THE ROYAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BLIND PEOPLE

Registered charity 226227 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q7374516 · Wikipedia · also known as RNIB, THE ROYAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF THE BLIND · also registered in Scotland as SC039316 (OSCR)

RNIB is the UK's leading charity offering information, support and advice to over two million people with sight problems. Our work helps anyone with a sight problem - with braille, Talking Books, education and imaginative and practical solutions to everyday challenges. We fight for equal rights for people with sight problems. Contact the Helpline on 0303 123 9999 or visit www.rnib.org.uk

Objects

TO PROMOTE THE BETTER EDUCATION, TRAINING, EMPLOYMENT AND WELFARE OF BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED PEOPLE AND GENERALLY TO WATCH OVER AND PROTECT THE INTERESTS OF BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED PEOPLE AND TO PREVENT BLINDNESS.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

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 · Accommodation/housing · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Amateur Sport · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Islington, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that RNIB delivered a net operating surplus of £0.5m after transformation costs, with free reserves of £57.4m standing above the approved target range of £42.6m to £53.9m. Per the trustees' report, liquidity was £39.6m, and the charity confirmed there is no material uncertainty regarding its ability to continue as a going concern.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by BDO LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Reserves position vs the charity's own policy moved from "within" (FY2024) to "above" (FY2025).

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

In its annual return the charity told the Commission it is also regulated by: Care Quality Commission; Ofsted (Office For Standards In Education). This is the charity’s own declaration; it is not a rating and has not been verified by the Commission or 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.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 1 was received after the due date: year ending 31/03/2023 (received 02/02/2024, 2 days after the 31/01/2024 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. 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).

• Royal National Institute of Blind People Appoints VCCP Blue as Lead Creative Agency — LBB - LBB lbbonline.com · 28/10/2026
• 60 seconds: Amelia Burton, Royal National Institute of Blind People citywealthmag.com · 22/10/2025
• Royal National Institute of Blind People makes the UK more accessible with Microsoft Azure AI microsoft.com · 01/10/2024
• WIPO’s Accessible Books Consortium Hits One Million Titles with Royal National Institute of Blind People Partnership wipo.int · 02/07/2024
• How the Royal National Institute of Blind People found a dedicated accessibility partner in Sprout sproutsocial.com · 02/02/2024
• Royal National Institute of Blind People offering free audio and Braille books this World Book Day thebookseller.com · 01/03/2023
• Samsung’s latest Smart TV range awarded Accreditation by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the UK news.samsung.com · 15/11/2022
• Nationwide cards certified by Royal National Institute of Blind People finextra.com · 04/08/2021

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House RC000500

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — RNIB - Royal National Institute of Blind People (matched by registered charity number).

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.

Property (HM Land Registry)

15 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (9 freehold); recorded price paid £14.7m. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

CQC provider record: Royal National Institute of Blind People — Deregistered, 8 registered locations, last inspected 19/10/2021.charity number confirmed by CQC CQC record

CQC provider record: The Royal National Institute Of Blind People — Deregistered, 10 registered locations, last inspected 07/10/2014.charity number confirmed by CQC CQC record

Trustpilot: RNIB scores 2.0/5 from 26 reviews (source) — reviews usually concern the charity’s shops or services, not its charitable performance.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (88,240 likes) · instagram (25K followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~6.3 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 21.6% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 3.7%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (20/10/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (20/06/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (13/02/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (20/08/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (07/03/2023) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (02/03/2023) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Andrew Barry
• Andrew McCracken
• Anna Tylor
• Anouschka Elliott
• Barry Hoffman
• Graham Colbert
• Mary Elliott
• Nigel Fletcher
• Sir James Alan Harra
• Zayna Ali

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

Operates in: Isle Of Man · Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

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 NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR DEAF PEOPLE.

• THE ROYAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR DEAF PEOPLE income £14.2m
• THE ROYAL SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND income £36.5m
• ACTION FOR BLIND PEOPLE income £5.9m
• THE BIRMINGHAM ROYAL INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND income £1.0m
• RETINA UK income £1.7m
• FIGHT AGAINST BLINDNESS - FAB income £176k

Side by side with its peers

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