---
title: "How to read charity accounts | CharityCompare"
description: "A plain-English guide to UK charity accounts — cause spend, fundraising cost, reserves in months"
source: https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/guides/how-to-read-accounts
retrieved: 2026-08-18T01:25:40.529Z
license: "Charity data © Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0"
---

# How to read charity accounts

**In short:** You do not need to be an accountant. Check charitable-activities spend, fundraising cost, reserves in months, and whether the latest accounts were filed on time — then read the trustees’ report for the story behind the numbers.

Data from [Charity Commission register](https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/), last updated 12 August 2026.

Registered charities file accounts with the regulator for their nation — the Charity Commission in England and Wales, OSCR in Scotland, and CCNI in Northern Ireland. As a donor you do not need the full PDF. Four figures, plus the filing date, do most of the work.

## Charitable activities (cause spend)

This is money spent on the charity’s purpose: research, beds, food parcels, animal care, grants, and so on. On CharityCompare, **cause spend** is charitable activities divided by total expenditure. It feeds the Financial Efficiency pillar (20 of 100 Clarity Score points) on a graduated scale — not a separate “cause spend star rating.”

A common band for established UK charities is about 70–90%. Shop-heavy or grant-making models can sit outside that range for honest reasons. Compare peers in the same cause, not a household name in a different one.

## Fundraising costs

How much it cost to raise money. Some fundraising is necessary; a very high ratio is a prompt to read the year, not an automatic veto. Payroll giving and regular gifts often cost less per pound than cold appeals.

## Reserves in months

Reserves are free funds the charity could spend if income stopped. We show them as **months of operating costs** where the filings support it. Roughly 3–24 months is a common healthy range; the Clarity Score tapers on both sides rather than using a single cutoff. Very low can mean fragility; very high needs an explanation in the reserves policy. See [charity reserves explained](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/guides/charity-reserves-explained).

## Filing record

On-time accounts are a basic accountability signal. Repeated late filings, missing returns, or an open statutory inquiry matter more than a single awkward ratio. Inquiry status is a kill switch: the Clarity Score is 0 until it closes.

## What the accounts cannot tell you

Filings do not score the worthiness of the cause, celebrity backing, or whether programmes work. Clarity Score is built only from what regulators publish. Use it to rule out weak administration, then read the trustees’ annual report for outcomes.

Next: [how to compare charities](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/guides/how-to-compare-charities) and the [methodology](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/methodology).

## Read next

- [How much of my donation goes to the cause? Charity admin costs UK Most well-run UK charities spend roughly 70–90% of expenditure on charitable activities (cause spend). The rest funds fundraising and running costs. Very low overhead can mean underinvestment, not efficiency. On CharityCompare, compare cause spend side by side — Clarity Score caps financial efficiency at 20 of 100 points so ratios cannot dominate.](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/guides/charity-admin-costs-explained)
- [Charity CEO pay UK — how to compare senior salaries fairly UK charities disclose staff pay bands over £60,000 in their accounts. There is no single "fair" CEO salary — judge pay against scale, complexity and explanation in the trustees' report. CharityCompare surfaces filing-based scores; it does not rank charities by how little they pay leaders.](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/guides/charity-ceo-pay-uk)
- [Charity reserves explained Reserves are the free funds a charity could spend if income stopped. Three to twenty-four months of running costs is a common healthy range — below that is fragile, far above it needs explaining.](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/guides/charity-reserves-explained)

Ready to check a specific charity? Every profile shows a free Clarity Score from regulator filings.

[Search charities](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/charity-directory) [Compare](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/compare-charities)

**Information only** — not donation advice.