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CharityCompare

Methodology

How we rate charities

The Clarity Score V1 adds up to 100 points from UK regulator filings — statutory inquiry sets the score to zero.

Scores are never for sale — see how we're funded and the commercial independence clause below.

Four beacons

Assessed

Accountability & Transparency

40 points — filing history (15), trustee oversight (15, scaling up to a board of three or more), declared policies (10).

Assessed

Financial Health

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).

Assessed

Financial Efficiency

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).

Assessed

Community Support

10 points — volunteer-to-staff ratio from Charity Commission workforce data, scaling continuously up to a 2:1 ratio.

Score to stars

Score Stars Label
90+ ★★★★★ Exceptional
75+ ★★★★☆ Good
60+ ★★★☆☆ Needs improvement
1+ ★★☆☆☆ Poor
0+ ☆☆☆☆☆ Not rated

What we measure today

  • Accountability & Transparency (40 pts): five-year filing history, trustee oversight (scaling up to a board of three or more, the minimum recommended by the Charity Governance Code), safeguarding / conflict / volunteer policies.
  • Financial Health (30 pts): reserves (full marks 3–24 months, tapering on both sides), three-year income trend, liabilities-to-assets.
  • Financial Efficiency (20 pts): program expense ratio and fundraising cost per £1 raised, each on a graduated scale rather than a single pass/fail cutoff.
  • Community Support (10 pts): volunteer-to-staff ratio from regulator workforce data where disclosed (England & Wales annual-return fields; OSCR and CCNI records often omit this, so the beacon may be thinner).

Every filing figure traces back to the charity's own accounts, prepared under the Charity SORP accounting standard and submitted to the relevant UK regulator — the Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR in Scotland, or CCNI in Northern Ireland. Governance metrics reference the voluntary Charity Governance Code, which the Commission endorses but does not mandate. We don't score outcomes or real-world impact — public filings don't capture that, so we don't claim to measure it.

Policies & red flags

Statutory inquiry (kill switch)

If the relevant UK regulator has an open statutory inquiry, the charity scores 0/100 automatically with a regulatory warning banner — no pillar math is applied.

Red flags

Factual cards — statutory inquiry, fewer than three trustees, late filings, high fundraising spend, sharp income drops, very high reserves.

Give with Confidence

Score 75+ (about 4★ on the 5-star display), no serious red flags, filings up to date, no statutory inquiry.

What we exclude from a full score

A full Clarity Score needs detailed annual-return fields. Charities under £100,000 income, and many OSCR/CCNI records with thinner published returns, get a basic register profile instead of a score. Optional donor support never influences ratings. Every UK-registered charity still has a profile.

Commercial independence

CharityCompare sells memberships and advertising. These relationships are administered by a separate commercial process from the scoring pipeline, which runs entirely on UK regulator filings. Scores are regenerated from filings on a fixed schedule; no staff member can adjust an individual score. Paid placements are labelled “Featured partner” and are excluded from all ranked lists, leaderboards and comparison tools. If a charity cancels a paid plan, its score does not change — because it was never connected.

Methodology changelog · Scoring guide

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Sources: Charity Commission for England and Wales, Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. Open Government Licence v3.0 .

Common questions

What is the Clarity Score?

The Clarity Score is CharityCompare’s proprietary 0–100 rating from UK regulator annual returns. Higher scores indicate stronger accountability, finance, and transparency signals from public filings — not programme impact.

Which pillars does the Clarity Score use?

Four pillars: Accountability & Transparency (40 pts), Financial Health (30 pts), Financial Efficiency (20 pts), and Community Support (10 pts). Display stars use the same bands: 90+ is 5★ Exceptional, 75+ is 4★ Good, 60+ is 3★ Needs improvement, 1–59 is 2★ Poor. A statutory inquiry automatically scores 0/100.

Where does CharityCompare get its data?

The three UK charity registers: the Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR in Scotland, and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. We do not use self-reported marketing claims or paid submissions. A full Clarity Score needs detailed annual-return fields; thinner records get a basic profile instead of a guessed score.

Is CharityCompare affiliated with the Charity Commission?

No. CharityCompare is an independent service, not part of or endorsed by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. We reuse the Commission’s public register data under the Open Government Licence v3.0 and present it in our own format — the Clarity Score is our own algorithmic summary, not an official rating. Always verify a charity directly on the official register at register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk.

Why not just score charities on their overhead / fundraising cost ratio?

In 2013 the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, GuideStar and Charity Navigator jointly renounced the "overhead ratio" as a stand-alone measure of a charity's quality (the "Overhead Myth"): a low ratio doesn't reliably predict effectiveness, and chasing one can push charities to under-invest in the infrastructure they need. We still use program-expense and fundraising-cost ratios — UK regulator filings don't give us outcomes data to weigh instead — but keep that pillar the smallest (20 of 100 points) and score it on a graduated scale rather than a single cutoff, alongside governance and financial-health pillars.