Common questions about Birdlife International's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Birdlife International a good charity? +
Birdlife International scores 69 out of 100 (3 stars — Needs improvement) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 94% of its spending goes to charitable activities (3-yr avg) and its accounts are up to date. That reflects how transparent and financially healthy it looks on paper — it does not measure the real-world impact of its work, so treat it as one factor alongside the cause you care about. CharityCompare never tells you where to donate.
Is Birdlife International a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Birdlife International as a registered charity (charity number 1042125). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1042125&subId=0. Check the current entry and the identity of anyone requesting money. Registration does not verify a particular appeal; Clarity Score summarises filing transparency, not programme impact.
What is Birdlife International's charity number? +
Birdlife International's charity number is 1042125. Check that number on the official register (Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI) or this CharityCompare profile before you donate — scammers sometimes reuse real numbers on fake appeals.
What is Birdlife International's charity rating? +
Birdlife International scores 69 out of 100 on CharityCompare (3 stars — Needs improvement). The Clarity Score (method v1.1) sums four pillars from UK regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 pts), Financial Health (30), Financial Efficiency (20), and Community Support (10). Stars use the same bands as those labels — 90+ is 5★ Exceptional. It is not an impact ranking.
Does Birdlife International have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Birdlife International. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (none flagged on this profile). For formal complaints about a charity, contact the Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI or the Fundraising Regulator as appropriate.
How much of my donation reaches Birdlife International? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 94% of Birdlife International's total spending went to charitable activities (3-yr avg across disclosed years). That is the closest official figure to "how much of your donation reaches the cause" — it is an average across all spending in the filing, not a pound-by-pound breakdown of an individual gift.
What are Birdlife International's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 6% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 7% of expenditure (2022–2024, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Birdlife International. Birdlife International's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports 27 employees paid more than £60,000, including 5 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £200,001–£250,000 (1 employee). Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.
How much income does Birdlife International receive? +
Birdlife International reported £33m total income in its 2024 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.
Are Birdlife International's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2025-10-15). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Birdlife International based? +
Birdlife International's registered contact address is in Cambridge (CB2 3QZ). It tells the regulator it operates in Cambridgeshire, Belgium, Cambodia, Ecuador, Fiji, Ghana, with a focus on animals.
How much is Birdlife International's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Birdlife International's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports 27 employees paid more than £60,000, including 5 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £200,001–£250,000 (1 employee). Charities normally disclose the chief executive's pay, or the pay of their highest-paid staff, in the remuneration note of the trustees' annual report and accounts.
Where does Birdlife International's money come from? +
Birdlife International reported £33m total income for the year ending 31 December 2024. The largest sources were charitable activities £29m (87%), donations and legacies £2.9m (9%), trading and fundraising events £1m (3%).
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Birdlife International? +
The register records Birdlife International as registered with HMRC for Gift Aid, so a UK taxpayer can usually add 25p to every £1 they give by making a Gift Aid declaration.
Are Birdlife International's trustees paid? +
Birdlife International's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was Birdlife International registered as a charity? +
Birdlife International was entered on the register on 19 November 1994. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 02985746).
How does CharityCompare score Birdlife International? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Birdlife International's regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 points — filing history, trustees, policies), Financial Health (30 — reserves, income trend, debt), Financial Efficiency (20 — cause spend and fundraising cost, on a graduated scale) and Community Support (10 — volunteer-to-staff ratio). An open statutory inquiry scores 0. The score measures reporting on paper, not programme impact. CharityCompare is free for donors, takes no commission on donations, and scores cannot be bought.
How often is this page updated? +
This profile was last updated on 6 September 2026 from the latest UK regulator data available to CharityCompare, and Birdlife International's most recent accounts cover 2024. Scores and figures refresh whenever we re-ingest the register, so the page reflects our latest data pull rather than a one-off review.