Common questions about Wellcome Trust's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Wellcome Trust a good charity? +
Wellcome Trust scores 56 out of 100 (2 stars — Poor) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 90% 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 Wellcome Trust a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Wellcome Trust as a registered charity (charity number 210183). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=210183&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 Wellcome Trust's charity number? +
Wellcome Trust's charity number is 210183. 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 Wellcome Trust's charity rating? +
Wellcome Trust scores 56 out of 100 on CharityCompare (2 stars — Poor). 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 Wellcome Trust have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Wellcome Trust. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (2 red flags on this profile: insufficient trustee oversight; very high reserves). For formal complaints about a charity, contact the Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI or the Fundraising Regulator as appropriate.
How much of my donation reaches Wellcome Trust? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 90% of Wellcome 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 Wellcome Trust's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 5% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 6% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Wellcome Trust. Wellcome Trust's annual return for the year ending 30 September 2025 reports 887 employees paid more than £60,000, including 211 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is over £500,000 (2 employees). Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.
How much income does Wellcome Trust receive? +
Wellcome Trust reported £589m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.
Are Wellcome Trust's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-07-30). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Wellcome Trust based? +
Wellcome Trust's registered contact address is in London (NW1 2BE). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, with a focus on arts & culture.
How much is Wellcome Trust's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Wellcome Trust's annual return for the year ending 30 September 2025 reports 887 employees paid more than £60,000, including 211 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is over £500,000 (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.
Where does Wellcome Trust's money come from? +
Wellcome Trust reported £589m total income for the year ending 30 September 2025. The largest sources were investments £538m (91%), charitable activities £30m (5%), other income £21m (4%).
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Wellcome Trust? +
The register records Wellcome 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 Wellcome Trust's trustees paid? +
Wellcome Trust's annual return for the year ending 30 September 2025 reports that one or more trustees received payments or other benefits (payments for acting as a trustee). Charity law allows this only in limited circumstances; the trustees' annual report should explain it.
What was Wellcome Trust previously called? +
The register lists this previous name for Wellcome Trust: Will Charities of Sir Henry S Wellcome (the Museum and Library Charity).
When was Wellcome Trust registered as a charity? +
Wellcome Trust was entered on the register on 4 October 1962.
How does CharityCompare score Wellcome Trust? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Wellcome 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 Wellcome 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.