Common questions about Orchid Cancer Appeal's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Orchid Cancer Appeal a good charity? +
Orchid Cancer Appeal scores 83 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 78% 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 Orchid Cancer Appeal a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Orchid Cancer Appeal as a registered charity (charity number 1080540). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1080540&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 Orchid Cancer Appeal's charity number? +
Orchid Cancer Appeal's charity number is 1080540. 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 Orchid Cancer Appeal's charity rating? +
Orchid Cancer Appeal scores 83 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 Orchid Cancer Appeal have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Orchid Cancer Appeal. 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 Orchid Cancer Appeal? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 78% of Orchid Cancer Appeal'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 Orchid Cancer Appeal's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 22% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 26% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Orchid Cancer Appeal. Orchid Cancer Appeal's annual return for the year ending 30 September 2025 reports 1 employee paid more than £60,000. The highest reported pay band is £70,001–£80,000 (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 Orchid Cancer Appeal receive? +
Orchid Cancer Appeal reported £730k total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.
Are Orchid Cancer Appeal's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-06-25). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Orchid Cancer Appeal based? +
Orchid Cancer Appeal's registered contact address is in London (WC1X8AQ). It tells the regulator it operates in Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales, with a focus on cancer.
How much is Orchid Cancer Appeal's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Orchid Cancer Appeal's annual return for the year ending 30 September 2025 reports 1 employee paid more than £60,000. The highest reported pay band is £70,001–£80,000 (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 Orchid Cancer Appeal's money come from? +
Orchid Cancer Appeal reported £730k total income for the year ending 30 September 2025. The largest sources were donations and legacies £609k (83%), charitable activities £119k (16%), investments £1,008 (0%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £92k.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Orchid Cancer Appeal? +
The register records Orchid Cancer Appeal 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 Orchid Cancer Appeal's trustees paid? +
Orchid Cancer Appeal's annual return for the year ending 30 September 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was Orchid Cancer Appeal registered as a charity? +
Orchid Cancer Appeal was entered on the register on 3 May 2000. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 03963360).
How does CharityCompare score Orchid Cancer Appeal? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Orchid Cancer Appeal'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 Orchid Cancer Appeal'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.