Skip to content

Arts & culture · Reg 233700

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust

73 /100

Clarity score

Needs improvement

Charity accounts, evidence & financial rating

73/100 Clarity Score · 3 stars · Charity Commission filings · How we score

Register checked 4 October 2026 · latest accounts 2026

Official regulator data
Donate
Compare this charity View accounts

Work at The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust? Claim this profile free to add your charity’s description. Claiming never changes the score.

Quick answer

Is The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust a good charity?

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust scores 73/100 (3 stars, Needs improvement) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, calculated from its UK regulator filings. Its latest accounts year is 2026 (£1.1m total income, 89% cause spend, 3-yr avg). This reflects financial transparency and stewardship on paper — not the real-world impact of its programmes. See the full breakdown.

Income

£1.1m

Accounts 2026-03-31

Spending

£4.6m

Accounts 2026-03-31

Charitable activities

89%

3-yr avg · share of spending

Accounts filing

On time

Charity Commission

On this pageJump to a section
London · EC2Y 8DS Reg 233700 Registered charity Official website Charity Commission register

What does The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust do?

The general purpose of the charity is to support the objects of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and these are to promote, maintain and advance education, particularly musical education and to encourage the arts including the arts of music, drama, mime, dancing and singing. Specifically the Trust actively supports musical education in the form of the LSO's education programme, LSO Discovery.

Activities reported by the charity on the official register · extract . This is separate from the accounts data used for its rating.

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust hasn't added a description directly to CharityCompare yet. Work here? Add it free →

How much does The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust raise and spend?

Accounts period 2025-04-01 to 2026-03-31 · Source: Charity Commission filings

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust revenue and expenses for 2026
Category Amount % of spend
Total income £1.1m —
Total expenditure £4.6m —
Charitable activities £4.5m 98%
Fundraising £116k 2%
Reported governance £14k 0%

Governance can already be allocated within other expenditure categories. It is not a separate measure of all administration costs; do not add these rows without checking the accounts notes.

What changed in The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust’s latest accounts?

Reported totals for 2026 compared with 2025. Changes can reflect the accounting period, restricted grants or restructuring as well as the charity’s work.

Income change
−58.7%
£2.7m → £1.1m
Spending change
+202.4%
£1.5m → £4.6m
Charitable activities share
+4.8 pp
93% → 98% · percentage points

These are annual figures. The Clarity Score may use averages across several disclosed years. Source: official accounts.

98%On charitable activities

Where does the money go?

Latest accounts (2026) · £4.6m spent

  • Charitable activities98%
  • Fundraising2%

Charities usually allocate governance costs across their other spending categories, and these reported figures add up to more than total spending, so governance is not drawn as a separate slice. The accounts table shows it separately.

From the annual return

What does The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust pay its staff, and where does its money come from?

Answers The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust gave in its annual return to the Charity Commission for the year ending 31 March 2026, plus its register entry. These are the charity's own disclosures, not part of the Clarity Score.

Where does The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's money come from?

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust reported £1.1m total income for the year ending 31 March 2026. The largest sources were investments £636k (57%), donations and legacies £477k (43%), charitable activities £3,173 (0%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £368k.

  • Investments £636k · 57%
  • Donations and legacies £477k · 43%
  • Charitable activities (fees and contracts) £3,173 · 0%

Cash at year end: £479k · unrestricted funds: £8.9m · restricted funds: £2.6m. Restricted funds can only be spent on purposes set by the donor.

Can I claim Gift Aid, and are the trustees paid?

The register records The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust 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. Work out your Gift Aid

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2026 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.

Registration details

Registered as a charity
Also known as
Lso Endowment Trust - Lord Mayor's Appeal 2004
Previous names on the register
The London Symphony Orchestra Trust
Where it says it operates
Throughout London

Source: Charity Commission register and annual return data, Open Government Licence v3.0. A blank answer in the return is shown as not reported, never as “no”.

How have The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's finances changed over five years?

Income fell 42% from £1.9m in 2022 to £1.1m in 2026; spending was £4.6m in 2026.

£0 £2.0m £4.0m £6.0m £8.0m 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 Income 2022: £1.9m Spending 2022: £294k Cause spend 2022: £195k Income 2023: £1.1m Spending 2023: £638k Cause spend 2023: £618k Income 2024: £726k Spending 2024: £402k Cause spend 2024: £310k Income 2025: £2.7m Spending 2025: £1.5m Cause spend 2025: £1.4m Income 2026: £1.1m Spending 2026: £4.6m Cause spend 2026: £4.5m
  • Income
  • Spending
  • Cause spend
The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust income and spending by accounts year
Year Income Spending Charitable activities
2026 £1.1m £4.6m £4.5m
2025 £2.7m £1.5m £1.4m
2024 £726k £402k £310k
2023 £1.1m £638k £618k
2022 £1.9m £294k £195k

Cause spend is plotted only when the filing discloses a split · Source: Charity Commission filings

How does The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust compare?

The share of each group scoring at or below The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust, including tied scores. A group matched on cause, income band and accounts year appears when at least ten records qualify. Broader groups below may mix reporting periods and operating models. Groups include this charity; percentiles measure our financial rating, not impact.

Income band (£1m–£5m) 34thpercentile

Scores at or above 34% of 2,720 charities in its income band · 73/100 vs 78 peer average.

Arts & culture charities 48thpercentile

Scores at or above 48% of 617 charities in this cause · 73/100 vs 73 peer average.

How does The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust compare, and where else can you look?

Compare The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust with others More arts & culture charities How we score charities

Where The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust sits

The causes this charity is classified under, and other charities working nearby.

Similar arts & culture charities

Top-rated peers by CharityCompare score

Evidence and interpretation

What the evidence says about The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust

In 2026, reported income was £1,116,624 and expenditure was £4,641,616. Expenditure exceeded income by £3,524,992. This annual balance is not the charity’s available cash or unrestricted reserves.

More financial context

Income fell 58.7% compared with 2025. Read the accounts notes for restricted grants, legacies and one-off receipts before treating the movement as a trend.

Calculated from our dated accounts dataset, refreshed 2026-09-06. This is not an audit or a manual review of every filing. Original register and accounts · How calculations work.

Find the right support

Who it supports and how to access its work

Reported beneficiaries: Children/young People; Other Charities Or Voluntary Bodies; Other Defined Groups.

How it works: Makes Grants To Organisations; Provides Other Finance.

Use the official contact details to check eligibility, referrals, waiting lists and current service coverage. Broad register classifications and a contact address do not confirm that a particular service is available to you.

Explore source-checked support routes

Classifications supplied to the register; extract 2026-10-04. Register contact and activity details · Website listed for this charity

Look beyond the score

Results and impact evidence

We have not added a source-checked programme outcome for this charity. That is a gap in this profile, not evidence that the charity has no impact. Its annual report may contain results that have not been assessed here.

Reported grants to institutions: £4,511,673 (2026-03-31). This is spending reported in the annual return, not a measure of beneficiary outcomes or an open grant opportunity. It may already be included in charitable expenditure. Check the source accounts.

What these results can tell you

Counts of services delivered describe activity. They do not by themselves establish lasting change, what would have happened without the programme, or cost-effectiveness. Results with different definitions, populations or years should not be ranked against each other.

How to judge charity impact evidence

What is The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's Beacon report?

Detailed accountability and finance metrics from UK regulator filings — structured for transparency in our four-beacon report.

Accountability & Transparency

Baseline trust from filing discipline, board oversight, and declared governance policies.

57/100

Accountability & Transparency metrics for The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust
Metric Score Value
Filing history (5 years)

No recorded lateness in available history = 15 pts · one late filing = 5 pts · two or more or unknown status = 0 pts. Missing data is not proof of late filing.

 100% 15/15 pts
Trustee oversight

Three or more trustees on the register = 15 pts, scaled down for fewer (governance red flag below three).

 33% 1 trustee · 5/15 pts
Declared policies

Safeguarding (4) · conflict of interest (3) · volunteer management (3) — from Charity Commission annual return.

 30% 3/10 pts

Financial Health

Stability and solvency — reserves, revenue trend, and debt from Charity Commission accounts.

100/100

Financial Health metrics for The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust
Metric Score Value
Reserves (months of expenditure)

3–24 months = full marks, tapering on both sides · 0 months or 4+ years = 0 pts. Reserves are not necessarily cash; needs vary by operating model.

 100% 3 months · 15/15 pts
Income stability / growth

+20% or more over the window = 10 pts · flat = 5 pts · −20% or worse = 0 pts, scaled between.

 100% 10/10 pts · 3-year average
Liabilities to assets

0% liabilities-to-assets = 5 pts, scaling down to 0 pts at 60%+ debt.

 100% 0% · 5/5 pts

Financial Efficiency

How efficiently funds reach the cause — program spend and fundraising cost ratios.

100/100

Financial Efficiency metrics for The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust
Metric Score Value
Program expense ratio

90%+ on charitable activities = full marks, scaling down to 0 pts at 50% or below.

 100% 89% · 10/10 pts (3-year average)
Fundraising efficiency

≤10p to raise £1 = full marks, scaling down to 0 pts at 40p or above (fundraising cost ÷ income).

 100% 9p per £1 income · 10/10 pts (3-year average, disclosed years)

Community Support

Grassroots backing from Charity Commission workforce data — volunteers vs paid staff.

0/100

Community Support metrics for The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust
Metric Score Value
Volunteer-to-staff ratio

Volunteers at 2x staff or more = full marks · no volunteers = 0 pts, scaled between.

 0% 0 volunteers / 0 staff · 0/10 pts

How we calculate beacon scores →

What trust indicators does The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust have?

Pulled from the Charity Commission register — filing behaviour, board size, and workforce where reported.

  • Accounts filed on time

    up to date · last filing

  • Trustee board size (3–12)

    1 trustees on the Charity Commission register

  • Workforce on register

    0 employees · 0 volunteers

Fundraising Regulator

Status not yet checked

Separate from our financial scores. Registration records a commitment to the Code of Fundraising Practice; it does not certify every fundraising activity.

Check Fundraising Regulator →

Official register

Reg 233700

Full trustee list, accounts, and regulatory history on the Charity Commission.

View on Charity Commission →

Trustees & officers

  • LSOET Corporate Trustee Ltd since 2025

How reliable is The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's data?

Source
Charity Commission (England & Wales)
Accounts year
2026
Filing date
Data refreshed

High confidence — complete filing data

Scores reflect the accounts in our dated data extract. The live register may contain newer filings. Clarity Score measures how clearly the charity accounts for money in those filings — not programme impact.

Check the current register entry · Report a data correction

Financial source extract: 2026-09-06. Organisation identifier: 233700. Method version: 1.1. View method changes.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Sources: Charity Commission for England and Wales, Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. Open Government Licence v3.0 .

Your donation decision

What should you check before donating to The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust?

  1. 1. Match the name and charity number

    Check 233700 on the official register. A real charity number alone does not prove that a fundraiser or appeal is authentic.

    Verify the registration →

  2. 2. Read the accounts in context

    Our latest accounts data covers 2026. Compare the accounts period, spending and reserves. An administration cost ratio alone cannot tell you how effective a charity is.

    Explore the financial evidence →

  3. 3. Look for evidence of results

    Read the trustees’ annual report for activities, outcomes and limitations. The Clarity Score measures public reporting; it does not establish the impact of a donation.

    How to read charity accounts →

  4. 4. Compare charities serving your cause

    Compare up to four charities, check the dates behind their figures, and decide which work you want to support. Complete your donation through a verified charity channel.

    Start a comparison with The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust →
How we score charities +

The Clarity Score is a 100-point rating from UK regulator filings (Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR and CCNI). Four pillars — Accountability & Transparency (40), Financial Health (30), Financial Efficiency (20), and Community Support (10) — each scored on a continuous scale, not pass/fail cutoffs. A statutory inquiry sets the score to 0 automatically.

Full methodology →

Accountability & Transparency

Scored from filings

40 points — filing history (15), trustee oversight (15, scaling up to a board of three or more), declared policies (10).

Financial Health

Scored from filings

30 points — reserves (15, full marks 3–24 months, tapering on both sides), income stability (10), liabilities to assets (5, scaling down as debt rises).

Financial Efficiency

Scored from filings

20 points — program expense ratio and fundraising cost, each on a graduated scale (not a single cutoff). Kept at 20% of the total: financial-ratio scoring alone is not a reliable effectiveness signal (see "why not just an overhead ratio?" below).

Community Support

Scored from filings

10 points — volunteer-to-staff ratio from Charity Commission workforce data, scaling continuously up to a 2:1 ratio.

Overall score

Sum of all pillar points. Display stars use the same bands as the labels: 90–100 → 5★ Exceptional; 75–89 → 4★ Good; 60–74 → 3★ Needs improvement; 1–59 → 2★ Poor; 0 → not rated.

How can you share The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's rating?

Share: XLinkedInFacebookBluesky

Opens a printer-friendly view of this profile for The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust.

For this charity

How do you add The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's rating to your site?

Free to use — a lightweight HTML badge or an embeddable score widget, each linking back to this independent profile and our methodology.

What red flags does The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust have?

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.

Is The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust a good charity? +

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust scores 73 out of 100 (3 stars — Needs improvement) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 89% 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 London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust a legitimate charity? +

The register data used for this profile lists The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust as a registered charity (charity number 233700). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=233700&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 London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's charity number? +

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's charity number is 233700. 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 London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's charity rating? +

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust scores 73 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 London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust have reviews and complaints? +

CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (2 red flags on this profile: insufficient trustee oversight; sharp income decline). 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 London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust? +

Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 89% of The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust'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 London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's overheads? +

Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 11% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 12% of expenditure (2024–2026, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust. The register does not show individual salaries; senior pay is disclosed in the trustees' annual report and accounts.

How much income does The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust receive? +

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust reported £1.1m total income in its 2026 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: declining.

Are The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's accounts up to date? +

Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-07-31). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.

Where is The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust based? +

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's registered contact address is in London (EC2Y 8DS). It tells the regulator it operates in London, with a focus on arts & culture.

Where does The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's money come from? +

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust reported £1.1m total income for the year ending 31 March 2026. The largest sources were investments £636k (57%), donations and legacies £477k (43%), charitable activities £3,173 (0%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £368k.

Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust? +

The register records The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust 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 London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's trustees paid? +

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2026 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.

What was The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust previously called? +

The register lists this previous name for The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust: The London Symphony Orchestra Trust.

When was The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust registered as a charity? +

The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust was entered on the register on 9 April 1964.

How does CharityCompare score The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust? +

We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in The London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust'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 London Symphony Orchestra Endowment Trust's most recent accounts cover 2026. Scores and figures refresh whenever we re-ingest the register, so the page reflects our latest data pull rather than a one-off review.