National vs local homelessness charity — compared
In short: National bodies influence housing policy; local services often provide direct beds and outreach in your city.
Data from Charity Commission register, last updated .
Homelessness charities range from household names running helplines and campaigns to city-based organisations running hostels.
Key differences
| What to compare | CENTREPOINT SOHO | ST MUNGO COMMUNITY HOUSING ASSOCIATION |
|---|---|---|
| Services | Helplines, research, campaigning | Hostels, outreach, local advice |
| Scale | Millions in income | Often under £10m |
| Measure of success | Policy wins, advice reach | Bed nights, people housed |
What the latest filings show
Figures from the most recent annual accounts on the Charity Commission register. Clarity scores use our methodology.
| Metric | CENTREPOINT SOHO | ST MUNGO COMMUNITY HOUSING ASSOCIATION |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 76/100 (4★) | 77/100 (4★) |
| Accountability & Finance | 100/100 | 100/100 |
| Spend on charitable activities | 71% of expenditure | 96% of expenditure |
| Fundraising efficiency | £3.8 raised per £1 fundraising (3-yr avg) | £24.7 raised per £1 fundraising (3-yr avg) |
| Latest income | £63m | £124m |
| Fundraising spend | 29% of expenditure | 4% of expenditure |
| Reserves | 2 months | 2 months |
| Accounts filing | On time | On time |
| Data confidence | high | high |
| Charity number | 292411 | 1149085 |
CENTREPOINT SOHO on the register · ST MUNGO COMMUNITY HOUSING ASSOCIATION on the register
ST MUNGO COMMUNITY HOUSING ASSOCIATION may suit you if…
- You want local beds and meals
- You walk past their centre daily
Common questions
Should I donate to a national homelessness charity or a local one?
It depends whether you want policy and advice at scale or beds and outreach in one city. Compare Clarity Scores and cause spend, then give to the model you want to fund.
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.