Common questions about War on Want's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is War on Want a good charity? +
War on Want scores 81 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 79% 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 War on Want a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists War on Want as a registered charity (charity number 208724). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=208724&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 War on Want's charity number? +
War on Want's charity number is 208724. 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 War on Want's charity rating? +
War on Want 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 War on Want have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for War on Want. 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 War on Want? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 79% of War on Want'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 War on Want's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 21% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 22% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at War on Want. War on Want'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 War on Want receive? +
War on Want reported £4.0m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.
Are War on Want's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-01-29). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is War on Want based? +
War on Want's registered contact address is in London (N1 7JP). It tells the regulator it operates in Hackney, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, Honduras, with a focus on international aid.
How much is War on Want's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. War on Want'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 War on Want's money come from? +
War on Want reported £4m total income for the year ending 31 March 2025. The largest sources were charitable activities £2.9m (71%), donations and legacies £1m (25%), investments £172k (4%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £314k.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to War on Want? +
The register records War on Want 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 War on Want's trustees paid? +
War on Want's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was War on Want registered as a charity? +
War on Want was entered on the register on 22 September 1962. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 00629916).
How does CharityCompare score War on Want? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in War on Want'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 War on Want'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.