THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON

Registered charity 220509 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The Society's Royal Charter 1802 states the purpose as 'The Cultivation of the Science of Natural History in all its branches'. We have three key charitable activities:1) safeguarding and promoting our heritage collections; 2) advancing scientific knowledge and understanding; 3) engaging the public and educational outreach. Our vision is a world where nature is understood, valued and protected.

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted funds stood at £8,646,802 at the end of 2025, with a general reserve of £3,587,012 held to support day-to-day activities and safeguard against income declines. The Trustees consider the current reserve level reasonable given uncertainties, though they note that publishing income is expected to reduce in 2026 as one-off benefits cease, leading to a budgeted break-even position.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Knox Cropper LLP. Discloses 6 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Employees paid over £60,000: 2 (FY2024) → 1 (FY2025).

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

Property (HM Land Registry)

2 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold); recorded price paid £25.0m. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

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

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

Reported reserves equal ~24.4 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (91% 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: 1.2% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Dr Mark Francis Watsonchair
• Andrea Hart
• Dr Heather White
• Dr Jose Fernando Gonzalez-Maya
• Dr Juliano Morimoto
• Dr Linda Davies
• Dr Peter Gregory · trustee of 1 other charity
• Dr Philip Mark Gilmartin
• Edward Joseph Banks · trustee of 1 other charity
• Fiona McWilliams · trustee of 1 other charity
• George Edmund Bull
• Prof Amy Dickman
• Professor Michael Francis Fay
• Subhadra Das

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

Operates in: Throughout England

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 ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN.

• THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN income £9.8m
• BRITISH LICHEN SOCIETY income £144k
• THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON FOR IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE (COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE ROYAL SOCIETY) income £157.6m
• THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON income £6.1m
• THE ROYAL PHILATELIC SOCIETY, LONDON income £803k
• CAMBRIDGE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY income £988k

Side by side with its peers

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