Common questions about The National Forest Company's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is The National Forest Company a good charity? +
The National Forest Company scores 78 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) 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 National Forest Company a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists The National Forest Company as a registered charity (charity number 1166563). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1166563&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 National Forest Company's charity number? +
The National Forest Company's charity number is 1166563. 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 National Forest Company's charity rating? +
The National Forest Company scores 78 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 National Forest Company have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for The National Forest Company. 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 The National Forest Company? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 89% of The National Forest Company'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 National Forest Company'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 13% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at The National Forest Company. The National Forest Company's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 4 employees paid more than £60,000, including 1 employee paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £100,001–£110,000 (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 National Forest Company receive? +
The National Forest Company reported £10m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.
Are The National Forest Company's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2025-11-19). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is The National Forest Company based? +
The National Forest Company's registered contact address is in Derby (DE12 6BA). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, with a focus on human rights.
How much is The National Forest Company's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. The National Forest Company's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 4 employees paid more than £60,000, including 1 employee paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £100,001–£110,000 (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 National Forest Company's money come from? +
The National Forest Company reported £10m total income for the year ending 31 March 2025. The largest sources were charitable activities £8.7m (86%), donations and legacies £1.3m (13%), investments £109k (1%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £27k.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to The National Forest Company? +
The register records The National Forest Company 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 National Forest Company's trustees paid? +
The National Forest Company's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports that one or more trustees received payments or other benefits. Charity law allows this only in limited circumstances; the trustees' annual report should explain it.
When was The National Forest Company registered as a charity? +
The National Forest Company was entered on the register on 15 April 2016. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 02991970).
How does CharityCompare score The National Forest Company? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in The National Forest Company'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 National Forest Company'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.