Common questions about The Company of Biologists's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is The Company of Biologists a good charity? +
The Company of Biologists scores 72 out of 100 (3 stars — Needs improvement) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 94% 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 Company of Biologists a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists The Company of Biologists as a registered charity (charity number 277992). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=277992&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 Company of Biologists's charity number? +
The Company of Biologists's charity number is 277992. 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 Company of Biologists's charity rating? +
The Company of Biologists scores 72 out of 100 on CharityCompare (3 stars — Needs improvement). 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 Company of Biologists have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for The Company of Biologists. 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 Company of Biologists? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 94% of The Company of Biologists'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 Company of Biologists's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 6% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 7% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at The Company of Biologists. The Company of Biologists's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports 10 employees paid more than £60,000, including 2 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £140,001–£150,000 (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 Company of Biologists receive? +
The Company of Biologists reported £8.4m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: stable.
Are The Company of Biologists's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-08-19). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is The Company of Biologists based? +
The Company of Biologists's registered contact address is in Cambridge (CB24 9LF). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, with a focus on environment.
How much is The Company of Biologists's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. The Company of Biologists's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports 10 employees paid more than £60,000, including 2 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £140,001–£150,000 (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 Company of Biologists's money come from? +
The Company of Biologists reported £8.4m total income for the year ending 31 December 2025. The largest sources were charitable activities £7m (83%), investments £1.4m (17%).
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to The Company of Biologists? +
The register does not record The Company of Biologists as registered with HMRC for Gift Aid. Ask the charity before assuming a donation can be Gift Aided.
Are The Company of Biologists's trustees paid? +
The Company of Biologists's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
What was The Company of Biologists previously called? +
The register lists this previous name for The Company of Biologists: The Company of Biologists Limited.
When was The Company of Biologists registered as a charity? +
The Company of Biologists was entered on the register on 27 June 1979. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 00514735).
How does CharityCompare score The Company of Biologists? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in The Company of Biologists'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 Company of Biologists'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.