THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON

Registered charity 208728 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as INSTITUTE OF ZOOLOGY, LONDON ZOO, WHIPSNADE WILD ANIMAL PARK, ZSL

To achieve and promote the conservation of animals and their habitats.

Causes: Education/training · Animals · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total income rose by 11% to £92.7m, driven by record Zoo visitors and increased conservation funding, while total expenditure increased to £90.9m due to higher staff costs and inflation. The charity reported a net income of £1.7m and held general reserves of £14.1m, which the Trustees note are above their policy minimum of £9m. Per the trustees' report, the financial situation is considered secure with adequate cash reserves to meet liabilities as they fall due.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by RSM UK Audit LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Corporate structure

• Trading subsidiary: ZOO ENTERPRISES LIMITED Companies House 01178687
• Registered company of the charity Companies House RC000749

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Zoological Society Of London (matched by registered charity number).

Property (HM Land Registry)

6 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (3 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Trustpilot: ZSL scores 3.3/5 from 73 reviews (source) — reviews usually concern the charity’s shops or services, not its charitable performance.

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/04/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~1.9 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (69% 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: 2.9% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.8%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (20/09/2019) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (08/07/2016) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Alexander Richard Brooks Large · trustee of 1 other charity
• David St John Jones
• Dr Karen Lawrence · trustee of 1 other charity
• Dr May Chiao
• Jonathan Cracknell · trustee of 1 other charity
• Loraine Woodhouse
• Nikhil Jal Engineer
• Professor James Cuthbert Smith FRS
• RICHARD JAMES SYKES · trustee of 1 other charity
• Richard Thomas Kimblin KC
• Shruti Ajitsaria

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

Operates in: Algeria · Angola · Argentina · Azerbaijan · Bangladesh · Belgium · Botswana · Brazil · British Indian Ocean Territory · Burkina Faso · Cameroon · Canada

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 THE NORTH OF ENGLAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

• THE NORTH OF ENGLAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY income £63.1m
• DUDLEY AND WEST MIDLANDS ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY LIMITED income £5.9m
• GLOUCESTERSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST income £6.1m
• NOAH'S ARK ZOO FARM income £4.8m
• WILD WELFARE income £283k
• NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WALES income £2.7m

Side by side with its peers

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