Common questions about The Order of the Cross's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is The Order of the Cross a good charity? +
The Order of the Cross scores 81 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 80% of its spending goes to charitable activities (2-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 Order of the Cross a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists The Order of the Cross as a registered charity (charity number 247761). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=247761&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 Order of the Cross's charity number? +
The Order of the Cross's charity number is 247761. 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 Order of the Cross's charity rating? +
The Order of the Cross scores 81 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 Order of the Cross have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for The Order of the Cross. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (one red flag on this profile: 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 Order of the Cross? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 80% of The Order of the Cross's total spending went to charitable activities (2-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 Order of the Cross's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 4% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 7% of expenditure (2024–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at The Order of the Cross. The register does not show individual salaries; senior pay is disclosed in the trustees' annual report and accounts.
How much income does The Order of the Cross receive? +
The Order of the Cross reported £643k total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: check comparability.
Are The Order of the Cross's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-04-28). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is The Order of the Cross based? +
The Order of the Cross's registered contact address is in Oxford (OX14 4AF). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Scotland, with a focus on religion.
Where does The Order of the Cross's money come from? +
The Order of the Cross reported £643k total income for the year ending 30 June 2025. The largest sources were investments £325k (51%), donations and legacies £306k (48%), charitable activities £12k (2%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £304k.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to The Order of the Cross? +
The register records The Order of the Cross 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 Order of the Cross's trustees paid? +
The Order of the Cross's annual return for the year ending 30 June 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
What was The Order of the Cross previously called? +
The register lists this previous name for The Order of the Cross: Trust Property Held in Connection with Order of the Cross.
When was The Order of the Cross registered as a charity? +
The Order of the Cross was entered on the register on 8 January 1973.
How does CharityCompare score The Order of the Cross? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in The Order of the Cross'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 Order of the Cross'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.