Common questions about City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra a good charity? +
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra scores 80 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 95% of its spending goes to charitable activities (3-yr avg) and its accounts are late. 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 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as a registered charity (charity number 506276). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=506276&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 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's charity number? +
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's charity number is 506276. 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 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's charity rating? +
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra scores 80 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.
Does City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (one red flag on this profile: late accounts filing). For formal complaints about a charity, contact the Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI or the Fundraising Regulator as appropriate.
How much of my donation reaches City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 95% of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra'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 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 5% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 8% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 2 employees paid more than £60,000, including 1 employee paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £120,001–£130,000 (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 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra receive? +
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra reported £8.6m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.
Are City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: late (last filing 2026-03-06). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra based? +
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's registered contact address is in Birmingham (B1 2LF). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Japan, with a focus on arts & culture.
How much is City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 2 employees paid more than £60,000, including 1 employee paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £120,001–£130,000 (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 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's money come from? +
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra reported £8.6m total income for the year ending 31 March 2025. The largest sources were donations and legacies £6.2m (72%), charitable activities £2.4m (27%), investments £24k (0%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £1.2m.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra? +
The register records City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra 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 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's trustees paid? +
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports that one or more trustees received payments or other benefits (payments for providing services). Charity law allows this only in limited circumstances; the trustees' annual report should explain it.
What was City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra previously called? +
The register lists this previous name for City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra: C B S O Society Limited.
When was City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra registered as a charity? +
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra was entered on the register on 4 May 1977. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 01262018).
How does CharityCompare score City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra'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 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra'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.