About CharityScore UK
We're an independent transparency watchdog that helps UK donors make informed decisions about where their money goes.
Our mission
Every year, UK donors give billions of pounds to charity. But choosing which charity to support is harder than it should be. Annual reports can run to dozens of pages. Charity Commission filings are public but dense and hard to navigate. Most people simply don't have the time to do the research themselves.
CharityScore UK was built to change that. We process official public data from the Charity Commission for England and Wales, apply a consistent, transparent scoring methodology, and present the results in a way anyone can understand in seconds. No jargon. No hidden criteria. Just clear, honest ratings.
What we do
CharityScore UK independently analyses every registered charity in England and Wales — over 170,000 organisations — across five key areas: trustee governance, financial health, public transparency, filing history, and regulatory standing.
Each charity receives a score out of 100 and a trust badge: Platinum, Verified, Good Standing, Needs Review, or Insufficient Data. Where we find specific governance concerns — late filings, regulatory actions, spending anomalies — we flag them individually so donors can see exactly what the issue is and judge for themselves.
We also offer corporate vetting services for businesses that want to due-diligence their charity partnerships before committing funds — a growing need as employee giving programmes and CSR commitments become more scrutinised.
Our data sources
All data used by CharityScore UK is sourced from official, publicly available records:
- Charity Commission for England & Wales — the official regulator's public data extract, including registration details, trustee information, financial summaries, filing histories, and regulatory event records.
- Annual returns — submitted directly by charities to the Commission each year, containing audited financial figures and governance declarations.
- Regulatory event history — formal Commission actions including inquiries, warnings, trustee removals, and interim manager appointments.
We do not editorialize or modify the underlying data. Our contribution is the scoring methodology applied on top of it — which is fully documented and publicly available on our How It Works page.
Our independence
CharityScore UK is an independent service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the Charity Commission, any government department, or any charity sector body.
We generate revenue through Pro Profile subscriptions (where charities can add their own description, logo, and donate link to their profile page) and through corporate vetting services. Standard public ratings are free and are not influenced by commercial relationships. A charity's score is determined solely by the data — paying for a Pro Profile does not affect the score in any way.
If you believe any information about your charity is incorrect, please contact us at charity@charityscore.co.uk. We investigate all corrections promptly and aim to respond within 5 working days.
Why charity transparency matters
The UK charity sector is one of the largest and most trusted in the world. But trust is not automatic — it must be earned and maintained through accountability. High-profile charity scandals over the past decade — from excessive executive pay to funds not reaching stated beneficiaries — have eroded public confidence and led to real, measurable drops in donation levels.
The good news is that the information to make informed giving decisions already exists. It's filed with the regulator every year. CharityScore UK exists simply to make that information accessible — to surface the signal from the regulatory noise, so you can give with confidence.
We believe that when donors have better information, better-governed charities receive more support — and that's good for everyone.
Get in touch
Whether you're a charity looking to correct your profile, a business seeking a vetting report, or a journalist researching the sector — we're happy to hear from you.
charity@charityscore.co.uk