British Heart Foundation

British Heart Foundation scores 82 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 36% 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.

The register data used for this profile lists British Heart Foundation as a registered charity (charity number 225971). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=225971&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.

British Heart Foundation's charity number is 225971. 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.

British Heart Foundation scores 82 out of 100 on CharityCompare (4 stars — Good). 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.

CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for British Heart Foundation. 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.

Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 36% of British Heart Foundation'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.

Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 10% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 10% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at British Heart Foundation. British Heart Foundation's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 180 employees paid more than £60,000, including 20 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £200,001–£250,000 (2 employees). Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.

British Heart Foundation reported £411m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.

Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-01-30). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.

British Heart Foundation's registered contact address is in London (NW1 7AW). It tells the regulator it operates in Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales, Isle of Man, with a focus on health.

The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. British Heart Foundation's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 180 employees paid more than £60,000, including 20 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £200,001–£250,000 (2 employees). 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.

British Heart Foundation reported £411m total income for the year ending 31 March 2025. The largest sources were trading and fundraising events £238m (58%), donations and legacies £162m (40%), investments £10m (2%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £108m.

The register records British Heart Foundation 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.

British Heart Foundation's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.

British Heart Foundation was entered on the register on 26 March 1963. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 00699547).

We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in British Heart Foundation'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.

This profile was last updated on 6 September 2026 from the latest UK regulator data available to CharityCompare, and British Heart Foundation's most recent accounts cover 2025. Scores and figures refresh whenever we re-ingest the register, so the page reflects our latest data pull rather than a one-off review.