ROYAL COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND

Registered charity 207544 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q7512119 · Wikipedia · also known as SIGHT SAVERS, SIGHTSAVERS, SIGHTSAVERS INTERNATIONAL · also registered in Scotland as SC038110 (OSCR)

Seventy five per cent of blindness in the world is either avoidable or treatable. Sightsavers works with partners in developing countries to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. Our work alleviates poverty among poor and marginalised communities and thus helps to realise the internationally accepted Millenium Development Goals.

Objects

(A) THE PREVENTION AND CURE OF BLINDNESS AND THE EDUCATION ,REHABILITATION ,TRAINING, AND EMPLOYMENT OF THE BLIND IN THE AREA OF BENEFIT. (B) TO FOSTER COLLABORATION AMONG ORGANISATIONS CONCERNED WITH BLINDNESS AND ITS PREVENTION AND TO PROMOTE AND WHERE APPROPRIATE TO PARTICIPATE IN NATIONAL REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES LIKELY TO PREVENT BLINDNESS AND BENEFIT THE BLIND IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD.

Area of benefit: DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WITHIN AND OUTSIDE THE COMMONWEALTH

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 Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Disability · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Overseas Aid/famine Relief · Economic/community Development/employment · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Mid Sussex, South East, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that Sightsavers ended 2025 with total fund balances of £59.7 million, comprising £27.9 million in unrestricted funds. Although the charity reported an overall net deficit of £4.0 million for the year, the trustees believe the current level of reserves is appropriate and prudent, noting that unrestricted general reserves cover approximately ten months of general charitable unrestricted expenditures. The financial plan projects a partial utilization of general reserves to align with the policy range by the middle of the 2026-2028 period.

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.

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
• 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
• Investing charity funds 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

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.

In the news

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

• Interpretation of Wills under s21 of the Administration of Justice Act 1982: a recent example Beasant v Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind and Others (2022) hja.net · 16/11/2022

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House RC000706

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 — “We partner with charities that have a clear and focused objective. Sightsavers’ position as a sector leader on eye health and disability rig…” (source page)

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.

Trustpilot: Sightsavers scores 2.2/5 from 46 reviews (source) — reviews usually concern the charity’s shops or services, not its charitable performance.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): instagram (9,702 followers)

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

Reported reserves equal ~1.2 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 2.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 8.4% of total income — above the median for charities its size (3.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (05/06/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (15/11/2022) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (14/05/2021) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (15/02/2021) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (21/12/2020) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (16/02/2017) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• CLIVE JONES CBEchair
• ABIA AKRAM
• Brian Morris Dawson
• DAVID LOUIS TAYLOR
• Dr Francis Vijay Narasimhan Rangarajan
• Dr Henry Nkumbe
• Dr Margaret Gyapong
• Dr Subramanian Garimella
• Elaine Lee
• JOY HUTCHEON
• Pratik Vijaykumar Patel
• Professor Tuwani Adel Rasengane
• William Kendall

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

Operates in: Bangladesh · Benin · Burkina Faso · Cameroon · Chad · Congo · Congo (Democratic Republic) · Ethiopia · Ghana · Guinea · Guinea-bissau · India

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

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

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

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 THE ROYAL SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND.

• THE ROYAL SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND income £36.5m
• SOUTHAMPTON SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND income £205k
• THE ROYAL SOCIETY FOR BLIND CHILDREN income £4.5m
• New Sight U.K. income £32k
• DORSET BLIND ASSOCIATION income £1.3m
• THE PARTIALLY SIGHTED SOCIETY income £410k

Side by side with its peers

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