Common questions about Variety the Children's Charity's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Variety the Children's Charity a good charity? +
Variety the Children's Charity scores 84 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 74% 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 Variety the Children's Charity a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Variety the Children's Charity as a registered charity (charity number 209259). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=209259&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 Variety the Children's Charity's charity number? +
Variety the Children's Charity's charity number is 209259. 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 Variety the Children's Charity's charity rating? +
Variety the Children's Charity scores 84 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 Variety the Children's Charity have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Variety the Children's Charity. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (one red flag on this profile: high fundraising costs). For formal complaints about a charity, contact the Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI or the Fundraising Regulator as appropriate.
How much of my donation reaches Variety the Children's Charity? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 74% of Variety the Children's Charity'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 Variety the Children's Charity's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 26% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 28% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Variety the Children's Charity. Variety the Children's Charity's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports 2 employees paid more than £60,000, including 1 employee paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £120,001–£130,000 (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 Variety the Children's Charity receive? +
Variety the Children's Charity reported £7.2m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.
Are Variety the Children's Charity's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-08-05). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Variety the Children's Charity based? +
Variety the Children's Charity's register entry is at United Kingdom. It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, with a focus on disability.
How much is Variety the Children's Charity's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Variety the Children's Charity's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports 2 employees paid more than £60,000, including 1 employee paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £120,001–£130,000 (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 Variety the Children's Charity's money come from? +
Variety the Children's Charity reported £7.2m total income for the year ending 31 December 2025. The largest sources were donations and legacies £5.7m (79%), trading and fundraising events £1.5m (20%), investments £24k (0%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £224k.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Variety the Children's Charity? +
The register records Variety the Children's Charity 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 Variety the Children's Charity's trustees paid? +
Variety the Children's Charity's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
What was Variety the Children's Charity previously called? +
The register lists these previous names for Variety the Children's Charity: The Heart of Variety Limited; The Variety Club Children's Charity; The Variety Club Children's Charity Limited.
When was Variety the Children's Charity registered as a charity? +
Variety the Children's Charity was entered on the register on 19 July 1962. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 00509811).
How does CharityCompare score Variety the Children's Charity? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Variety the Children's Charity'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 Variety the Children's Charity'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.