The Alan Edward Higgs Charity
Charity 1209831
https://www.higgscharity.org.uk/
Overview
Summary
The Alan Edward Higgs Charity appears to be a place-based grantmaker using flexible charitable objects to focus its resources on children and young people facing hardship across Coventry and its surrounding area. Its role is not direct service delivery but enabling other organisations to strengthen family support, young people’s independence and responses to deprivation. The available evidence suggests a foundation attempting to connect individual disadvantage with the wider conditions—services, education, health and opportunity—that shape it.
Operational geography
Coverage: Regional
Operational areas:
Evidence and reasoning
Supporting evidence
Remaining uncertainties
- No current evidence identifies an active grant-funded project, delivery site or partner operation within any individual Birmingham ward or the supplied City Centre place.
- The Charity Commission record for charity 1209831 declares Birmingham City among its areas of operation, but does not specify locations, projects, recipients or dates of activity within Birmingham.
- The first trustees' report for charity 1209831, covering 2 September 2024 to 5 April 2025, describes it as dormant, with no income or expenditure and future trading plans not yet crystallised. This conflicts with the operational impression created by the public website.
- The public website identifies itself as registered charity 509367, rather than the supplied charity number 1209831. It contains evidence of historic Birmingham grant-making, including a 2020 grant to Birmingham Vision, but does not establish that this activity is currently undertaken by charity 1209831.
- Historic Birmingham grants appear to have supported organisations and programmes serving Birmingham generally, rather than demonstrating a neighbourhood-, ward- or City Centre-based operational presence.
Additional evidence needed
- A current grants register or annual report for charity 1209831 showing grants awarded since its registration on 2 September 2024, including recipient organisations, project locations and beneficiary geographies.
- Confirmation from the charity of the legal and operational relationship between registered charities 1209831 and 509367, including which entity now makes grants.
- Current grant recipient or partner evidence identifying Birmingham projects and their service locations at ward or recognised-place level.
Areas of work
- General Charitable Purposes
- The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
Who they help
- Children/young People
How they help
- Makes Grants To Organisations
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
A locally bounded funder with a broad view of disadvantage
The charity appears to combine a tightly defined geography with a deliberately broad understanding of need. Although its objects permit many charitable purposes, its public framing concentrates on children, young people, families and resource deprivation.
Why it matters
This suggests the charity may be positioned to notice how local disadvantage crosses conventional service boundaries, rather than treating child welfare as a single-issue concern.
Show evidence
“The charity benefits inhabitants within 25 miles of the centre of Coventry, with preference for child welfare and particularly underprivileged children.”
Source:Charity Commission“The charity provides grants to organisations improving the lives of children and young people experiencing hardship and disadvantage.”
Source:Organisation“Its website identifies Young People, Families & Children and Resource Deprivation as areas of focus.”
Source:Organisation
Its operating model makes it an indirect connector in the local system
By making grants to organisations rather than describing direct delivery, the charity appears to influence local outcomes through the capabilities and reach of other groups.
Why it matters
Understanding it as an intermediary is important: its potential value may lie in convening, enabling and filling gaps among frontline organisations, not only in the grants it awards.
Show evidence
“How the charity helps: Makes Grants To Organisations.”
Source:Charity Commission“The charity is committed to providing grants to organisations and charities.”
Source:Organisation
The charity frames transition to independence as a key point of vulnerability
Its emphasis on skills, confidence, resilience and transition into independence suggests it may see disadvantage among young people as extending beyond immediate poverty to reduced access to social and practical resources.
Why it matters
This may make the charity a relevant potential partner for organisations working on youth transitions, employability, housing, mentoring or family support, even where these are not labelled primarily as poverty services.
Show evidence
“Grants support disadvantaged young people to improve skills, build confidence and resilience, and transition into independence.”
Source:Organisation“What the charity does includes the prevention or relief of poverty.”
Source:Charity Commission
- Which organisations, communities and neighbourhoods receive grants most often is unknown.
- It is unclear whether the charity prioritises early intervention, crisis response or longer-term systems change.
- No evidence identifies collaboration practices, grant sizes or outcomes achieved.
Remaining uncertainties
- Recent grant lists showing recipients, amounts, purposes and locations.
- Annual reports or strategy documents describing priorities, selection criteria and intended outcomes.
- Evidence of partnerships, declined demand or unmet needs within the 25-mile area.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
Charity objects
SUCH CHARITABLE PURPOSES WHICH SHALL BENEFIT WHOLLY OR MAINLY THE INHABITANTS OF THE AREA WITHIN 25 MILES OF THE CENTRE OF COVENTRY AS THE TRUSTEES MAY SELECT, WITH A PREFERENCE AS FAR AS PRACTICABLE TO THE PROMOTION OF CHILD WELFARE AND PARTICULARLY THE WELFARE OF UNDER PRIVILEGED CHILDREN.