Cancer research vs patient support — where does your money go?
In short: Research charities invest in long-term cures; patient support charities help people facing cancer today — many donors choose both.
Data from Charity Commission register, last updated .
These are complementary, not competing. Research charities often have higher income and longer reserve policies. Support charities may score higher on immediate cause spend.
Key differences
| What to compare | CANCER RESEARCH UK | MACMILLAN CANCER SUPPORT |
|---|---|---|
| Primary spend | Grants, labs, clinical trials | Helplines, nurses, grants to patients |
| Results timeline | Years to decades | Immediate to months |
| Typical income scale | Very large (£100m+) | Large to medium |
| Volunteering | Shops, events, fundraising | Direct patient contact (where offered) |
What the latest filings show
Figures from the most recent annual accounts on the Charity Commission register. Clarity scores use our methodology.
| Metric | CANCER RESEARCH UK | MACMILLAN CANCER SUPPORT |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 83/100 (4★) | 75/100 (4★) |
| Accountability & Finance | 100/100 | 100/100 |
| Spend on charitable activities | 64% of expenditure | 69% of expenditure |
| Fundraising efficiency | £5.8 raised per £1 fundraising (3-yr avg) | £3.1 raised per £1 fundraising (3-yr avg) |
| Latest income | £735m | £246m |
| Fundraising spend | 18% of expenditure | 31% of expenditure |
| Reserves | 6 months | 2 months |
| Accounts filing | On time | On time |
| Data confidence | high | high |
| Charity number | 1089464 | 261017 |
CANCER RESEARCH UK on the register · MACMILLAN CANCER SUPPORT on the register
CANCER RESEARCH UK may suit you if…
- You want to fund future treatments
- You are comfortable with research risk
- You prefer evidence-based medical progress
MACMILLAN CANCER SUPPORT may suit you if…
- You want to help people now
- You or someone you know used support services
- You prefer tangible local services
Common questions
Do research charities spend less on the cause?
Research is a charitable activity — but admin and fundraising ratios vary. Compare Clarity Scores and cause spend on each profile.
How we score charities +
The Clarity Score is a 100-point rating from UK regulator filings (Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR and CCNI). Four pillars — Accountability & Transparency (40), Financial Health (30), Financial Efficiency (20), and Community Support (10) — each scored on a continuous scale, not pass/fail cutoffs. A statutory inquiry sets the score to 0 automatically.
Accountability & Transparency
Scored from filings
40 points — filing history (15), trustee oversight (15, scaling up to a board of three or more), declared policies (10).
Financial Health
Scored from filings
30 points — reserves (15, full marks 3–24 months, tapering on both sides), income stability (10), liabilities to assets (5, scaling down as debt rises).
Financial Efficiency
Scored from filings
20 points — program expense ratio and fundraising cost, each on a graduated scale (not a single cutoff). Kept at 20% of the total: financial-ratio scoring alone is not a reliable effectiveness signal (see "why not just an overhead ratio?" below).
Community Support
Scored from filings
10 points — volunteer-to-staff ratio from Charity Commission workforce data, scaling continuously up to a 2:1 ratio.
Overall score
Sum of all pillar points. Display stars use the same bands as the labels: 90–100 → 5★ Exceptional; 75–89 → 4★ Good; 60–74 → 3★ Needs improvement; 1–59 → 2★ Poor; 0 → not rated.