WATERAID

Registered charity 288701 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q139813121 · also known as WATER AID · also registered in Scotland as SC039479 (OSCR)

WaterAid is an international not-for-profit, determined to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. Only by tackling these three essentials in ways that last can people change their lives for good.

Objects

1.1 The objects for which the Charity is established are, for the public benefit:1.1.1 to relieve poverty and suffering in any part of the world through (i) the improvement of water supplies, sanitation and hygiene services, and (ii) providing advice on related health matters; and 1.1.2 to advance education concerning the nature, causes and effects of such poverty and suffering related to inadequate water supplies, sanitation and/or hygiene services. 1.2 Nothing in the objects shall authorise an application of property for purposes which are not charitable in accordance with s.7 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.

Area of benefit: WORLDWIDE

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

Causes: The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Overseas Aid/famine Relief · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity ended the year with an unrestricted deficit of £4.6m, reducing its general income fund to £19m. This balance is above the trustees' stated target range of £13m to £17m. The trustees maintain that the charity has sufficient liquid resources to continue as a going concern for at least 18 months.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. 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.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• 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

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 01787329
• Trading subsidiary: WATERAID TRADING LIMITED Companies House 02362892 · Financial health read from its filings

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — WaterAid (matched by registered charity number).

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• CHANDA, Osward Mulenga — director, appointed 16/09/2025on trustee list
• MORRIS, Richard James — director, appointed 16/09/2025on trustee list
• JEFFERSON, Ruth Esme — director, appointed 16/09/2025on trustee list
• AL-KHATIB, Hind — director, appointed 16/09/2025on trustee list
• DAYAL, Ashvin — director, appointed 11/07/2023on trustee list
• PERTWEE, Nina Marta — director, appointed 11/07/2023on trustee list
• NAIR, Sanjay — director, appointed 11/07/2023on trustee list
• KAMAL, Simi Sadaf — director, appointed 11/07/2023on trustee list
• GREEN, Andrew James — director, appointed 09/10/2020on trustee list
• WILD, Hilary Frances — director, appointed 11/10/2019on trustee list
• CLARK, Alyson Margaret — director, appointed 11/10/2019on trustee list
• SCHMIDT-TRAUB, Guido, Dr — director, appointed 11/10/2019on trustee list
• WAINWRIGHT, Timothy John — secretary, appointed 15/05/2017

Official officers record.

UK research funding (UKRI Gateway to Research)

• Effect of urban vs rural context on effectiveness of a community intervention to prevent diarrhoea and stunting in young children in Mali —
• Water stressed cities: individual choice, access to water and pathways to resilience in sub-Saharan Africa —
• Project Fair - Expanding At Scale —
• Institutions for Urban Poor's Access to Ecosystem Services: A Comparison of Green and Water Structures in Bangladesh and Tanzania —
• A Hidden Crisis: unravelling current failures for future success in rural groundwater supply —
• Water stressed cities: individual choice, access to water and pathways to resilience in sub-Saharan Africa —
• RECIRCULATE: Driving eco-innovation in africa: capacity-building for a safe circular water economy —
• Building understanding of climate variability into planning of groundwater supplies from low storage aquifers in Africa - Second Phase (BRAVE2) —

Electoral Commission register entries

Entries on the Electoral Commission’s public register where this charity (or its company) appears as the source — typically sponsorship of an APPG or an overseas visit provided to an MP, which charities may lawfully do. Shown with the Commission’s own reference; this is a transparency record, not an allegation.

• Visit: Ms Lisa Nandy MP (MP - Member of Parliament) — £4k · 16/09/2023 · New York. · ref V0572343
  To attend meetings and events hosted as part of the UN General Assembly, including events on SDGs, climate and high level meetings on health.

Trustpilot: WaterAid scores 1.8/5 from 86 reviews (source) — reviews usually concern the charity’s shops or services, not its charitable performance.

Advertised salaries (public job ads)

Roles this charity has advertised on CharityJob, matched on the exact employer name. A different source from the statutory pay bands above: these are asking salaries for vacancies, not what anyone was paid.

• Supporter Relationship Manager — £47,423 per year · Canary Wharf (Hybrid) · posted 2 weeks ago (seen 21/08/2026)
• Senior Marketing Officer - Supporter Activation — £41,325 per year · London (On-site) · posted 1 week ago (seen 21/08/2026)
• Global Head of Assurance · Hybrid work in London
• Global Head of Assurance · Hybrid work in London
• Global Communications Lead — 61,645 · Multiple Locations (Hybrid) · posted 1 week ago (seen 21/08/2026)

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

Reported reserves equal ~2.3 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 28.1% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 3.7%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (05/06/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (10/12/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (06/12/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (14/08/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (17/07/2023) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (15/11/2022) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• ANDREW JAMES GREENchair · trustee of 1 other charity
• Alyson Margaret Clark
• Ashvin Dayal
• Dr Guido Schmidt-Traub · trustee of 1 other charity
• Hilary Frances Wild
• Hind Al-Khatib
• Nina Marta Pertwee
• Osward Mulenga Chanda
• Richard James Morris
• Ruth Esme Jefferson
• Sanjay Nair
• Simi Sadaf Kamal

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

Operates in: Bangladesh · Burkina Faso · Ethiopia · Ghana · Kenya · Liberia · Madagascar · Malawi · Mali · Mozambique · Nepal · Nigeria

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 WATERAID INTERNATIONAL.

• WATERAID INTERNATIONAL income £915k
• WasteAid income £971k
• WATER FOR KIDS income £128k
• GRIFAID income £54k
• VILLAGE WATER LIMITED income £1.5m
• ACTIONAID income £47.6m

Side by side with its peers

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