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

Latest income
£26.5m
Latest spending
£29.2m
Registered
1996
Accounts read
FY2024

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

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).

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.

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)

Total income
£26.5m
Total spending
£29.2m
Cost of raising funds
£4.1m
Reserves (reported)
£9.8m
Employees
291

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).

Trustees · trustee networks

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

Financial year endIncomeSpending
31/12/2024£26.5m£29.2m
31/12/2023£29.4m£35.2m
31/12/2022£30.9m£28.1m
31/12/2021£28.3m£21.6m
31/12/2020£20.8m£16.9m

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.

FunderYearAmountPurpose (as stated by the funder)
THE CHILDREN'S INVESTMENT FUND FOUNDATION (UK)FY2022£7.5mClimate Change
AKO FOUNDATIONFY2022£2.5mLegal advocacy
THE CHILDREN'S INVESTMENT FUND FOUNDATION (UK)FY2023£618kClimate Change
MONTPELIER FOUNDATION LIMITEDFY2021£350k
THE J VAN MARS FOUNDATIONFY2024£300k
THE J VAN MARS FOUNDATIONFY2025£300k
The Global Returns Project LimitedFY2026£256kLegal action against polluters
AKO FOUNDATIONFY2022£250kLegal advocacy for environmental rights
THE J VAN MARS FOUNDATIONFY2022£238k
THE TOLKIEN TRUSTFY2023£155k
LUCILLE FOUNDATIONFY2024£150ksupport core costs
LUCILLE FOUNDATIONFY2023£150kto support core costs. ClientEarth uses the power of the law to combat climate change and pollution, secure peoples’ environmental rights and protect and restor
LUCILLE FOUNDATIONFY2022£150kto support core costs. ClientEarth uses the power of the law to combat climate change and pollution, secure peoples’ environmental rights and protect and restor
LUCILLE FOUNDATIONFY2025£150kto support core costs. ClientEarth uses the power of the law to combat climate change and pollution, secure peoples’ environmental rights and protect and restor
THE SAVITRI WANEY CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2023£100kEnvironmental Health - Toxics, chemicals and pollution
THE SAVITRI WANEY CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2022£100kPlastics and harmful chemicals legal team
THE SAVITRI WANEY CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2025£100kStopping Harmful Chemicals
HARTSWOOD TRUSTFY2023£100k
JOHN ELLERMAN FOUNDATIONFY2022£100kTowards the costs of their UK Clean Air Programme.
THE SAVITRI WANEY CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2024£100kGrants to institutions
JOHN ELLERMAN FOUNDATIONFY2025£100kTowards core costs associated with UK clean air work
THE MARK LEONARD TRUSTFY2022£83kTowards the employment of a lawyer within the Climate Finance Initiative.
THE AURORA TRUSTFY2025£83kA three-year grant to support for the Accountable Finance team
THE J J CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2025£83kAccountable Finance team
THE J J CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2022£83kTowards to fund a lawyer within the Climate Finance Initiative
Tinsley Charitable TrustFY2022£79k
The Global Returns Project LimitedFY2025£71kEnvironmental law
LEVINE FAMILY FOUNDATIONFY2025£70k
EARTHPERCENTFY2024£65kLaunching new cases including greenwashing lawsuit against BlackRock and action against Germany.
THE AURORA TRUSTFY2025£54kA two-year grant (£26,680 in 2024/25 and £27,347 in 2025/26) to run a Judicial Training Programme for judges across Asia
THE RISMAN FOUNDATIONFY2025£50kInnovation Lab for legal interventions
LEVINE FAMILY FOUNDATIONFY2024£50k
EARTHPERCENTFY2023£50kLegal & Policy Change
THE TOLKIEN TRUSTFY2022£50k
HARTSWOOD TRUSTFY2024£50k
The Global Returns Project LimitedFY2024£49k
Tinsley Charitable TrustFY2023£45k
THE AURORA TRUSTFY2024£40kTowards a lawyer within Client Earth’s forests team
THE RISMAN FOUNDATIONFY2024£40kEnvironment
10 % For The OceanFY2023£38k
THE AURORA TRUSTFY2022£38kTowards the costs of a new lawyer in its forest litigation team.
THE AURORA TRUSTFY2023£38kTo contribute to the costs of a new lawyer in its forest litigation team.
JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOUNDATIONFY2023£36kHidden wiring - wealth and law
The Global Returns Project LimitedFY2023£33k
THE J J CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2025£31kTo scope a legal action using the European Social Charter
THE AURORA TRUSTFY2025£31kTo scope a legal action using the European Social Charter
THE PICKWELL FOUNDATIONFY2025£30kClimate accountability work
THE AURORA TRUSTFY2022£28kTo fund a lawyer within the Climate Finance Initiative.
THE AURORA TRUSTFY2024£28kTo fund a lawyer within the Climate Finance Initiative
The Global Returns Project LimitedFY2022£27kClimate focused workstreams

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

FunderDateAmountPurpose
Greenwood Place01/12/2025£30kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/12/2025£150kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/03/2025£50kGrant to ClientEarth
Postcode Lottery25/02/2025£1.8mRegular Grant 2025
Greenwood Place01/01/2025£450kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/12/2024£150kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/08/2024£40kGrant to ClientEarth
UK government01/04/2024£194kDARCC048: Building legal capacity to improve forest management in Liberia
Greenwood Place01/03/2024£50kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/01/2024£450kGrant to ClientEarth
Postcode Lottery01/12/2023£1.5mRegular Grant 2024
Greenwood Place01/12/2023£150kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/08/2023£20kGrant to ClientEarth
Postcode Lottery07/02/2023£1.6mRegular Grant 2023
Greenwood Place01/01/2023£350kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/12/2022£150kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/08/2022£50kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place29/03/2022£50kGrant to ClientEarth
Postcode Lottery10/02/2022£1.5mRegular Grant 2022
Greenwood Place01/01/2022£150kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/12/2021£150kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/01/2021£50kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/12/2020£150kGrant to ClientEarth
Greenwood Place01/12/2019£100kGrant to ClientEarth
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, UK Branch23/03/2017£50kClient Earth

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

CharityIncomeTop pay bandStaff >£60kReserves vs policyFundraising costGoing concern
CLIENTEARTH£26.5m——unclear—no doubt
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH CHARITABLE TRUST FY2025£15.3m——above15.3%no doubt
EARTH TRUST FY2025£2.6m——unclear—no doubt
EARTH CHARITABLE FOUNDATION FY2024£417k—0unclear—no doubt
INITIATIVE EARTH FY2024£375k—0unclear—no doubt
EARTHPERCENT FY2024£917k—0unclear—no doubt

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.