SOLAR AID

Registered charity 1115960 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

SolarAid combats poverty and climate change by providing access to solar lights in Africa to help catalyse solar markets and eradicate the kerosene lamp. We have created a social enterprise, SunnyMoney, who sell lights via sustainable school networks and local enterprises.

Causes: Education/training · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Environment/conservation/heritage · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total income increased by 48% to £3.7 million, while total expenditure decreased by 4% to £3.7 million, resulting in a net incoming resource of £7k. The charity's free reserves stood at £195k, which is below the stated policy target of £400k, following the cessation of a longstanding corporate donation. The trustees concluded that the charity has adequate resources to continue as a going concern for the foreseeable future.

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

What the accounts disclose

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

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Nick Pearson — Chief Executive Officer (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).

• RS Group — “RS Group and SolarAid are partnering to bring safe solar light to 150,000 people across rural Africa. Over the next three years, through cor…” (source page)
• Astro Lighting — “Since 2022, British lighting company Astro Lighting have committed to supporting SolarAid by providing funds and sharing their expertise to…” (source page)
• The ERM Foundation — “The ERM Foundation is excited to be providing grant funding for SolarAid’s Mayi Walas project to support the solar entrepreneur groups from …” (source page)
• Nomad Exhibitions — “As part of their commitment to promote sustainable development and reduce fossil fuel use, Nomad Exhibitions provide financial support, valu…” (source page)
• Pinwheel — “Pinwheel supports SolarAid through their tech platform, supporting businesses to take sustainable action and support our mission, whilst eng…” (source page)
• EDF Renewables — “EDF Renewables is passionate about creating a clean energy future and are proud to support SolarAid’s game-changing Light a Village Initiati…” (source page)
• Statkraft — ““SolarAid is a fantastic organisation with a sustainable and scalable solution that is improving the lives of over 10 million people living …” (source page)

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~0.8 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (52% 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 5.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (05/08/2022) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Lionel Marumahokochair
• Chris Austin · trustee of 2 other charities
• Emma Colenbrander
• Jamal Gore
• John Faulks
• Mirjana Skrba
• Ujunwa Ojemeni

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

Operates in: Malawi · Zambia

Income and spending

Common questions

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 AID4ACTION.

• AID4ACTION income £108k
• Ashden Climate Solutions income £7.4m
• THE AFRICA TRUST income £1.6m
• SOS AFRICA income £992k
• CHALLENGEAID income £126k
• ACT ON ENERGY income £4.7m

Side by side with its peers

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