IMPACT REPORT 2024

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For more than 105 years, the RAF Benevolent Fund has been supporting the RAF Family. We are a key partner in the Royal Air Force’s mission to look after its people during and after service, ensuring that this service is valued, recognised, and people are supported even when uniforms are eventually shed.

We are a national charity with international reach, delivering emotional, financial and practical support wherever and whenever it is needed. In 2024, recognising increasingly challenging times, our vital services and support continued to help those serving, families, veterans, and the bereaved, in 30 other countries. More than 64,000 people benefitted from our work.

Our support to the RAF Family in 2024

FINANCIAL SUPPORT
We gave support in its most immediate form, while also building longer-term resilience through mental wellbeing programmes and counselling.

EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
Our welfare team provided mental health support to our veteran community to reduce social isolation and loneliness; and emotional assistance to serving personnel who required it, helping them to cope with the daily pressures of military life.

PRACTICAL SUPPORT
We continued to provide practical support for the RAF Family, including mobility equipment, housing adaptations and breaks away, increasing independence and improving quality of life.

WE REMEMBERED
2024 was a year of commemoration, gratitude, and renewed commitment to the RAF Family. It was a year that reminded us not only of the enduring legacy of service but also of the evolving needs of those who continue to serve, and those who have served before them. The Fund continues to serve as a pillar of strength for so many.

19,025

serving personnel and their families given individual support.

9,300

veterans, their families, and the bereaved given individual support.

64,876

members of the RAF Family supported.

We were there for Władysława

Władysława Kondracka joined the Women’s Auxiliary Airforce in 1943 and was based in Hucknall near Nottingham, providing ground support. Now aged 100 and living in Poland, Władysława is supported with financial assistance, enabling her son to hire a carer and pay for general day-to-day items, particularly in the cost-of-living crisis.

32,587

serving personnel and their families supported with community activities and events.

3,964

veterans, their families and the bereaved supported with community activities and events.

98%

of people said they were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' by the support they received.

We supported RAF communities

We provided a small grant of £400, which has made a big difference for children and families at RAF Henlow. The grant helped to redecorate an old storeroom within the community centre, re-purposing it into a new sensory room for children, especially those with SEN. This included new sensory toys and activities, but the main feature was a curved bubble wall with changing colours and to provide an ‘under the water’ theme.