ROYAL COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND

Registered charity 207544 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · 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.

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

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.

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 2.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 8.4% of total income — above the median for charities its size (2.9%) (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 · trustee of 1 other charity
• 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.

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 VISION ACTION.

• VISION ACTION income £880k
• SIGHT CYMRU income £558k
• SIGHT RESEARCH UK income £871k
• THE RIDLEY FOUNDATION income £318k
• WILTSHIRE BLIND ASSOCIATION income £222k
• AL BASAR INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION income £18.6m

Side by side with its peers

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