See our accounts

“We have been supporting SOS Children for about 35 years now. The organisation has always seemed to us a reliable, utterly practical, front-line charity. We prefer to send our donations to them in the certain knowledge that not one penny will go astray.” 

—Helen and Guy, who support our work in Nicaragua. Read more testimonials from our supporters. 

We try to spend as much money as possible on what matters (helping children with nowhere else to go) and as little as possible on office costs, fundraising and admin.

We do not approach people on the streets or cold call, and our advertising is minimal. All of this helps to keep our costs down, while the internet helps us to grow.

Like all UK charities, we release financial accounts each year. The annual review of accounts for 2014 can be downloaded here in PDF format.

If you prefer to check, the figures are also available from the Charity Commission, along with pie chart comparisons. Find them here...

Previous years' accounts for 2013, 2012, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005 are available in PDF format. Please feel free to download and print our accounts for your own perusal.

Administration

Our UK office is based in Cambridge. Processing child sponsorships, keeping our donors happy and finding new supporters does of course incur administration costs. We keep these costs as low as possible, and are conscious that every penny spent could help a child in need. We cover these costs not through child sponsorship, of which 100% goes towards the care of children, but via other income such as tax reclaimed by Gift-Aided donations.

We only run emergency appeals when there is a clear and urgent need to help those we support.

By taking out your sponsorship via our website, you are helping to drive down our costs. Thank you!