Research and analysis

Annual Return 2024 analysis report

Published 26 March 2026

Applies to England and Wales

The figures below are collated from information sent to us by charities for financial years ending between January 2024 and December 2024 (“Annual Return 2024”).

For this period, 110,756 charities were required to submit the Charity Annual Return and by 1 December 2025, 106,973  had done so. Compliance with this requirement is typically growing each year, with both a larger number and greater proportion of charities filing returns. The compliance rate grew by 3.26% to 96.58% in 2024 up from 93.32% of eligible charities for their financial year ending in 2023.

Register of charities 

The number of applications we receive to become a registered charity varies from year to year. Each application is individually assessed against the legal framework for charitable status. This data was extracted from the Register of Charities rather than from annual returns.

At the start of December 2024, the number of charities registered with the Commission was 2,280 higher than 2023. Charities applying to be added onto the register are balanced with those that requested removal for a range of reasons or that merged with other charities.

Register of charities	2023	2024
Number of charities	168,893	171,173

Governance

Structure     

For financial years ending in 2023 and 2024, charities were asked if their charity is part of a wider group structure with a parent body and subsidiary bodies. This was to foster greater understanding of the scale of these relationships across the charity sector.

The sector is predominantly (89.14%, 95,371 charities) comprised of independent charities. Nine in ten charities with an income below £500,000 are independent (90.47%, 83,687 charities) compared to eight in 10 for those above £500,000 (80.72%, 11,671 charities). 

Around 1 in 10 charities (9.22%, 9,866 charities) are part of a federated structure. Charities with an income above £500,000 have a higher proportion of federated parent bodies (13.38%, 1,935 charities) compared to charities with an income below £500,000 (1.88% 1,740 charities).

Finances 

Charities are asked each year to report on their finances in annual returns, with greater detail expected of larger charities. Some £5.13 billion more was expended by charities delivering positive societal impact in 2024 compared with 2023.

Total gross income grew to £101.87 billion and total gross expenditure increased to £100.86 billion. Income increased by 5.64% compared with 2023 returns, while total gross expenditure grew by 5.36%. For comparison, the consumer price index rate rise was 2.5% between December 2023 and December 2024.

Income exceeded expenditure by £1.01 billion. This is an improvement on 2023, when the sector reported the narrowest margin in five years at £701 million. However, the margin in 2024 had not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels and in aggregate, lower income charities reported spending that exceeded income in the year.

Charities with an income above £500,000 spent £87.89 in every £100 on charitable activities, with a total value of £81.28 billion. Alongside that, £8.55 for every £100 spent by this group of charities was on raising funds, with a total value of £7.9 billion. These charities reported a third of their income (32.14%) came from donations and legacies, with a value of £27.43 billion.

Distribution of income and expenditure

Nine in ten (91.71%) of charities that submitted an annual return had an income of less than £1 million, 86.51% had £500,000 or less, while very few – just 2.62% – had income of £5 million or more.

Three in five charities (65,868 charities, 61.57%) reported an income of less than £100,000. Collectively these charities had an income of £2.09 billion, 2.06% of the sector overall, and expenditure of £2.28 billion, 2.26% of the sector overall.

One in four charities (26,681 charities, 24.94%) had income of between £100,000 and £500,000. Collectively, these had an income of £5.97 billion and expenditure of £6.07 billion. This represents 5.86% of income and 6.02% of expenditure by all charities.

Meanwhile, larger charities – those with an income above £500,000 (14,424 charities, 13.48%) – collectively accounted for £93.81 billion or 92.08% of total gross income and £92.51 billion or 91.72% of the sector’s total gross expenditure .

In this group, just 2.62% of annual return submissions were for charities with an income of £5 million or more. These 2,801 charities had a total gross income of £76.63 billion, which was 75.22% of the sector’s total gross income, and a total gross expenditure of £75.61 billion, which was 74.96% of the sector’s total gross expenditure.

Eight universities accounted for nearly half the total income in Wales. Cardiff University is the only Wales-based charity in the overall top 10 charities by total gross income and total gross expenditure across England and Wales. English universities are exempt from registering with the Commission.

Average gross income and gross expenditure was slightly lower in Welsh charities, by around 9.56% and 12.52% respectively, compared with all submissions.

Total gross income by income band breakdowns

Income band	Charities	% charities	Total gross income
under 10k	9,101	8.51%	£25,039,576
between 10k and 25k	25,866	24.18%	£428,059,126
between 25k and 100k	30,901	28.89%	£1,645,104,358
between 100k and 250k	17,854	16.69%	£2,859,136,215
between 250k and 500k	8,827	8.25%	£3,109,095,440
between 500k and 1m	5,564	5.20%	£3,949,461,319
between 1m and 5m	6,059	5.66%	£13,230,256,398
over 5m	2,801	2.62%	£76,627,191,113
Total	106,973	100.00%	£101,873,343,545

Total gross expenditure by income band breakdowns

Income band	Charities	% of charities	Total gross expenditure
under 10k	9,101	8.51%	£46,455,583
between 10k and 25k	25,866	24.18%	£513,872,626
between 25k and 100k	30,901	28.89%	£1,724,023,235
between 100k and 250k	17,854	16.69%	£2,898,916,703
between 250k and 500k	8,827	8.25%	£3,172,738,726
between 500k and 1m	5,564	5.20%	£3,852,295,951
between 1m and 5m	6,059	5.66%	£13,049,580,953
over 5m	2,801	2.62%	£75,606,280,571
Total	106,973	100.00%	£100,864,164,348

Financial resilience

The margin between total sector income and total expenditure grew by £300 million in 2024, increasing from £701 million at the end of 2023 to £1.01 billion at the end of 2024, compared with an average (mean) for the sector of £2.22 billion across the previous 4 year-ends.

Charities with incomes above £500,000 reported a positive margin of £1.30 billion total between income and expenditure, whilst charities with smaller incomes (under £500,000) reported a negative margin (operating deficit) of £290 million in total. The latter was an improvement on 2023 as the negative margin for smaller charities had reduced by £126.4 million in this annual return.

Data for difference in sector income and expenditure by annual return cycle

Annual return year	Sector income less expenditure
2020	£2,900,000,000
2021	£3,300,000,000
2022	£3,000,000,000
2023	£701,000,000
2024	£1,000,000,000

However, within these overall figures there is a great deal of variance for different charities.

While more than half of charities (56.86%) had more income than expenditure, indicating some level of financial resilience, around 2 in 5 charities (40.55%) had expenditure that exceeded income, indicating an ongoing risk to operational sustainability for some charities. The remaining 2.59% of charities reported the same figure for income and expenditure.

The data shows some differences for smaller charities. Among all charities with an income of £100,000 or less in this annual return, the differences are small  compared to the overall picture: 54.89% reported more income than expenditure, 41.11% reported expenditure that exceeded income, with the remainder (4.00%) breaking even. But 25.37% of charities with an income of £10,000 or less reported breaking even, significantly more than any other income bands where less than 1% reported this. This is balanced with a lower proportion of these charities reporting more income than expenditure (37.47%) and a marginally lower proportion had expenditure that exceeded income (37.16%).

Proportion of charities per income band by income to expenditure comparison

Income band	Expenditure less than income	Expenditure equal to income	Expenditure greater than income
under 10k	37.47%	25.37%	37.16%
between 10k and 25k	57.04%	0.74%	42.22%
between 25k and 100k	58.22%	0.44%	41.34%
between 100k and 250k	60.10%	0.31%	39.59%
between 250k and 500k	60.10%	0.28%	39.62%
between 500k and 1m	60.33%	0.25%	39.41%
between 1m and 5m	59.04%	0.40%	40.57%
over 5m	60.94%	0.18%	38.88%

Proportion of charities per income band by income to expenditure comparison

Income band	Total gross income	Total gross expenditure	Difference
under 10k	£25,039,576	£46,455,583	-£21,416,007
between 10k and 25k	£428,059,126	£513,872,626	-£85,813,500
between 25k and 100k	£1,645,104,358	£1,724,023,235	-£78,918,877
between 100k and 250k	£2,859,136,215	£2,898,916,703	-£39,780,488
between 250k and 500k	£3,109,095,440	£3,172,738,726	-£63,643,286
between 500k and 1m	£3,949,461,319	£3,852,295,951	£97,165,368
between 1m and 5m	£13,230,256,398	£13,049,580,953	£180,675,445
over 5m	£76,627,191,113	£75,606,280,571	£1,020,910,542
Total	£101,873,343,545	£100,864,164,348	£1,009,179,197

Funds and reserves

Only charities with an income of £500,000 or more (8.43% of registered charities) are asked in the Annual Return about what type of funds they hold, including information about reserves. Reserves are a charity’s funds that are freely available for it to spend on its charitable purposes, not tied up in fixed assets or restricted funds, and are held to help it operate effectively, including to meet unexpected costs.

Of these eligible charities, 99.59% reported having funds. Unrestricted funds were the more prevalent type of fund (58.63%) followed by endowment funds (30.95%) then restricted funds (10.42%). Charities with an income  over £5 million accounted for 78.40% of total funds held.

Of the eligible charities, 77.53% confirmed they held reserves. Based on the data provided, reserves increased to £79 billion in 2024, up from the £75 billion recorded in 2022 and 2023.

Grant awarding charities

Overall, £17.84 billion, 12.12% of the total gross expenditure of the charity sector, was awarded as grants by grant-making charities in this period, with £12.23 billion of this awarded to other charities. There were a greater number of grant-making charities in 2024 compared with 2023 and an increase in funds awarded, up from £16.97 billion in 2023.

Charities make grants to individuals and to organisations as a way of carrying out their charitable purposes. For some this will be a very small part of their activities, whilst for others it will be the main way of carrying out their charitable purposes.

There are 32,661 (30.53%) grant-making charities, with around two thirds stating that grant-making is the main way they carry out their charity purposes (20,672 charities, 63.29% of grant-making charities). This is an increase from 2023, up from 31,427 grant-making charities and 19,751 that declared it as their main activity.

Grant-making charities

Grant awarding charities	Number of charities	Proportion of all grant-making charities	£ billions awarded	Proportion of grant funding
Charities that awarded grants (total)	32,661	100%	£17.84	100%
Charities that said it is their main activity	20,672	63.29%	£14.83	83.13%

Other charities are the predominant recipient of grants from grant-making charities, with 21,812 charities (66.78% of grant making charities) awarding such grants totalling £12.23 billion in 2024. This is an increase from 2023, when 20,732 charities awarded such grants totalling £11.80 billion.

Grants made outside the charity sector to other organisations are made by fewer charities (10,276, 31.46% of grant making charities) at a total of £4.26 billion. This is an increase on 2023 when 10,079 charities declared this, with a total value of £3.91 billion.

Grants made to individuals were offered by 12,597 charities (38.57% of grant making charities) with an overall value of £1.34 billion. This is an increase on 2023 when grants made to individuals were offered by 12,317 charities, with an overall value of £1.27 billion.

Wales had a lower proportion of grant making charities and of these, fewer that state grant-making as their main activity (22.11% and 52.37% respectively compared to 30.53% and 63.29% in all submissions). Recipient types – charities, organisations or individuals – were proportionally similar to that for all submissions.

Beneficiaries of grants awarded by grant-making charities

Grant awarding charities’ beneficiaries	Number of charities	Proportion of all grant-making charities	£ billions awarded	Proportion of grant funding
Charities awarding grants to another charity	21,812	66.78%	£12.23	68.55%
Charities awarding grants to individual people	12,597	38.57%	£1.34	7.54%
Charities awarding grants to other organisations	10,276	31.46%	£4.26	23.91%

Finances outside the UK 

To improve understanding of international funding of the sector, charities were asked to report any income from overseas or any overseas expenditure. Charities were asked to record the monetary value of any transactions and which countries these were made from or to.

A tenth of charities (10.45%) reported overseas spending, which represented approximately a tenth of sector expenditure. This confirms most charity expenditure (89.55%) is within the UK.

A total overseas income of £10.46 billion and expenditure of £10.88 billion was reported by charities, with £0.43 billion more spent outside the UK than received into the UK by registered charities.

Larger charities (income over £5 million) reported 90.41% of this foreign income and expenditure. Overall, 7.52% of charities (8,044) reported receiving income from outside the UK while 10.45% of charities (11,181) reported spending outside the UK.

Of these charities with income from outside the UK, nearly two thirds (4,895, 61.28%) reported some of it came from the United States, with a total value of £4.04 billion. This was followed by Switzerland (£588.5 million to 2,018 charities, 25.56%) and China (£400.7 million to 738 charities, 9.24%). 

In terms of overseas expenditure, three in twenty charities reported some spending in India (1,782 charities, 15.93%) with a reported value of £355.6 million. This was followed by expenditure in the United States by slightly fewer charities (1,647 charities, 14.73%) but with a value of £1.73 billion it is five times higher than expenditure in India. Switzerland followed (£431.7 million to 412 charities, 3.68%), driven largely by exchanges in big, international charities. 

Wales had some interesting similarities and differences. A similar proportion of charities reported some income came from the United States (60.33%, 111 charities) valued at £15.3 million. But overall, a higher value of income was reported from India, at £36.8 million, though by considerably fewer charities (15 charities, 8.15%). China was the third biggest source of overseas income (£12.8 million to 19 charities, 10.33%).   

In contrast, charities in Wales reported twice as much spending in the United States (£8.7 million) than in India (£4.1 million), but by fewer charities (23 charities, 8.01%) than to India (33 charities, 11.50%). The Netherlands received the third highest spending (£3.6 million, 11 charities, 3.83%).

Top three countries by total income from outside the UK:

	All	Wales
#1	United States £4.0bn: 4,895 charities (61.28% of all charities with income from outside UK)	India £36.8m: 15 charities (8.15% of all charities with income from outside UK)
#2	Switzerland £588.5m: 2,018 charities (25.26% of all charities with income from outside UK)	United States £15.3m: 111 charities (60.33% of all charities with income from outside UK)
#3	China £400.7m: 738 charities (9.24% of all charities with income from outside UK)	China £12.8m: 19 charities (10.33% of all charities with income from outside UK)

Top three countries by total expenditure outside the UK:

	All	Wales
#1	United States £1.7bn: 1,647 charities (14.73% of all charities spending outside the UK)	United States £8.7m: 23 charities (8.01% of all charities spending outside the UK)
#2	Switzerland £431.7m: 412 charities (3.68% of all charities spending outside the UK))	India £4.1m: 33 charities (11.50% of all charities spending outside the UK)
#3	India £355.6m: 1,782 charities (15.93% of all charities spending outside the UK)	Netherlands £3.6m: 11 charities (3.83% of all charities spending outside the UK)

Income streams

Total gross income was £101.87 billion. Overall, around half of charity income was generated by charitable activities (48.92%) such as charging fees for services or supplying services to government. A further third was derived from donations and legacies (31.64%) and a tenth (10.22%) came from trading activities. The remainder was generated from investments (6.01%), which includes owning premises, and from other sources (3.21%).

Proportion of income breakdown types by income band 

Income Band	Charitable activities	Donations & legacies	Investments	Other trading activities	Other
under 10k	7.74%	56.25%	3.91%	22.69%	9.41%
between 10k and 25k	12.12%	34.37%	11.27%	32.69%	9.55%
between 25k and 100k	9.19%	43.13%	10.83%	28.27%	8.58%
between 100k and 250k	7.96%	47.60%	9.44%	28.14%	6.85%
between 250k and 500k	6.65%	46.55%	8.84%	32.95%	5.02%
between 500k and 1m	39.35%	43.99%	7.24%	5.42%	4.01%
between 1m and 5m	47.64%	35.27%	7.44%	7.16%	2.50%
over 5m	53.70%	29.00%	5.34%	9.00%	2.95%

Charitable activities 

Income from charitable activities includes sale of services or goods (charitable activity or goods made by or services provided by the charity’s beneficiaries) and grants related to this. It also includes letting of non-investment property in furtherance of the charity’s objects.

Income from charitable activities had a total value of £50.05 billion – around half of all charity income (48.92%). This was reported as an income stream by 36,300 charities. Those with more than £500,000 get the most income from their charitable activities, equating to 48.53% of income, compared with 7.74% of income for charities with an income of £10,000 or less.

Proportions of income from charitable activities and donations and legacies differ between Wales and England. Wales got comparatively half as much more income from charitable activities and a third less from donations and legacies, compared to the averages across England and Wales. This trend was seen particularly in Wales’ largest charities (over £5 million  ). This may reflect decisions by the devolved government in Wales, with statutory services comparatively more likely to be delivered by the voluntary sector and may also reflect the fact Welsh universities are included on the charity register, unlike in England.

Donations and legacies

This income is generated from gifts and donations including legacies, gift aid, grants that provide core funding or are of a general nature, membership subscriptions and sponsorships where these are, in substance, donations, gifts-in-kind and donated services and facilities.

The generosity of the public and their vital role in supporting the work of charities was demonstrated by donations and legacies raising £32.4 billion, almost a third (31.64%) of all charity income. Charities in income bands under £500,000 had the greatest proportion of their income from this source (45.57% of income) and, further, for the smallest charities, those with income less than £10,000, it was more than half of income (56.25%). The larger charities, those with an income above £1 million, reported a third of their income (32.14%) from this source with a value of £27.43 billion.

Over half (51.23%) of charities with an income of £100,000 or more reported donations from a corporate donor. A lower proportion reported having related-party donations (42.86%).

Legacies were an income stream for 3,437 charities and had a reported value of £3.74 billion. Endowments  were an income stream for 369 charities and had a reported value of £1.04 billion.

Trading

Income from trading activities that specifically raise funds for the charity can include fundraising events such as jumble sales, firework displays or concerts, selling donated goods and bought-in goods, providing goods and services other than for the benefit of the charity’s beneficiaries, or letting and licensing property.

Overall, 10.22% of income came from trading activities, with a value of £10.46 billion across 53,585 charities (50.09% of charities) that submitted a return. But there were notable differences between income bands. Trading was the second biggest source of income (30.26%) across charities with income below £500,000, which is more than three times higher than for   charities with income over £500,000 (8.59%). 

Separately, more charities reported having a trading subsidiary in 2024 than in 2023 at 5,295 charities (4.95% of eligible charities) compared with 5,171 in the 2023 annual returns. These were spread across all income bands, but more than half (57.41%) were charities with income of £1 million or above. The number of trading subsidiaries dissolved in the year was 121.

Investments

Investments totalled £6.15 billion – 6.01% of all charity income. This includes income from investment assets such as dividends, interest receivable and rent, but excludes realised and unrealised investment gains and losses. Overall, 48.30% of charities (51,673) that filed an annual return had income from these types of investments. Charities with income between £10,000 and £250,000 had a higher proportion of income from these sources, at around 10%, than those in higher income bands. The smallest charities had the smallest proportion of income from investments at 3.91%.

Government contracts and grants

Charities may obtain central or local government contracts to provide services in keeping with their charitable purposes, for example the provision of social care. Meanwhile, some charities apply for and are awarded government grants that help them to further their charitable aims.

To understand the scale of statutory service provision in the sector, charities were asked to report how many contracts they received from central government or a local authority. They were also asked to report grant agreements separately. Charities reported income of £17.71 billion from government contracts or grants, 17.38% of gross income for the sector. Almost two-thirds (61.90%) of the funds were in contracts.

Some 7,358 of the charities that submitted an annual return had government contracts (6.88%), continuing an upward trend (6,490 in 2022 and 7,199 in 2023). The contract income recorded by charities had a total value of almost £10.96 billion. Proportionally, five times more charities with an income over £500,000 (24.50%) received this income than charities with an income under £500,000 (4.13%).

Just under a fifth of the charities that filed an annual return (18.82%, 20,130) received government grants. The grant income recorded by charities had a total value of £6.75 billion. In 2024, proportionally twice as many charities with an income over £500,000 (35.92%) had government grants income compared to charities with an income under £500,000 (16.15 %). 

Wales had higher proportions of charities awarded government contracts or in receipt of grants than for all submissions across England and Wales. Government grants were nearly double that for England and Wales. Government contracts were proportionally over half more than for England and Wales, however, these had a higher monetary value across England and Wales.

Contracts and grants from local / central government	2023	2024
Number of charities that said they had government contracts	7,199	7,358
Number of charities that said they received government grants	20,076	20,130

	Government contract - yes	Government contracts - no	Government grant - yes	Government grant - no
Charities with income under £500,000	4.13%	95.87%	16.15%	83.85%
Charities with income over £500,000	24.5%	75.5%	35.92%	64.08%

Expenditure

Total gross expenditure was reported at £100.86 billion across all charities that submitted an annual return.

To help reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens on smaller charities, only charities with an income of £500,000 or more (14,424 charities) are asked about the breakdown of their expenditure in the Annual Return, which is placed in three categories: charitable activities, raising funds and other.

Charitable activities accounted for the majority of expenditure during financial years ending in 2024: £87.89 in every £100 spent by eligible charities was on charitable activities. This had a total value of £81.28 billion, reported across 14,278 charities.

Less than 9% of expenditure went on raising  funds – £8.55 for every £100 spent by the 14,424 charities with an income of £500,000 or more. Raising funds was reported expenditure by  8,970 charities with a collective value of £7.9 billion.

The smallest proportion of expenditure was allocated to ‘other’, at £3.57 per £100. This was also reported by the lowest number of charities (2,343) and had a value of £3.3 billion. This is because most expenditure is captured under charitable activities and raising funds. While ‘other’ is not commonly used, it may for example include expenditure on governance or audits.

Expenditure in Wales was similar to that for all submissions across England and Wales, with charitable activities accounting for around £90.47 of every £100 spent in Wales. Expenditure on raising funds was at a lower proportion in Wales, £2.89 of every £100 spent compared to £8 of every £100 spent in all submissions.

There were no significant differences in the proportion of each category of expenditure reported across the £500,000+ income bands.

People

On average across the sector there were 3.8 volunteers to every 1 paid worker supporting charities in 2024, an increase from the 3.5 seen during 2023. Around 69.05% of charities reported volunteers helped them deliver their charitable work in 2024 and just under half of charities reported they had paid workers on some contract type (47.56%).

Employees

Just under half of charities (47.56%) had engaged people in paid work in three categories of employment type (permanent, fixed-term or self-employed).

The 1.6 million people employed across nearly 50,000 charities is 139,725 fewer than reported in the last annual return, including 9,870 fewer employees working overseas.

The majority of charity employees were on permanent contracts (1.2 million people working in 37.44% of the charities). There were a further 198,198 people in fixed-term contracts across 13,105 charities (12.25% of charities). Across 20,042 charities there were 237,254 self-employed people (18.70% of charities).

Larger charities (with income over £500,000) had proportionally nearly double (82.47%) the employees with permanent contracts than smaller charities (44.63%). In contrast, larger charities had a smaller proportion (6.18%) of self-employed employees to smaller charities (40.91%). The proportion of fixed-term contract employees was similar, at 11.34% at larger charities and 14.47% at smaller charities.

The majority of employees were deployed in the UK with just 5.42% of charity employees (88,925 people) working overseas. This was 9,870 fewer employees reported working overseas in 2024 compared with 2023 annual returns. The 1.67% of charities employing people outside of the UK were predominantly the highest income charities (£5 million+) – 88.53% employees working overseas were at charities with income over £5 million. 

Wales had differences in employment contract type at smaller charities (income under £500,000) compared with all submissions.   Notably, smaller charities in Wales had a much higher proportion of employees with fixed term contracts (76.46%, compared with 14.47% for all submissions) therefore lower proportions of permanent employees (17.23% compared to 44.63%) and self-employed employees (6.31%, compared with 40.91%). Larger charities in Wales had similar proportions of types of employees to larger charities in all submissions.

Volunteers

Reported volunteer numbers in 2024 were similar to those in the previous year, up by 58,188 to 6.28 million volunteers in 2024 compared to 6.22 million in 2023.

Seven in ten charities (69.04%) reported having volunteers, with a slightly higher proportion in Wales (73.41%). The average number of volunteers per charity with volunteers is 85.

	2023	2024
Number of volunteers declared by charities	6.22million	6.28million

Volunteer numbers reported in these recent annual returns appear to contradict findings from other sources that indicate volunteer numbers are falling. The Commission plans to explore this subject further, including with sector representative bodies, to better understand what factors may underlie this discrepancy.

Trusteeships

Trusteeships, which are predominantly a voluntary role, reached 923,019 across the 171,173 registered charities by the end of the 2024 reporting year – a mean average of 5.4 trustees per charity, which was the same as for 2023. This data is extracted from the Register of Charities rather than from charities annual returns.

Trustee benefits

All charities are asked if they paid trustees for anything, other than out of pocket expenses such as the reasonable cost of travelling to trustee meetings.

Across registered charities that submitted an annual return, fewer than 3 in every 50 charities reported they offered any type of trustee benefits (5.90% of registered charities). Some of these charities adopted several benefits, but no charity adopted all of the possible benefits. There was no particular trend in which benefits were offered by charities across income bands.

The least common benefit is being paid for being a trustee. In certain circumstances, when allowed for in the charity’s governing document, trustees can be paid for performing that role, or another role in the running of the charity.

Proportion of registered charities declaring specific trustee benefits

Type of benefit	% of charities
Payment for services	3.63%
Resignation to take up employment at the charity	1.07%
Payment for other benefit	1.20%
Payment for another role (not acting as trustee)	0.84%
Payment for acting as trustee	0.40%