the year to 31 March 2025, refers in its text to the "year ended 31 March2024", and is dated 24 December 2025, five days before the trustees approved the accounts on 29 December 2025 (OCR, PDF p.12).[10]
  • Recipients not named. The accounts name none of the institutions or individuals who received the £101,835 (PDF p.11).[10]

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).[18] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[19]

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.[20]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[21]

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.[22]

Land and property

The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[5] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[23]

Parliament

Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Gainsborough Trust" returned 0 contributions in total.[24]

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".[7]

Contact

Current (Commission register):

  • 1 Hendon Hall Court, Parson Street, London NW4 1QY
  • Phone: 020 8203 3847
  • No website listed[4]

Address circa 2015:

7 Garrick Avenue
London
NW11 9AR

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ B'Tselem, B'Tselem's position on turning Modi'in Illit into a municipality, 4 November 2005, accessed 12 May 2015.
  2. ↑ Charity Commission, GAINSBOROUGH TRUST Register of Charities, accessed 15 September 2026.
  3. ↑ Charity Commission, Gainsborough Trust (legacy register view), accessed 12 May 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Charity Commission, GAINSBOROUGH TRUST - 1008543 Register of Charities, accessed 15 September 2026.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 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.
  6. ↑ Charity Commission, Trustees GAINSBOROUGH TRUST Register of Charities, accessed 15 September 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Register entry 1008543, full print (capture of 20210106) UK Government Web Archive.
  8. ↑ Gainsborough Trust accounts, year ended 2017-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  9. ↑ Gainsborough Trust accounts, year ended 2018-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Charity Commission, Gainsborough Trust (1008543): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 16 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  11. ↑ Peace Now, Modi'in Ilit Settlement Watch, viewed 16 October 2026 (type: settlement; established 1996; 83,356 residents; ultra-Orthodox; additional name Kiryat Sefer).
  12. ↑ 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-17 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)"; Starscope Limited showed "up to date (23 days late)", UK Friends of Tzohar "up to date (18 days late)" and The Mr W and Mrs I Carrant Charitable Trust "up to date (3 days late)"; BFON Trust showed no reporting-status line; Yeshiva Gedola Zichron Michoel, Friends of Reb Sender Dominitz, Emerald Benevolence Ltd and Academic Study Group showed "Removed charity".
  13. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  14. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  15. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  16. ↑ 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).
  17. ↑ 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").
  18. ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-17 charity names found no matching Scottish registration.
  19. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 16 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-17 charity names returned no matching charity).
  20. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Gainsborough Trust' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
  21. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1008543 360Giving, queried 16 October 2026.
  22. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-17 screening covered 231 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, Companies House officers of the eight 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 Rotenberg, Weiss, Levy and Cohen) or generic words such as "Ltd", "International", "Group" and "Team"; lists downloaded October 2026.
  23. ↑ 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.
  24. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Gainsborough Trust" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
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