Common questions about The Save the Children Fund's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is The Save the Children Fund a good charity? +
The Save the Children Fund scores 80 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 86% 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 The Save the Children Fund a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists The Save the Children Fund as a registered charity (charity number 213890). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=213890&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 The Save the Children Fund's charity number? +
The Save the Children Fund's charity number is 213890. 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 The Save the Children Fund's charity rating? +
The Save the Children Fund 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 The Save the Children Fund have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for The Save the Children Fund. 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 The Save the Children Fund? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 86% of The Save the Children Fund'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 The Save the Children Fund's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 13% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 14% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at The Save the Children Fund. The Save the Children Fund's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports 182 employees paid more than £60,000, including 18 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £150,001–£200,000 (2 employees). Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.
How much income does The Save the Children Fund receive? +
The Save the Children Fund reported £263m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: stable.
Are The Save the Children Fund's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-07-24). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is The Save the Children Fund based? +
The Save the Children Fund's registered contact address is in London (EC1M 4AR). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, with a focus on international aid.
How much is The Save the Children Fund's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. The Save the Children Fund's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports 182 employees paid more than £60,000, including 18 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £150,001–£200,000 (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.
Where does The Save the Children Fund's money come from? +
The Save the Children Fund reported £263m total income for the year ending 31 December 2025. The largest sources were charitable activities £169m (65%), donations and legacies £79m (30%), trading and fundraising events £10m (4%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £19m.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to The Save the Children Fund? +
The register records The Save the Children Fund 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 The Save the Children Fund's trustees paid? +
The Save the Children Fund's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was The Save the Children Fund registered as a charity? +
The Save the Children Fund was entered on the register on 10 October 1962. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 00178159).
How does CharityCompare score The Save the Children Fund? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in The Save the Children Fund'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 The Save the Children Fund'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.