The Royal Horticultural Society

The Royal Horticultural Society scores 70 out of 100 (3 stars — Needs improvement) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 77% 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.

The register data used for this profile lists The Royal Horticultural Society as a registered charity (charity number 222879). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=222879&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.

The Royal Horticultural Society's charity number is 222879. 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.

The Royal Horticultural Society scores 70 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.

CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for The Royal Horticultural Society. 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.

Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 77% of The Royal Horticultural Society'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.

Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 23% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 24% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at The Royal Horticultural Society. The Royal Horticultural Society's annual return for the year ending 31 January 2025 reports 88 employees paid more than £60,000, including 11 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £200,001–£250,000 (2 employees). Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.

The Royal Horticultural Society reported £125m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.

Filing status: up to date (last filing 2025-10-15). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.

The Royal Horticultural Society's registered contact address is in London (SW1P 2PE). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, with a focus on environment.

The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. The Royal Horticultural Society's annual return for the year ending 31 January 2025 reports 88 employees paid more than £60,000, including 11 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £200,001–£250,000 (2 employees). 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.

The Royal Horticultural Society reported £125m total income for the year ending 31 January 2025. The largest sources were charitable activities £67m (54%), trading and fundraising events £39m (32%), donations and legacies £16m (13%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £4.2m.

The register records The Royal Horticultural Society 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.

The Royal Horticultural Society's annual return for the year ending 31 January 2025 reports that one or more trustees received payments or other benefits (payments for providing services). Charity law allows this only in limited circumstances; the trustees' annual report should explain it.

The Royal Horticultural Society was entered on the register on 31 July 1963. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number RC000480).

We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in The Royal Horticultural Society'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.

This profile was last updated on 6 September 2026 from the latest UK regulator data available to CharityCompare, and The Royal Horticultural Society'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.