THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION

Registered charity 209603 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q2166873 · Wikipedia · also known as LIFEBOATS, RNLI, ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE FROM SHIPWRECK, ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE FROM SHIPWRECK · also registered in Scotland as SC037736 (OSCR)

To save lives, promote safety and rescue service efficiency, and provide relief from disaster at sea and on inland and flood waters; to advance the education of the public in matters relating to sea, inland and flood water safety, and in the history and heritage of the Institution; to relieve/assist those who have been involved in saving lives at sea and on inland and flood waters in any capacity.

Objects

3. THE OBJECT OF THE INSTITUTION ("THE OBJECT") SHALL BE TO SAVE LIVES AT SEA AND ON INLAND AND FLOOD WATERS. IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE THE OBJECT, THE POWERS OF THE INSTITUTION SHALL WITHOUT LIMITATION INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:3.1 TO PROMOTE SAFETY AND PROVIDE RELIEF FROM DISASTER AT SEA AND ON INLAND AND FLOOD WATERS;3.2 TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC IN MATTERS RELATING TO SAFETY AT SEA AND ON INLAND AND FLOOD WATERS AND IN THE HISTORY AND HERITAGE OF THE INSTITUTION;3.3 TO PROMOTE THE EFFICIENCY OF RESCUE SERVICES AT SEA AND ON INLAND AND FLOOD WATERS; AND3.4 TO RELIEVE AND ASSIST THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN SAVING LIVES AT SEA AND ON INLAND AND FLOOD WATERS IN ANY CAPACITY AND WHO ARE IN NEED OF SUCH RELIEF OR ASSISTANCE BY REASON OF POVERTY, DISABILITY, INFIRMITY OR OTHERWISE, AND THE DEPENDENTS.

Area of benefit: PRIMARILY BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY IN AND AROUND THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, THE ISLE OF MAN, THE CHANNEL ISLANDS AND THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND.

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

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, South West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity's financial position is stable, with total net income increasing by 15% to £234.0M and consolidated net assets rising to £867.6M. Free reserves stood at £149.8M, representing 8.7 months of charitable expenditure, which is within the Trustees' policy target of 4–10 months. The Trustees are satisfied that the charity has sufficient resources to continue operating for at least 12 months from the date of signing.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by BDO LLP. Discloses 6 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Employees paid over £60,000: 138 (FY2024) → 125 (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

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
• 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
• 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.

Corporate structure

• Trading subsidiary: CLAYTON ENGINEERING LIMITED Companies House 01274923
• Trading subsidiary: RNLI COLLEGE LIMITED Companies House 07705470
• Registered company of the charity Companies House RC000503

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Peter Sparkes — Chief Executive (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.

Public-sector contracts awarded

From the official Contracts Finder and Find a Tender notices (supplier matched by exact registered name). Contract income is distinct from grants.

UK research funding (UKRI Gateway to Research)

• OptiMar —

Property (HM Land Registry)

287 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (96 freehold); recorded price paid £4.6m. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Trustpilot: RNLI scores 2.0/5 from 207 reviews (source) — reviews usually concern the charity’s shops or services, not its charitable performance.

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

Reported reserves equal ~7.0 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 2.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 18.4% of total income — above the median for charities its size (3.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (21/07/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (30/03/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (27/03/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (23/03/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (02/03/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (01/10/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Janet Legrandchair · trustee of 3 other charities
• Breno Gentil
• David Miles Smith · trustee of 1 other charity
• Denis Woulfe OBE
• Dr John James Killeen
• Dr Philip Goodwin
• Fiona Catherine Fell
• Jamshaid Islam · trustee of 1 other charity
• Janet Ann Pamment
• Joanna Danton
• Mark Gregory Wordsworth · trustee of 1 other charity
• Paddy McLaughlin
• Simon Christopher Bowen

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

Operates in: Bangladesh · Guernsey · Ireland · Isle Of Man · Jersey · Northern Ireland · Scotland · Tanzania · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Shared trustees with funders

Register facts shown side by side: a person serves as trustee of both this charity and a funder whose accounts record grants to it. Shared trusteeship is lawful and common; well-run charities manage it through declared-interest procedures.

• Jamshaid Islam — trustee here and at RNLI LIFESAVING ENDOWMENT
• Janet Legrand — trustee here and at RNLI LIFESAVING ENDOWMENT
• Mark Gregory Wordsworth — trustee here and at RNLI LIFESAVING ENDOWMENT

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 LIFE SAVING SOCIETY - U.K..

• THE ROYAL LIFE SAVING SOCIETY - U.K. income £6.7m
• THE ROYAL NAVY AND ROYAL MARINES CHARITY income £16.2m
• ROYAL INSTITUTION OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS income £1.9m
• THE NAUTICAL INSTITUTE income £6.9m
• SURF LIFE SAVING GREAT BRITAIN income £761k
• THE RIVERS TRUST income £10.5m

Side by side with its peers

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