Common questions about Orbis Charitable Trust's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Orbis Charitable Trust a good charity? +
Orbis Charitable Trust scores 65 out of 100 (3 stars — Needs improvement) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 65% 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 Orbis Charitable Trust a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Orbis Charitable Trust as a registered charity (charity number 1061352). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1061352&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 Orbis Charitable Trust's charity number? +
Orbis Charitable Trust's charity number is 1061352. 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 Orbis Charitable Trust's charity rating? +
Orbis Charitable Trust scores 65 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 Orbis Charitable Trust have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Orbis Charitable Trust. 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.
How much of my donation reaches Orbis Charitable Trust? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 65% of Orbis Charitable Trust'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 Orbis Charitable Trust's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 35% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 35% of expenditure (2022–2024, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Orbis Charitable Trust. Orbis Charitable Trust's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports 9 employees paid more than £60,000, including 2 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £110,001–£120,000 (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 Orbis Charitable Trust receive? +
Orbis Charitable Trust reported £5.1m total income in its 2024 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: declining.
Are Orbis Charitable Trust's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2025-10-30). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Orbis Charitable Trust based? +
Orbis Charitable Trust's registered contact address is in London (WC2N 5NG). It tells the regulator it operates in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, South Africa, Zambia, with a focus on poverty relief.
How much is Orbis Charitable Trust's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Orbis Charitable Trust's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports 9 employees paid more than £60,000, including 2 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £110,001–£120,000 (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 Orbis Charitable Trust's money come from? +
Orbis Charitable Trust reported £5.1m total income for the year ending 31 December 2024. The largest sources were donations and legacies £5.1m (99%), investments £35k (1%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £1.4m.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Orbis Charitable Trust? +
The register records Orbis Charitable Trust 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 Orbis Charitable Trust's trustees paid? +
Orbis Charitable Trust's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was Orbis Charitable Trust registered as a charity? +
Orbis Charitable Trust was entered on the register on 17 March 1997. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 03303689).
How does CharityCompare score Orbis Charitable Trust? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Orbis Charitable Trust'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 Orbis Charitable Trust'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.