Common questions about The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers a good charity? +
The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers scores 85 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 99% 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 Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers as a registered charity (charity number 209465). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=209465&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 Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's charity number? +
The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's charity number is 209465. 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 Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's charity rating? +
The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers scores 85 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 Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (one red flag on this profile: very high reserves). 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 Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 99% of The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers'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 Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 1% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 4% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports 2 employees paid more than £60,000. The highest reported pay band is £90,001–£100,000 (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 The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers receive? +
The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers reported £1.7m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.
Are The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-08-05). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers based? +
The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's registered contact address is in London (SW1H 9JJ). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Australia, France, Ghana, Greece, India, with a focus on poverty relief.
How much is The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports 2 employees paid more than £60,000. The highest reported pay band is £90,001–£100,000 (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 The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's money come from? +
The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers reported £1.7m total income for the year ending 31 December 2025. The largest sources were investments £1.3m (77%), donations and legacies £401k (23%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £271k.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers? +
The register records The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 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 Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers's trustees paid? +
The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers'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 Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers registered as a charity? +
The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was entered on the register on 14 December 1962. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 00130981).
How does CharityCompare score The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers'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 Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers'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.