Macmillan Cancer Support

Macmillan Cancer Support scores 75 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 69% 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 Macmillan Cancer Support as a registered charity (charity number 261017). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=261017&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.

Macmillan Cancer Support's charity number is 261017. 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.

Macmillan Cancer Support scores 75 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 Macmillan Cancer Support. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (one red flag on this profile: high fundraising costs). 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, 69% of Macmillan Cancer Support'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 31% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 31% of expenditure (2022–2024, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Macmillan Cancer Support. Macmillan Cancer Support's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports 321 employees paid more than £60,000, including 32 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £150,001–£200,000 (3 employees). Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.

Macmillan Cancer Support reported £246m total income in its 2024 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.

Filing status: up to date (last filing 2025-10-29). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.

Macmillan Cancer Support's register entry is at United Kingdom. It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, with a focus on cancer.

The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Macmillan Cancer Support's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports 321 employees paid more than £60,000, including 32 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £150,001–£200,000 (3 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.

Macmillan Cancer Support reported £246m total income for the year ending 31 December 2024. The largest sources were donations and legacies £221m (90%), trading and fundraising events £18m (8%), charitable activities £3.2m (1%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £106m.

The register records Macmillan Cancer Support 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.

Macmillan Cancer Support's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.

The register lists these previous names for Macmillan Cancer Support: Cancer Relief Macmillan Fund; Macmillan Cancer Relief; National Society for Cancer Relief; The National Society for Cancer Relief.

Macmillan Cancer Support was entered on the register on 21 June 1989. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 02400969).

We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Macmillan Cancer Support'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 Macmillan Cancer Support'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.