Common questions about The Terrence Higgins Trust's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is The Terrence Higgins Trust a good charity? +
The Terrence Higgins Trust scores 82 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 81% 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 Terrence Higgins Trust a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists The Terrence Higgins Trust as a registered charity (charity number 288527). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=288527&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 Terrence Higgins Trust's charity number? +
The Terrence Higgins Trust's charity number is 288527. 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 Terrence Higgins Trust's charity rating? +
The Terrence Higgins Trust scores 82 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 Terrence Higgins Trust have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for The Terrence Higgins Trust. 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 Terrence Higgins Trust? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 81% of The Terrence Higgins 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 Terrence Higgins Trust's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 18% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 19% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at The Terrence Higgins Trust. The Terrence Higgins Trust'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 Terrence Higgins Trust receive? +
The Terrence Higgins Trust reported £13m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: stable.
Are The Terrence Higgins Trust's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2025-12-23). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is The Terrence Higgins Trust based? +
The Terrence Higgins Trust's registered contact address is in London (N7 9BG). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Scotland, with a focus on poverty relief.
How much is The Terrence Higgins Trust's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. The Terrence Higgins Trust'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 Terrence Higgins Trust's money come from? +
The Terrence Higgins Trust reported £13m total income for the year ending 31 March 2025. The largest sources were donations and legacies £7.6m (59%), charitable activities £4m (32%), trading and fundraising events £557k (4%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £4.2m.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to The Terrence Higgins Trust? +
The register records The Terrence Higgins 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 Terrence Higgins Trust's trustees paid? +
The Terrence Higgins Trust's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
What was The Terrence Higgins Trust previously called? +
The register lists these previous names for The Terrence Higgins Trust: Terence Higgins Trust; Terence Higgins Trust Limited.
When was The Terrence Higgins Trust registered as a charity? +
The Terrence Higgins Trust was entered on the register on 26 January 1984. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 01778149).
How does CharityCompare score The Terrence Higgins Trust? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in The Terrence Higgins 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 Terrence Higgins Trust'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.