Common questions about Wise's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Wise a good charity? +
Wise scores 90 out of 100 (5 stars — Exceptional) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 100% of its spending goes to charitable activities (latest year) 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 Wise a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Wise as a registered charity (charity number 1001136). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1001136&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 Wise's charity number? +
Wise's charity number is 1001136. 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 Wise's charity rating? +
Wise scores 90 out of 100 on CharityCompare (5 stars — Exceptional). 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 Wise have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Wise. 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 Wise? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 100% of Wise's total spending went to charitable activities. 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 Wise's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 0% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 0% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Wise. Wise's annual return for the year ending 31 October 2025 reports no employees paid more than £60,000. Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.
How much income does Wise receive? +
Wise reported £760k total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.
Are Wise's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-08-31). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Wise based? +
Wise's registered contact address is in Hemel Hempstead (HP13 6GN). It tells the regulator it operates in Buckinghamshire, India, Pakistan, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Malawi, Burma, with a focus on international aid.
How much is Wise's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Wise's annual return for the year ending 31 October 2025 reports no employees paid more than £60,000. 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 Wise's money come from? +
Wise reported £760k total income for the year ending 31 October 2025. The largest sources were donations and legacies £625k (82%), investments £72k (9%), charitable activities £64k (8%).
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Wise? +
The register records Wise 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 Wise's trustees paid? +
Wise's annual return for the year ending 31 October 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
What was Wise previously called? +
The register lists this previous name for Wise: Al-Islam Muslim Circle.
When was Wise registered as a charity? +
Wise was entered on the register on 10 January 1991.
How does CharityCompare score Wise? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Wise'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 Wise'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.