Common questions about The British Film Institute's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is The British Film Institute a good charity? +
The British Film Institute scores 55 out of 100 (2 stars — Poor) 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 late. 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 British Film Institute a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists The British Film Institute as a registered charity (charity number 287780). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=287780&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 British Film Institute's charity number? +
The British Film Institute's charity number is 287780. 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 British Film Institute's charity rating? +
The British Film Institute scores 55 out of 100 on CharityCompare (2 stars — Poor). 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 British Film Institute have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for The British Film Institute. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (2 red flags on this profile: late accounts filing; poor filing history). 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 British Film Institute? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 98% of The British Film Institute'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 British Film Institute'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 2% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at The British Film Institute. The British Film Institute's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 114 employees paid more than £60,000, including 19 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £150,001–£200,000 (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 British Film Institute receive? +
The British Film Institute reported £128m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: stable.
Are The British Film Institute's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: late (last filing 2026-01-29). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is The British Film Institute based? +
The British Film Institute's registered contact address is in London (W1T 1LN). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, with a focus on arts & culture.
How much is The British Film Institute's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. The British Film Institute's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 114 employees paid more than £60,000, including 19 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £150,001–£200,000 (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 British Film Institute's money come from? +
The British Film Institute reported £128m total income for the year ending 31 March 2025. The largest sources were other income £49m (39%), donations and legacies £42m (33%), charitable activities £33m (26%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £1,814.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to The British Film Institute? +
The register records The British Film Institute 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 British Film Institute's trustees paid? +
The British Film Institute's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was The British Film Institute registered as a charity? +
The British Film Institute was entered on the register on 7 September 1983.
How does CharityCompare score The British Film Institute? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in The British Film Institute'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 British Film Institute'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.