Asking "can I trust this charity?" before you give is exactly the right question. In the UK, there is no single star rating that scores every charity. Instead, trust rests on a public register, independently audited accounts, published reports and regulators who can step in when something goes wrong.
This page explains how that works, how you can check any charity for yourself, and what you will find when you check us.
Updated as of Thursday 1 October 2026. Figures are for our 2025 financial year (1 January to 31 December 2025).
Save the Children UK at a glance
Registered charity numbers: 213890 (England and Wales), SC039570 (Scotland) and 199 (Isle of Man)
Total income in 2025: £262.5 million
Spent on charitable activities in 2025: £233.6 million of £275.8 million total spend (about 85%)
Independent auditor: KPMG LLP
Children reached by the Save the Children movement in 2025: 37.8 million children in 92 countries
Active volunteers at 31 December 2025: 2,988
Sources: Charity Commission register entry for The Save the Children Fund and our Annual Report 2025.
What do charity ratings mean in the UK?
Three ideas often get mixed up. A rating is a score given by a third party. Regulation is a set of legal rules, enforced by a public body. Accreditation is a badge or membership showing a charity meets an agreed standard.
In the UK, regulation does most of the heavy lifting, which is why the rest of this page focuses on it.
Why there is no single UK charity rating system
Some countries have well-known charity scorecards. The UK works differently. Charities are overseen by regulators in each part of the country, and they must publish their accounts and annual reports for anyone to read. That means you can check the evidence yourself rather than relying on one score.
How charities are assessed
When people ask what makes a good charity, four things matter most. Is the charity open about its money? Does it have strong governance, meaning a board of trustees who are accountable for how the charity is run? Does it report honestly on what it achieves, including what has not worked? And does it raise funds ethically? The sections below show how you can test each one.
Who regulates charities in the UK?
Charities in the UK are overseen by different regulators depending on where they are registered and how they raise money.
Charity Commission for England and Wales
The Charity Commission for England and Wales registers and regulates charities in England and Wales. It says there are just over 170,000 charities on its register, and that in the financial year 2024-25 it regulated £101 billion of charity income.
OSCR in Scotland
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is the independent regulator for Scottish charities. You can search the Scottish Charity Register for free.
Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland is the independent regulator for charities in Northern Ireland, and you can use its charity search to look up organisations there.
The Fundraising Regulator
The Fundraising Regulator is the independent regulator of charitable fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It sets the Code of Fundraising Practice, which applies across all four UK nations, and investigates complaints about fundraising. Fundraising by charities registered only in Scotland is overseen by the Scottish Fundraising Adjudication Panel.
How to check if a charity is legitimate in the UK
You do not need to be an expert. A few minutes with public information will tell you a lot.
1.Verify a registered charity number
A registered charity number is the unique number a charity is given when it is entered on a charity register. Search for it on the GOV.UK charity register, which lists a charity's name, address, trustees, aims and finances. Very small charities may not appear on the register, so always check the number matches the charity's name and address.
2.Review accounts and annual reports
Every registered charity must produce a trustees' annual report and accounts, and larger charities must have their accounts independently checked. GOV.UK guidance for trustees explains how. Look at how much a charity raises, what it spends on programmes, and what it says about the challenges it faces. You can read ours in our key reports.
3.Check regulator records
The register also shows whether a charity's reporting is up to date and whether the regulator has taken any action. If a charity cannot give you a number that appears on a register, that is a red flag.
Save the Children's charity registration and governance
Save the Children Fund registration details
Save the Children UK is a charitable company limited by guarantee, registered under the name The Save the Children Fund (company number 178159). We are a registered charity in England and Wales (213890), Scotland (SC039570) and the Isle of Man (199). Our address is 1 St John's Lane, London EC1M 4AR. You can check every one of these details on the Charity Commission register.
Governance and trustee oversight
Our board of trustees is responsible for our strategy and for making sure we act in line with our charitable purposes and UK law. Trustees receive no pay for their role. At 31 December 2025 the board had five women and five men, and it works through six committees covering areas such as audit and risk, finance, safeguarding and donation acceptance. We follow the Charity Governance Code, and an external board effectiveness review completed in September 2025 found that we have good governance arrangements in place, along with an action plan to improve further. Meet our trustees.
Risk management and accountability
We use a "three lines" approach to risk. Staff manage risk day to day, specialist teams set policies and advise, and independent auditors check that it all works. Our trustees monitored 12 principal risks in 2025, and our Audit and Risk Committee met five times. Internal audits covered areas including cybersecurity and safeguarding.
We also publish information many charities keep private. Our annual report sets out safeguarding concerns we received, the 388 public complaints we received in 2025, and how many high-risk donations we considered (we took up 41 of 47 and turned down six because they conflicted with our values).
Save the Children charity ratings UK: independent recognition and accountability
Because there is no single UK rating, we show our accountability through the checks that do exist.
Regulatory compliance
We are registered with the Fundraising Regulator and follow its Code of Fundraising Practice. Our Supporter Promise explains how we treat the people who give to us. The Charity Commission register shows our reporting as up to date.
Financial reporting and transparency
Our Trustees' Annual Report and accounts for 2025 were approved on Tuesday 28 April 2026 and published in full. They include the pay of our executive directors, our gender and ethnicity pay gaps, and a breakdown of every pound we spent. We are accredited by the Living Wage Foundation, and since 2012 we have published detailed programme spending through the International Aid Transparency Initiative. Find out more on our accountability and transparency pages.
Independent audits and oversight
KPMG LLP audited our 2025 financial statements and gave an opinion on Friday 1 May 2026 that they give a true and fair view of our finances. In 2025 we also met all the "essential standards" in the Save the Children Association's Mutual Accountability Protocol, which the global movement uses to check each member's organisational health.
How Save the Children uses donations
In 2025 we raised £262.5 million and spent £275.8 million. Of that spending, £233.6 million (about 85%) went on charitable activities, £39.7 million (about 14%) on raising funds and £2.5 million on other costs. In practice, that means about 85p in every £1 goes towards helping children.
Programmes for children in the UK and worldwide
Education was our biggest area of spend at £80 million, followed by emergency response (£50 million), health (£40 million), livelihoods (£20 million), protection and rights (£17 million) and nutrition (£14 million).
In the UK, we worked with more than 478 organisations, families and children on ending child poverty, and helped persuade the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which is expected to lift 450,000 children out of poverty. Read about our UK work and how we use your donation.
Transparency around spending
We are open about the tough parts too. Our income fell by £43 million in 2025, largely because of international aid cuts, and we ran a £10 million deficit, including a planned £5 million draw on reserves. We responded with a restructure projected to deliver annualised gross savings of £9 million, so more of every pound can reach children.
Understanding charity overheads
Running a charity safely costs money. Overheads include technology, finance, HR, legal and governance, and safeguarding. Fundraising costs matter too: money raised from supporters gives us flexible funding that can reach children when other funding falls short. Rather than treating overheads as a bad word, we think the right question is whether they are kept sensible, explained clearly and tied to results.
What to do if you have concerns about a charity
Most concerns can be sorted out quickly if you start with the charity itself. GOV.UK's guidance on complaining about a charity is a good place to begin.
Complaints to the charity
You can call our Supporter Care team on 020 7012 6400 or email [email protected]. We take every complaint seriously and report complaint numbers each year.
Charity Commission complaints
The Charity Commission deals with serious concerns, for example if a charity is not doing what it claims to do, is losing lots of money, is harming people or is being used for personal gain. Find out how to raise a concern with the Charity Commission. In Scotland, use OSCR's concern form. If you suspect illegal activity, contact the police.
Fundraising Regulator complaints
If you are unhappy with how you were asked for donations or how fundraisers behaved, you can complain to the Fundraising Regulator. It asks that you contact the fundraising organisation first. See its complaints process.
Charity ratings UK: frequently asked questions
-
Is Save the Children a good charity?
-
We think the best answer is the evidence. We are registered with three charity regulators, our accounts are audited by KPMG LLP, we publish our trustees, executive pay, spending and complaints, and in 2025 the Save the Children movement supported 37.8 million children in 92 countries. We never claim to be perfect, and we publish our challenges as well as our successes, so you can judge for yourself.
-
Who helps make Save the Children an effective charity?
-
Thousands of people. At the end of 2025 we had 2,988 active volunteers, including shop volunteers who gave more than 320,000 hours to our 83 UK shops. We work with local organisations, communities, partners and, above all, children and families themselves. More than 2.2 million people also joined in Christmas Jumper Day, raising £2.8 million.
-
What percentage of donations go to charity?
-
In 2025, about 85% of our spending (£233.6 million of £275.8 million) went on charitable activities, which means about 85p in every £1 goes towards helping children. The rest covers raising funds and other costs. Our annual report shows the full breakdown.
-
Who regulates charities in the UK?
-
Charities are regulated by the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. Fundraising is overseen by the Fundraising Regulator in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Asking questions makes charities better
Every time a supporter checks the register, reads a report or raises a question, charities are held to a higher standard. We welcome it.
Because behind every figure on this page is a child who is healthier, safer or learning because people chose to look closely and then to act.
When you are ready, you can find out how to support children.
