UK Charity Commission Register Scraper

Search the official Register of Charities for England and Wales, published by the Charity Commission at register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk. Find charities by name, charity number, objects/activities or classification, filter by income, expenditure, employee-benefit bands, area of operation and more, or fetch a complete charity record — trustees, financial history, governance details, filed accounts and contact information — by exact charity number.

This is the same public register used to verify whether an organisation is a registered charity, check its latest accounts and trustees, or research charities working in a particular cause area or region. No login, no cookies, no paid proxy required.

What this actor does

• Two modes:
  • search — free-text keyword search (charity name, charity number, objects/activities, classifications, area of operation) with extensive filters
  • byCharityNumber — exact lookup by registered charity number, returning the full public record
• Rich filtering on search: registration status (registered/removed, with linked-charity and registration/removal date ranges), income and expenditure range, overdue-filings flag, employee-benefit bands, charitable classification (what the charity does / who it helps / how it helps), grant-making flag, and area of operation — nationally, by English local authority, London borough, Welsh local authority, or overseas country (200+ countries plus Scotland and Northern Ireland)
• Full charity record on byCharityNumber: overview & activities, income/expenditure, trustees, registration history, governing document and charitable objects, financial history by year, filed annual returns/accounts (with direct PDF download links), and contact details
• Global area-of-operation coverage — filter by any of ~200 countries a charity operates in, not just UK-based charities
• No login, no cookies, no paid proxy — reads the Charity Commission's public register pages directly
• Empty fields are omitted — every record only contains data the register actually published for that charity

Output: per-charity summary (mode = search)

Field	Description
charityNumber	Registered charity number
charityName	Registered name
organisationNumber	Internal register ID used to build the charity's detail-page URL (differs from the charity number for some linked/group charities)
registrationStatus	Registered or Removed
income	Latest annual income in GBP, when published
reportingStatus	Latest filing status, e.g. Received: On time or Charity reporting is overdue by N days
charityUrl	Link to the charity's page on the official register
recordType	Always charitySummary
scrapedAt	UTC timestamp of when the record was scraped

Output: full charity record (mode = byCharityNumber)

Field	Description
charityName, charityNumber, organisationNumber	Identity
reportingStatusBanner	Headline status, e.g. Charity reporting is up to date (on time) or Removed charity
activitiesDescription	The charity's own description of its activities
financialYearEnd, totalIncome, totalExpenditure	Latest filed financial year
employeeCount, trusteeCount, volunteerCount	Headcounts, when published
employeeBenefitsOver60k	Note on employees with total benefits over £60,000
fundraisingInfo, tradingInfo, trusteePaymentsInfo	Fundraising, trading-subsidiary and trustee-remuneration disclosures
whatCharityDoes[], whoCharityHelps[], howCharityHelps[]	Classification of purpose, beneficiaries and method
whereCharityOperates[]	Areas of operation, e.g. Throughout England And Wales, individual countries
registrationHistory[]	Registration/removal events with dates
organisationType	e.g. Trust, CIO, Company
otherNames[]	Working names and previous names
giftAidStatus	HMRC gift-aid recognition status
otherRegulators	Other regulators overseeing the charity, when published
policies[]	Governance policies the charity has declared, e.g. safeguarding, conflicts of interest
landAndProperty	Land/property ownership disclosure
trustees[]	name, role, dateOfAppointment, otherTrusteeships[]
financialHistory[]	Per financial year: periodEndDate, totalGrossIncome, totalExpenditure, incomeFromGovernmentContracts, incomeFromGovernmentGrants
assetsAndLiabilities[]	Per financial year (larger/accruals-accounting charities only): periodEndDate, ownUseAssets, longTermInvestments, otherAssets, pensionSchemeAssetOrLiability, totalLiabilities
filingHistory[]	Per filing: title, reportingYear, dateReceived, receivedStatus, documentUrl (direct PDF link when filed)
governingDocumentText, charitableObjects, areaOfBenefit	Governing document summary
linkedCharities[]	Charities registered under the same umbrella/appeal (e.g. a corporate charity's constituent trusts): organisationNumber, name, url (when published)
address, phone, email, website	Published contact details
charityUrl	Link to the charity's page on the official register
recordType	Always charityDetail
scrapedAt	UTC timestamp of when the record was scraped

Field availability depends on what the charity has on file — for example, removed charities typically have no trustees, contact information, or current-year financial data, and the actor never fabricates missing fields.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	select	search	search / byCharityNumber
keywords	string	cancer research	Charity name, number, or objects/activities/classification/area-of-operation text (mode=search)
searchIn	array (select)	all 5 fields	Restrict which fields keywords is matched against: charity number, charity name, where the charity operates, classifications, objects and activities
charityNumbers	array	["247558"]	Exact charity numbers to fetch full records for (mode=byCharityNumber). Capped at the first 50 per run
registrationStatus	array (select)	registered	registered and/or removed
includeLinkedCharities	boolean	false	Also include charities linked to a matching charity
registrationDateFrom / registrationDateTo	string	–	Registration date range, YYYY-MM-DD
removedDateFrom / removedDateTo	string	–	Removal date range, YYYY-MM-DD (with registrationStatus including removed)
incomeMin / incomeMax	integer	–	Latest annual income range in GBP
expenditureMin / expenditureMax	integer	–	Latest annual expenditure range in GBP
overdueDocumentsOnly	boolean	false	Only charities with overdue filings
employeeBenefitBands	array (select)	–	Bands of employee total benefits, e.g. £150k to £200k up to Over £500k
grantMakingOnly	boolean	false	Only charities that make grants to individuals or organisations
whatCharityDoes	array (select)	–	Classification of charitable purpose (16 options, e.g. Education/training, Disability, Overseas Aid)
whoCharityHelps	array (select)	–	Classification of beneficiary group (7 options)
howCharityHelps	array (select)	–	Classification of delivery method (10 options)
areaOfOperationNational	array (select)	–	Throughout England And Wales / Throughout England / Throughout London / Throughout Wales
localAuthorityEngland	array (select)	–	English local authority (~119, excluding London boroughs)
londonBorough	array (select)	–	London borough (~33)
localAuthorityWales	array (select)	–	Welsh local authority (~22)
overseasCountry	array (select)	–	Country the charity operates in, including Scotland and Northern Ireland (~275)
sortBy	select	relevance	Sort results by relevance (default), charityNumber, charityName, registrationStatus, income, or reportingStatus
sortDirection	select	asc	asc / desc (ignored when sortBy is relevance)
maxItems	integer	20	Hard cap on emitted records (1–2000, mode=search)

Example: keyword search with income and classification filters

{
  "mode": "search",
  "keywords": "cancer research",
  "registrationStatus": ["registered"],
  "incomeMin": 100000,
  "whatCharityDoes": ["103:The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives"],
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: charities operating in a specific overseas country

{
  "mode": "search",
  "keywords": "education",
  "overseasCountry": ["Kenya", "Uganda"],
  "maxItems": 30
}

Example: charities working in a London borough with overdue filings

{
  "mode": "search",
  "keywords": "community",
  "londonBorough": ["Camden", "Hackney"],
  "overdueDocumentsOnly": true,
  "maxItems": 20
}

Example: full record by charity number

{
  "mode": "byCharityNumber",
  "charityNumbers": ["247558", "1196005"]
}

Use cases

• Grant-making & philanthropy research — find registered charities in a cause area, income band, or region before due diligence
• Due diligence & compliance — confirm an organisation is a genuinely registered (or check why it was removed), and review its trustees and overdue-filing status
• Nonprofit sector analysis — analyse income/expenditure trends, classification distribution, or geographic reach across the sector
• Journalism & research — trace a charity's trustees, financial history, and governance disclosures
• Fundraising prospecting — identify grant-making charities active in a specific cause area or beneficiary group
• Data enrichment — attach official register data (income, trustees, classifications) to an existing charity database

FAQ

What is the Register of Charities? The official public record of every charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, including charities that have since been removed from the register.

Does this cover Scottish or Northern Irish charities? No — this register only covers charities registered in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate charity regulators (OSCR and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland). The overseasCountry filter's Scotland/Northern Ireland options describe charities registered in England and Wales that report operating there, not charities registered with those regulators.

What's the difference between charityNumber and organisationNumber? The charity number is the number the public knows a charity by. The organisation number is the register's internal ID for a specific entity and is used to build the charity's detail-page URL — for most standalone charities the two are the same, but for some linked or grouped charities they differ. The actor resolves this automatically; you only ever need to supply the charity number.

Why do some search terms return no results? The register's own search index treats a handful of extremely generic single words used in most charity names (e.g. trust, charity on their own) as too broad to match meaningfully. Use a more specific phrase, or search by charity number/name instead.

Why are some fields missing from a charity record? The actor only includes fields the register has actually published for that charity. Removed charities, very new charities, or charities exempt from certain disclosures (e.g. no employees over the benefit threshold) will have fewer fields — this is real data, never a placeholder.

How current is this data? The register reflects the Charity Commission's live public data at the time the actor runs — there's no caching delay.

Can I download a charity's filed accounts? Yes — mode=byCharityNumber returns a documentUrl PDF link for each filed accounts/annual-return submission, when the charity has uploaded one.

Is a proxy or login required? No. The register's search and charity-detail pages are fully public; the actor doesn't use cookies, an API key, or a paid proxy.

Is this affiliated with the Charity Commission? No — this is an independent, third-party actor that reads the Charity Commission's public register pages. It is not operated by or affiliated with the Charity Commission for England and Wales.