THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

Registered charity 249877 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q640771 · Wikipedia · also registered in Scotland as SC044850 (OSCR)

The promotion of the science of ornithology.

Objects

THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE SCIENCE OF ORNITHOLOGY

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: Animals · Environment/conservation/heritage · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Dorset, South West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity's financial position remains strong and stable, with unrestricted reserves of £722,923 at year-end. The trustees report a small net loss of £8,018, which they attribute to investment gains and specific grant expenditures, noting that day-to-day operations are supported by healthy profits from the IBIS journal. The trustees confirm adequate resources to continue as a going concern and maintain a policy of reducing unrestricted savings to fund charitable objectives.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Azets Audit Services. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

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.

• Complaints handling
• 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 vulnerable beneficiaries
• 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.

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

Trustees · trustee networks

• Dr Graeme Buchananchair
• Dr Alexander Lees
• Dr Catharine Horswill
• Dr Catriona Morrison
• Dr Hugh Lewis Wright
• Dr Lynda Donaldson
• Dr Mark Alexander Eaton
• Dr Mark James Eddowes
• Dr Natalia Barbara Zielonka
• Dr Rosamund Mary Whipple Green
• Dr Stuart Sharp
• Dr Tom Bradfer-Lawrence
• Professor Arjun Dev Amar
• Professor Emma Jane Ann Cunningham

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

Operates in: Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

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 BRITISH TRUST FOR ORNITHOLOGY.

• THE BRITISH TRUST FOR ORNITHOLOGY income £8.7m
• BRITISH ASSOCIATION OF UROLOGICAL NURSES income £531k
• THE BRITISH SOCIETY OF AUDIOLOGY income £130k
• BRITISH AND IRISH ORTHOPTIC SOCIETY income £677k
• BRITISH ORTHOPAEDIC ASSOCIATION income £3.4m
• THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR ORAL AND DENTAL RESEARCH income £68k

Side by side with its peers

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