Common questions about Sense About Science's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Sense About Science a good charity? +
Sense About Science scores 89 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 98% 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 Sense About Science a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Sense About Science as a registered charity (charity number 1146170). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1146170&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 Sense About Science's charity number? +
Sense About Science's charity number is 1146170. 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 Sense About Science's charity rating? +
Sense About Science scores 89 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 Sense About Science have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Sense About Science. 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 Sense About Science? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 98% of Sense About Science'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 Sense About Science's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 2% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 3% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Sense About Science. Sense About Science's annual return for the year ending 5 April 2025 reports 3 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 Sense About Science receive? +
Sense About Science reported £795k total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.
Are Sense About Science's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-02-05). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Sense About Science based? +
Sense About Science's registered contact address is in London (W1B 1QH). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, with a focus on education.
How much is Sense About Science's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Sense About Science's annual return for the year ending 5 April 2025 reports 3 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 Sense About Science's money come from? +
Sense About Science reported £795k total income for the year ending 5 April 2025. The largest sources were charitable activities £552k (69%), donations and legacies £239k (30%), investments £4,143 (1%).
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Sense About Science? +
The register records Sense About Science 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 Sense About Science's trustees paid? +
Sense About Science's annual return for the year ending 5 April 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was Sense About Science registered as a charity? +
Sense About Science was entered on the register on 29 February 2012. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 06771027).
How does CharityCompare score Sense About Science? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Sense About Science'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 Sense About Science'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.