Set up by the county's own, for the county's own.
The Fund was established by a group of Devon farmers, rural professionals and landowners who recognised a simple gap: national farming charities do valuable work, but do not always reach quickly into the local networks where Devon families live. They wanted a fund that was unmistakably Devon — governed here, administered here, and distributed here.
Registered with the Charity Commission (No. 1133149), the Fund operates from a registered office at Brockhill Lodge in Broadclyst, just east of Exeter. We are wholly volunteer-led. Our trustees are farmers, former farmers, rural professionals and people with deep ties to Devon agriculture. There is no paid staff and no office overhead — every administrative task is handled by volunteers.
Our income is modest — for the financial year ending 30 November 2024 our total income was just under £32,000. That might sound small against the scale of need in any rural county. But with nothing consumed by overheads, every pound raised goes out again as hardship support, education grants or research funding. We think the arithmetic matters.
A trustee-led fund, no middlemen.
Three decisions shape everything we do: who is eligible, how we hear about them, and how quickly we can help. The answers are all local.
Who we help
Farmers and farming families who live or work in the administrative county of Devon, and who are experiencing financial hardship that a modest one-off grant could meaningfully ease.
How referrals reach us
Applications are normally routed through a trusted local referrer — a rural vet, a Farming Community Network volunteer, a land agent, a GP, a minister or a neighbour — who can help translate a household's situation into an application.
How we decide
A small committee of trustees reviews each application confidentially. For urgent cases we can act within days; for most, within a month. There is no fee, no public disclosure and no expectation of thanks.
Four things we keep returning to.
None of them is complicated. All of them are harder to stick to than they sound.
Discretion
We do not publish names, photographs or identifying case details. What a family tells us stays between them, the trustees and the people they choose to involve.
Speed
Hardship rarely waits. Our processes are deliberately simple so that a decision can be made, and money moved, within weeks rather than months.
Localism
Every grant we make goes to someone or something in Devon. We are not a national charity — we are a county charity, and we intend to stay that way.
Accountability
Trustees are unpaid, income and outgoings are audited and filed each year with the Charity Commission, and our published accounts are a plain-English record of where money came from and where it went.
Our trustees.
A small board of unpaid trustees, all with long-standing ties to Devon's farming community, meets quarterly and between meetings by phone for urgent decisions.
Chair of Trustees
Board Chair
Chairs trustee meetings, oversees the grant-making committee, and acts as the public face of the charity with external partners and donors.
Honorary Treasurer
Finance & Reporting
Keeps the fund's accounts, prepares the annual return for the Charity Commission, manages the treasurer's reserve and oversees audit arrangements.
Honorary Secretary
Administration
Receives enquiries and applications, maintains trustee records, and keeps the confidential correspondence register through which referrers contact the fund.
Grants Committee Lead
Hardship Grants
Leads the confidential review of hardship applications and maintains working relationships with Devon's network of rural referrers.
Education & Research Lead
Education & Research
Oversees the charity's education and research grant rounds, including relationships with Bicton College, Duchy College and local schools.
Trustee · Rural Network
Outreach
Ensures the fund is connected into the full network of Devon rural organisations — YFCs, NFU, local vets, auction marts and churches — who help us hear where the need is.
A full list of current trustees, their roles and any declared interests is published each year in the Trustees' Annual Report filed with the Charity Commission.
Annual reports & accounts.
Each year we file a Trustees' Annual Report and accounts with the Charity Commission. Copies are available from the Commission's register, and we keep recent years here.
Trustees' Report 2024
Financial year ended 30 November 2024. Total income £31,967. PDF, Charity Commission ↗
Previous annual returns
Historical annual returns and accounts from prior years — available via the Charity Commission register.
Governing document
Constitution and objects of the charity as registered — available on request to enquiries@devonfarmersbenevolent.org.uk.
Registered in England & Wales.
The Devon Farmers' Benevolent Fund is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (No. 1133149). Our governing document sets out our objects, our trustees' powers and duties, and the geographical limits of our work (the administrative county of Devon).
View on Charity Commission ↗
1 Brockhill Lodge
Station Road, Broadclyst
Exeter EX5 3AR
Devon, England