Charities in Wales
The charity sector in Wales as a whole: how many charities there are, how much money they handle, where they are based, and how that has changed.
Loading
8,238 registered charities have a contact address in Wales. In their latest years they had income of £4.1 billion between them and spent £4.1 billion.
49,222 paid staff were reported by the 549 charities that gave a figure, and 246,231 volunteers by the 4,269 that gave one. That is out of 5,922 charities that have filed a return, so the true totals are higher.
43,096 trustee places are filled across them.
Most charities in Wales are small. The few with the largest incomes hold most of the money.
Charities
Combined income
| Income in latest year | Charities | Combined income |
|---|---|---|
| Under £10,000 | 3,177 | £9.9 million |
| £10,000 to £100,000 | 2,915 | £105.8 million |
| £100,000 to £500,000 | 1,142 | £252 million |
| £500,000 to £1 million | 233 | £162.8 million |
| £1 million to £5 million | 224 | £463.7 million |
| Over £5 million | 82 | £3.1 billion |
| No income figure | 465 |
Counted by the council area of each charity's contact address. Many charities work well beyond the area where their address is, and a few large ones based in Cardiff work across Wales.
| Council area | Charities | Combined income |
|---|---|---|
| Cardiff | 909 | £1.5 billion |
| Powys | 754 | £86 million |
| Carmarthenshire | 659 | £384.2 million |
| Gwynedd | 560 | £253.3 million |
| Swansea | 479 | £530.9 million |
| Pembrokeshire | 429 | £43.5 million |
| Rhondda Cynon Taf | 405 | £331.8 million |
| Monmouthshire | 404 | £22.8 million |
| Flintshire | 393 | £73.7 million |
| Vale of Glamorgan | 338 | £129.5 million |
| Conwy | 336 | £107.5 million |
| Ceredigion | 334 | £206.5 million |
| Denbighshire | 313 | £43.1 million |
| Wrexham | 303 | £110.3 million |
| Neath Port Talbot | 269 | £38.4 million |
| Bridgend | 264 | £40.6 million |
| Newport | 254 | £90.4 million |
| Isle of Anglesey | 247 | £21.1 million |
| Caerphilly | 241 | £23.2 million |
| Torfaen | 154 | £29.7 million |
| Merthyr Tydfil | 103 | £40.3 million |
| Blaenau Gwent | 90 | £17.6 million |
Each charity tells the Charity Commission what it works on. Many choose more than one, so these add up to more than the number of charities.
The 25 charities with the largest income in their latest year. A bigger income does not make a charity better; it shows how much money passes through it.
| Charity | Council area | Income | Spending |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Cardiff University | Cardiff | £634,070,682 | £692,020,576 |
| 2Swansea University | Swansea | £325,645,000 | £373,030,000 |
| 3University of South Wales/Prifysgol De Cymru | Rhondda Cynon Taf | £224,882,000 | £222,443,000 |
| 4University of Wales:Trinity Saint David | Carmarthenshire | £209,777,000 | £208,082,000 |
| 5Bangor University | Gwynedd | £160,358,000 | £176,808,000 |
| 6Cardiff Metropolitan University | Cardiff | £148,589,000 | £146,766,000 |
| 7Prifysgol Aberystwyth | Ceredigion | £127,424,000 | £132,582,000 |
| 8WJEC CBAC Limited | Cardiff | £66,489,370 | £63,335,081 |
| 9Moondance Foundation | Vale of Glamorgan | £66,362,229 | £30,875,829 |
| 10The Healthcare Management Trust | Swansea | £62,866,323 | £63,556,625 |
| 11Prifysgol Wrecsam/Wrexham University | Wrexham | £60,431,000 | £60,006,000 |
| 12Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru | Cardiff | £57,739,000 | £56,399,000 |
| 13Coleg Sir Gar | Carmarthenshire | £51,880,000 | £51,482,000 |
| 14National Museum of Wales | Cardiff | £49,162,000 | £44,780,000 |
| 15Cartrefi Cymru Co-operative Limited | Cardiff | £42,912,687 | £42,607,910 |
| 16Wales Council for Voluntary Action | Cardiff | £36,614,642 | £34,629,373 |
| 17Innovate Trust Ltd | Cardiff | £33,256,450 | £33,119,007 |
| 18Wales Millennium Centre | Cardiff | £28,148,648 | £27,754,948 |
| 19Adferiad Recovery Limited | Conwy | £27,771,116 | £27,262,181 |
| 20The Adolescent and Children's Trust | Conwy | £27,757,000 | £27,189,000 |
| 21Drive | Rhondda Cynon Taf | £25,164,650 | £24,784,722 |
| 22Llamau Limited | Cardiff | £23,865,271 | £24,376,987 |
| 23The Representative Body of the Church in Wales | Cardiff | £23,001,000 | £29,134,000 |
| 24National Library of Wales | Ceredigion | £22,330,000 | £17,617,000 |
| 25Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama | Rhondda Cynon Taf | £20,757,000 | £19,367,000 |
Combined income of charities in Wales by the year their financial year ended, from the annual returns they filed.
| Year | Combined income | Three-year average | Returns filed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | £3.5 billion | £3.5 billion | 3,972 |
| 2022 | £3.6 billion | £3.6 billion | 4,058 |
| 2023 | £4 billion | £3.7 billion | 4,403 |
| 2024 | £4 billion | £3.9 billion | 4,684 |
| 2025 | £4 billion | £4 billion | 4,833 |
| 2026 | £95.5 million | £2.7 billion | 495 |
Volunteers counted in the annual returns filed for each year. Only charities with income over £10,000 are asked, and not all of them answer.
| Year | Volunteers reported | Returns giving a figure | Returns filed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 174,526 | 2,734 | 3,972 |
| 2022 | 178,616 | 2,848 | 4,058 |
| 2023 | 199,192 | 3,216 | 4,403 |
| 2024 | 201,852 | 3,436 | 4,684 |
| 2025 | 232,020 | 3,529 | 4,833 |
| 2026 | 17,019 | 380 | 495 |
The share of all charity income in Wales that goes to the largest charities.
The 10 largest charities had 49% of all income in their latest years. The largest 50 had 71%, and the largest 100 had 78%. That is out of 7,175 charities with an income figure.
| Year | Largest 10 | Largest 50 | Largest 100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 56% | 75% | 82% |
| 2022 | 54% | 74% | 81% |
| 2023 | 54% | 74% | 81% |
| 2024 | 52% | 73% | 80% |
| 2025 | 50% | 72% | 79% |
| 2026 | 46% | 75% | 86% |
Charities whose income in their latest year fell by 30% or more on the year before. A fall can mean a grant ended, a one-off gift the year before, or trouble. The figures cannot tell which.
Of 5,008 charities with two years of figures, 778 saw income fall by 30% or more, and 400 by half or more.
| Council area | Charities with two years of figures | Income fell by 30% or more | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rhondda Cynon Taf | 243 | 50 | 21% |
| Vale of Glamorgan | 209 | 40 | 19% |
| Powys | 446 | 84 | 19% |
| Newport | 169 | 31 | 18% |
| Swansea | 307 | 56 | 18% |
| Denbighshire | 184 | 33 | 18% |
| Bridgend | 179 | 32 | 18% |
| Isle of Anglesey | 140 | 23 | 16% |
| Blaenau Gwent | 51 | 8 | 16% |
| Ceredigion | 185 | 29 | 16% |
| Carmarthenshire | 342 | 53 | 15% |
| Wrexham | 189 | 29 | 15% |
| Gwynedd | 319 | 48 | 15% |
| Neath Port Talbot | 164 | 24 | 15% |
| Cardiff | 637 | 89 | 14% |
| Monmouthshire | 230 | 32 | 14% |
| Conwy | 195 | 27 | 14% |
| Merthyr Tydfil | 60 | 8 | 13% |
| Torfaen | 102 | 12 | 12% |
| Flintshire | 228 | 25 | 11% |
| Pembrokeshire | 272 | 29 | 11% |
| Caerphilly | 157 | 16 | 10% |
How far each charity's income moved from year to year over its last 5 years of returns. A charity that wins a large grant every few years will swing a lot without anything being wrong.
| Swing | Charities |
|---|---|
| Steady (under 0.10) | 406 |
| Some swing (0.10 to 0.25) | 1,436 |
| Large swing (0.25 to 0.50) | 1,523 |
| Very large swing (0.50 or more) | 1,099 |
Trustees of more than one registered charity in Wales. Most are people. Some are organisations, such as a council that acts as trustee for school prize funds.
Of 39,852 trustees, 2,581 sit on the board of more than one Welsh charity.
| Boards | Trustees |
|---|---|
| 2 charities | 2,162 |
| 3 or 4 charities | 379 |
| 5 or more charities | 40 |
Many charities are also companies. Companies House lists the people with significant control over each company. This shows charitable companies whose controlling people also control other companies.
Of 1,175 charitable companies in Wales, 213 list people with significant control. In 67 of those, at least one of them also controls another company.