CLIENTEARTH
Registered charity 1053988 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as EARTHRIGHTS, EARTHRIGHTS:THE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND RESOURCE CENTRE
ClientEarth's objects are the promotion and protection of the environment for the public benefit by the use of the law, to provide legal assistance to those who otherwise do not have access thereto, to promote education on environmental rights and responsibilities and to conduct research thereon. We will achieve these goals through advocacy, litigation, and research.
Causes: Environment/conservation/heritage · Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2024 accounts
The accounts state that the charity ended the year with a deficit of £1,750k, driven by one-off costs in the prior year and delayed programmatic spend. However, free unrestricted reserves stood at £9,753k, which is above the stated policy target of £6,358k, leading trustees to conclude there are no material uncertainties regarding going concern.
Automated summary of the FY2024 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Related-party transaction: Donations from trustees
“During the year the charity received no donations from trustees (2023: £247,729). There were no conditions attached to these which would, or might, require the charity to alter significantly the nature of its existing activities.” — page 61
“During the year grants and sub-grants of $467,464 (2023: $172,251) were given to ClientEarth USA Inc.” — page 61
Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Grants to ClientEarth USA Inc
“During the year the charity received no donations from trustees (2023: £247,729). There were no conditions attached to these which would, or might, require the charity to alter significantly the nature of its existing activities.” — page 61
“During the year grants and sub-grants of $467,464 (2023: $172,251) were given to ClientEarth USA Inc.” — page 61
Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Income from ClientEarth USA Inc
“During the year the charity received no donations from trustees (2023: £247,729). There were no conditions attached to these which would, or might, require the charity to alter significantly the nature of its existing activities.” — page 61
“During the year grants and sub-grants of $467,464 (2023: $172,251) were given to ClientEarth USA Inc.” — page 61
Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Gift to former chair
“During the year the charity received no donations from trustees (2023: £247,729). There were no conditions attached to these which would, or might, require the charity to alter significantly the nature of its existing activities.” — page 61
“During the year grants and sub-grants of $467,464 (2023: $172,251) were given to ClientEarth USA Inc.” — page 61
Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Trading subsidiary: ClientEarth Trading Ltd
“ClientEarth Trading Ltd is a trading subsidiary of ClientEarth in the UK.” — page 18
Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by Crowe U.K. LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.
Corporate structure
CLIENTEARTH TRADING LTD — per its own Companies House accounts
- Profit before tax: £-4k
- Amounts owed to group undertakings: £28,718
Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — ClientEarth (matched by registered charity number).
Leadership, per the charity’s website
- James Thornton — President and Founder (source)
Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.
Funders the charity credits
Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).
- Postcode Lottery — “Since 2016, ClientEarth has been supported by Postcode Lottery players. In that time, players have raised over £11million to support our wor…” (source page)
Company officers (Companies House)
Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.
- JOHNSON, Justin Robert — director, appointed 16/10/2025on trustee list
- WANYOIKE, Rachel Wangechi — director, appointed 14/03/2025on trustee list
- CLARKE, Amy — director, appointed 14/03/2025on trustee list
- WILD, Hilary Frances — director, appointed 11/07/2024on trustee list
- PATEL, Champa Khimji — director, appointed 11/07/2024on trustee list
- RAMAKRISHNA, Kilaparti, Dr — director, appointed 11/07/2024on trustee list
- RIVETT-CARNAC, Thomas Charles — director, appointed 11/07/2024on trustee list
- HOWARD BOYD, Emma — director, appointed 18/04/2024not on trustee list
- REID, Alexander Lyman — director, appointed 28/11/2023on trustee list
- RAZZOUK, Assaad Wajdi — director, appointed 19/11/2020on trustee list
- STRATENWERTH, Georg — director, appointed 22/03/2016on trustee list
- MCINTOSH, Winsome — director, appointed 13/11/2006on trustee list
Official officers record.
Property (HM Land Registry)
1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.
Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram
Advertised salaries (public job ads)
Roles this charity has advertised on CharityJob, matched on the exact employer name. A different source from the statutory pay bands above: these are asking salaries for vacancies, not what anyone was paid.
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2024)
Cost of raising funds
£4.1m
Reported reserves equal ~4.0 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (67% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.
Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 15.7% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 3.8%) (benchmarks).
- Emma Howard Boydchair
- Alexander Lyman Reid
- Amy Clarke
- Assaad Wajdi Razzouk
- Champa Khimji Patel
- Dr KILAPARTI RAMAKRISHNA
- Hilary Frances Wild
- Justin Johnson · trustee of 1 other charity
- Rachel Wangechi Wanyoike
- Thomas Charles Rivett-Carnac
- WINSOME MCINTOSH
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Belgium · Bulgaria · China · Congo · Gabon · Ghana · Ivory Coast · Liberia · Poland · Spain · Throughout England And Wales
Income and spending
Common questions
Is CLIENTEARTH financially healthy?
Per its FY2024 accounts: The accounts state that the charity ended the year with a deficit of £1,750k, driven by one-off costs in the prior year and delayed programmatic spend. However, free unrestricted reserves stood at £9,753k, which is above the stated policy target of £6,358k, leading trustees to conclude there are no material uncertainties regarding going concern. Its FY2024 accounts were audited by Crowe U.K. LLP.
Who funds CLIENTEARTH?
Funders whose own accounts filings name CLIENTEARTH as a grant recipient include THE CHILDREN'S INVESTMENT FUND FOUNDATION (UK), AKO FOUNDATION, MONTPELIER FOUNDATION LIMITED, THE J VAN MARS FOUNDATION, The Global Returns Project Limited.
Known funders
Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.
Government & lottery funding
Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).
Funders of similar charities
Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.
Charities like this
Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with FRIENDS OF THE EARTH CHARITABLE TRUST.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.