British Record Industry Trust

The British Record Industry Trust, known as The BRIT Trust, founded in 1989 by the UK recorded music industry, harnesses music and creative arts to transform lives through diversity, equality, and inclusion. Its mission empowers individuals from all backgrounds—irrespective of abilities, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality—to realize full potential via educational and wellbeing activities. Core values of inclusivity, social mobility, and arts access drive funding decisions, rooted in the philosophy that music fosters positive social change, breaks barriers for marginalized groups, and builds long-term partnerships for talent development, community empowerment, and measurable personal transformation.

It prioritizes music and creative arts education including free performing arts training and talent development for young people from diverse, deprived, or rural backgrounds facing barriers to access; music therapy for people with significant health challenges, developmental disabilities, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, or complex needs through therapeutic interventions promoting emotional regulation and wellbeing; mental health counselling, addiction recovery, and peer support for music industry workers experiencing anxiety, isolation, or substance misuse; youth mentoring and after-school music programs addressing social exclusion and employability barriers; rehabilitation via music and creative interventions for at-risk young men, ex-offenders, and Black-led youth initiatives tackling trauma, identity, and community disconnection. Supported activities emphasize person-centred, trauma-informed, community-led approaches like music bus outreach, holistic creative therapies, inclusive arts workshops, and preventative wellbeing programs fostering confidence, social skills, and resilience in underserved young people, disabled individuals, and sector professionals.

Exclusions include individuals, scholarships, non-UK activities, and non-charity entities, focusing solely on music/creative arts-driven projects. Distinctive as the UK music industry's principal philanthropy, it champions underrepresented youth, vulnerable music sector workers, and disabled people via flagship institutions like the BRIT School alongside grassroots innovation, requiring grantees to uphold safeguarding, diversity commitments, and evidence-based impact in UK-wide deprived, rural, and urban communities prioritizing social inclusion and equity.