Every penny accounted for

We try to spend as much money as possible on what matters (helping children with no where else to go) and as little as possible on office costs, fundraising and admin.

The fact we barely advertise, do not send junk mail, do not approach people on the streets and do not cold calls helps to keep our costs down whilst the internet helps us to grow.

Like all UK charities, we produce accounts of all of our income and expenditure. The annual review of accounts for 2012 can be downloaded here in PDF format. If you prefer to check the figures are also available from the charity commission with some pie chart comparisons by visiting http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/find-charities/, then searching "SOS Children".

Previous years accounts for 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005 are available in PDF format.

If you would like a paper copy of any of our Annual Reviews, please contact us with your name and address.

In practice we do incur costs to run the office in Cambridge (including processing child sponsorships etc.), and from the costs of finding supporters. We try to keep these costs as low as possible, and are very conscious that every penny spent could help a child in need.

We increasingly use the internet for appeals, and do not use expensive methods to fundraise like cold direct mail. By responding to our website you are helping to drive down our costs.

We wrote an editorial on the difficulties of comparing charity costs, last updated in 2011.