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DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE

Registered charity 1062638 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as DEC, DEC SECRETARIAT, THE DEC

DEC brings together 15 of the UK's leading humanitarian agencies. At times of major humanitarian crisis, DEC works with its members, broadcast and other partners to launch a fundraising appeal to the UK public. The proceeds of each appeal are distributed to DEC's member agencies to enable them to deliver humanitarian programmes to help those most affected.

Causes: Overseas Aid/famine Relief · website · Get email alerts

Latest income
£40.8m
Latest spending
£48.3m
Registered
1997
Accounts read
FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity holds unrestricted reserves of £17.8 million, which exceeds its stated policy target of twelve months' core overhead costs (currently budgeted at £4.6 million). The trustees confirm that the charity has adequate financial resources and is well placed to manage business risks, with no material uncertainties regarding its ability to continue as a going concern.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Largest income source: Donations and legacies (69% of income)
“Total income received directly by the DEC including Gift Aid and bank interest for the year amounted to £50.8 million (2024: £32.9 million). Of this, the DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal (launched October 2024) raised £34.9m, the DEC Turkey- Syria Earthquake Appeal (launched February 2023) raised £0.7 million and the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal (launched March 2022) raised £6.8 million.” — page 21
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Fundraising cost ratio: 10.6% of fundraised income, as disclosed
“Total expenditure for the year amounted to £61.8 million (2024: £53.7 million), including £54.7 million (2024: £46.3 million) of appeal funds committed to DEC member charities for use towards humanitarian programmes and for collective initiative projects, £5.4 million (2024: £5.0 million) in costs of raising funds, and £1.7 million (2024: £1.8 million) of other costs.” — page 21
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Member charities made donations of £1,000k to the charity. In addition, £44,000 was collected in the year by member charities on behalf of the charity.
“The member charities made donations of £1,000k (2024: £1,000k) in the year to the charity. In addition, £44,000 (2024: £19,000) was collected in the year by member charities on behalf of the charity.” — page 35
“In the year DEC made payment of £nil (2024: £1,592k) to Social Development Direct (“SDD”), a consultancy acquired by Plan International UK (a DEC member) in 2020 as a social impact investment. All of SDD’s profits are donated to Plan International UK. Rose Caldwell, CEO of Plan International UK and trustee of the DEC, is a director of SDD.” — page 35
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Payment of £nil (2024: £1,592k) to Social Development Direct, a consultancy acquired by Plan International UK (a DEC member), where the CEO of Plan International UK is a director of the consultancy.
“The member charities made donations of £1,000k (2024: £1,000k) in the year to the charity. In addition, £44,000 (2024: £19,000) was collected in the year by member charities on behalf of the charity.” — page 35
“In the year DEC made payment of £nil (2024: £1,592k) to Social Development Direct (“SDD”), a consultancy acquired by Plan International UK (a DEC member) in 2020 as a social impact investment. All of SDD’s profits are donated to Plan International UK. Rose Caldwell, CEO of Plan International UK and trustee of the DEC, is a director of SDD.” — page 35
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: Grant of £276k from the Humanitarian Memorial Appeal, an unconstituted body run by a steering group including the DEC’s Chief Executive.
“The member charities made donations of £1,000k (2024: £1,000k) in the year to the charity. In addition, £44,000 (2024: £19,000) was collected in the year by member charities on behalf of the charity.” — page 35
“In the year DEC made payment of £nil (2024: £1,592k) to Social Development Direct (“SDD”), a consultancy acquired by Plan International UK (a DEC member) in 2020 as a social impact investment. All of SDD’s profits are donated to Plan International UK. Rose Caldwell, CEO of Plan International UK and trustee of the DEC, is a director of SDD.” — page 35
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Crowe U.K. LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.

In the news

Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Disasters Emergency Committee (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.

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold); recorded price paid £125k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (148,062 followers) · instagram (23K followers)

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 31/03/2026)

Total income
£40.8m
Total spending
£48.3m
Cost of raising funds
£6.6m
Reserves (reported)
£17.0m
Employees
41

Reported reserves equal ~4.2 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (90% 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: 16.2% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 3.8%) (benchmarks).

Register events

Trustees · trustee networks

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Camden

Income and spending

Financial year endIncomeSpending
31/03/2026£40.8m£48.3m
31/03/2025£50.8m£61.8m
31/03/2024£32.9m£53.7m
31/03/2023£215.7m£262.4m
31/03/2022£274.3m£180.4m

Common questions

Is DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity holds unrestricted reserves of £17.8 million, which exceeds its stated policy target of twelve months' core overhead costs (currently budgeted at £4.6 million). The trustees confirm that the charity has adequate financial resources and is well placed to manage business risks, with no material uncertainties regarding its ability to continue as a going concern. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Crowe U.K. LLP.

Who funds DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE?

Funders whose own accounts filings name DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE as a grant recipient include INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE, U.K, THE PENNIES FOUNDATION, GOFUNDME.ORG.UK, THE MASTER CHARITABLE TRUST, CHK Foundation.

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

FunderYearAmountPurpose (as stated by the funder)
INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE, U.KFY2023£150.0mPage 7 states: 'the IRC along with other leading charities raised 150 million GBP'. This is money raised by the DEC/IRC network, not a grant paid out by IRC UK
INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE, U.KFY2023£26.3mPage 22 states: 'Funding from these appeals totals £26,288,330.' This is income received by IRC UK from the DEC. Not a grant paid out.
THE PENNIES FOUNDATIONFY2022£804k
GOFUNDME.ORG.UKFY2022£635kDisasters Emergency Committee (DEC) - charity organisations providing humanitarian relief and bringing charities together to provide relief.
THE MASTER CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2022£388k
CHK FoundationFY2023£300k
THE QUILTER FOUNDATIONFY2022£231kAfghanistan, Ukraine, Pakistan, Syria/Turkey
BELRON RONNIE LUBNER CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONFY2023£221kGift of Giving
THE ROSELINE FOUNDATIONFY2023£200kTurkey Earthquake Appeal
PRISM THE GIFT FUNDFY2024£200kHumanitarian Aid
THE NFU MUTUAL CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2022£150k
BELRON RONNIE LUBNER CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONFY2024£125k
THE PAYBACK TIME TRUSTFY2025£111k
THE SOUTH STREET GREEN ROOM FOUNDATIONFY2022£100kUkraine Humanitarian Appeal
THE TUIXEN FOUNDATIONFY2023£100k
THE SOUTH STREET GREEN ROOM FOUNDATIONFY2024£100k
THE BROOK TRUSTFY2022£70k
THE SHANLY FOUNDATIONFY2023£60k
THE TANLAW FOUNDATIONFY2023£52kOverseas Aid
THE RAYNE FOUNDATIONFY2022£50kTowards DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
THE SOUTH STREET GREEN ROOM FOUNDATIONFY2023£50kTurkey-Syria Appeal following the devastating earthquake in February 2023
MONTPELIER FOUNDATION LIMITEDFY2024£50k
THE AJS CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2024£50k
COLONEL W H WHITBREAD CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2023£50kGrants, Other
THE A TEAM FOUNDATION LIMITEDFY2022£50k
CHK FoundationFY2023£50k
THE BROOK TRUSTFY2023£50k
THE AJS CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2022£50k
THE HISCOX FOUNDATIONFY2024£49k
BC Partners FoundationFY2023£46k
THE CHARIS TRUSTFY2023£44kCoronavirus Appeal
DAVID AND ELAINE POTTER FOUNDATIONFY2022£40kNon-Strategic
THE ROBERT GAVRON CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2022£37k
Howden FoundationFY2023£34kTurkey-Syria Earthquakes support
THE HOSKING CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2025£30k
WATES FAMILY ENTERPRISE TRUSTFY2022£30kGroup Awards (DEC Ukraine)
THE 29TH MAY 1961 CHARITYFY2022£30ksupporting victims of war in Ukraine
THE 29TH MAY 1961 CHARITYFY2022£30kcosts of supporting victims of the war in Ukraine
THE HAWTHORNE CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2022£25kGrants to other charitable institutions
THE QUILTER FOUNDATIONFY2025£25kMyanmar Earthquake
THE BARRY AND PEGGY HIGH FOUNDATIONFY2022£25k
THE RAYNE TRUSTFY2023£25kTowards DEC Appeal for Turkey-Syria Earthquake
THE SHANLY FOUNDATIONFY2022£20k
THE BROOK TRUSTFY2025£20k
THE CRUCIBLE FOUNDATIONFY2025£20k
MARTIN CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2023£20k
THE AJS CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2023£20k
DELVES CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2022£19kDonation
THE PENNIES FOUNDATIONFY2024£16k
THE MRS L D ROPE THIRD CHARITABLE SETTLEMENTFY2025£15kTo support the Middle East Humanitarian Appeal.

Government & lottery funding

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

FunderDateAmountPurpose
Foundation Scotland25/09/2025£15kGrant to Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)
Community Foundation North East30/06/2022£1kGrant to Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Appeal
Community Foundation North East14/04/2022£750Grant to Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Appeal
Foundation Scotland14/03/2022£5kEmergency support to Ukraine
UK government01/04/2018£4.0mUK Aid Match Funding for the Disasters Emergency Committee DEC Cyclone Idai Appeal 2019
UK government01/04/2018£2.0mUK Aid Match Funding for the Disasters Emergency Committee DEC Indonesia Tsunami Appeal 2018
UK government—£130kFinancial Assistance/Support

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.

FunderSimilar charities fundedAmount to them
ISSA FOUNDATION1£415k
OVE ARUP PARTNERSHIP CHARITABLE TRUST1£11k
SSP FOUNDATION1£3k
THE BIRMINGHAM MOSQUE TRUST LIMITED1£0

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with EDHI INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION UK.

Side by side with its peers

CharityIncomeTop pay bandStaff >£60kReserves vs policyFundraising costGoing concern
DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE£40.8m——unclear10.6%no doubt
EDHI INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION UK FY2024£6.3m—0above—no doubt
FUNDACAO FOCUS ASSISTENCIA HUMANITARIA EUROPA FY2024£3.3m——above—no doubt
THE UNITED KINGDOM ISLAMIC MISSION FY2025£14.6mmore than £60,0001unclear—no doubt
BEING HUMANITARIAN FY2025£117k—0below—no doubt
INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN RELIEF FY2024£406k—0unclear—no doubt

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