ROOM TO READ UK LIMITED

Registered charity 1125803 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Room to Read's goal is to create a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality. We help children in low-income communities develop literacy skills and a habit of reading, and support girls to build skills to succeed in school and negotiate key life decisions. We have benefitted more than 50 million children across 28 countries.

Objects

THE RELIEF OF POVERTY BY THE PROVISION OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND FACILITIES INCLUDING BOOKS, SCHOOLS, SCHOLARSHIPS, TRAINING, CAPACITY BUILDING AND OTHER GOODS, EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES CALCULATED TO RELIEVE SUCH NEEDS, IN COOPERATION WITH OTHER ROOM TO READ OFFICES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD ('THE OBJECTS').

Area of benefit: UNDEFINED. IN PRACTICE, OVERSEAS.

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: City of London, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net expenditure of £894,488 for the year ended 31 December 2025, resulting in a decrease in total funds from £2,099,074 to £1,204,586. Unrestricted reserves stood at £173,994, which the trustees confirmed meets the policy requirement to cover at least three months of UK office costs. The trustees and auditors both concluded that the charity has adequate resources to continue as a going concern.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by The Grant Considine Partnership. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Room To Read (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Dr. Geetha Murali — Chief Executive Officer (source)
• Heather Simpson — Chief Program Officer (source)
• Laurie McMahon — Chief Development and Communications Officer (source)
• Shari Freedman — Chief Financial Officer (source)
• Michael Bowers — Chief Program Implementation Officer (source)
• Cynthia Orme — Chief People and Technology 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).

• Dutch Postcode Lottery — “Dutch Postcode Lottery selects Room to Read for a three year €500,000 grant” (source page)

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~0.8 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 16.2% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• DEAN HOWARD CHANchair
• DOUGLAS HILL
• Heather Simpson
• MR MARTYN CHRISTOPHER GOWAR · trustee of 1 other charity
• Shari Lynn Freedman

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

Operates in: Bangladesh · Burma · Cambodia · Grenada · Honduras · India · Indonesia · Jordan · Kenya · Laos · Lebanon · Malawi

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

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

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 READ FOR GOOD.

• READ FOR GOOD income £1.5m
• ASSISTED READING FOR CHILDREN income £199k
• READ - THE READING AGENCY income £2.8m
• THE READER ORGANISATION income £4.6m
• READING EDUCATION TRUST income £1.1m
• 'LEARN TO LOVE TO READ' income £169k

Side by side with its peers

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