Skip to content
Governance Register
Sign inFind yourself
Find yourselfSign in
Search How it works For organisations For professionals

Edition

United Kingdom (current)IrelandUnited StatesNew ZealandCanadaAustraliaScotlandNorthern Ireland

Registered charity · Thetford

The British Trust for Ornithology

  • 13 trustees
  • Income £8.7m (2025)
How am I connected?
More
View network map Report an issue

Official record Charity Commission · updated 13th September 2026 · Sources

Who leads it

Show all 13 trustees

Current trustees as listed by the Charity Commission, which does not publish previous trustees.

Do you help lead this organisation? Set up its network · How it works

How it connects

Governance Register shows how people on this board have served on other boards.

Find yourself to see whether you're connected.

People on this board also serve on 2 other charities:

Shared trustees are formal board links, not proof the organisations work together.

About

What it does
Environment/conservation/heritage
Where
Throughout England And Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
Website
www.bto.org (opens in a new tab)
Linked company
British Trust for Ornithology(the)
Registered
1964

Income and spending

  • YearIncomeSpending
  • 2025£8.7m£9.0m
  • 2024£9.5m£8.0m
  • 2023£7.1m£7.0m
Earlier years
  • 2022£7.8m£6.6m
  • 2021£6.2m£6.1m
Charitable objects

TO PROMOTE, ORGANISE, CARRY ON AND ENCOURAGE STUDY AND RESEARCH AND PARTICULARLY FIELD WORK FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE IN ALL BRANCHES OF THE SCIENCE OF ORNITHOLOGY. PERMANENTLY TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT LANDS AND OBJECTS WHICH BY THEIR NATURAL FEATURES ARE SUITABLE FOR THE PRESERVATION AND STUDY OF BIRD LIFE AND OF FAUNA AND FLORA GENERALLY.

Board analysis for researchers

Board DNA

How this board is put together, from Charity Commission trustee records and Companies House - deterministic, no AI.iBoard compositionCounted from the dated Charity Commission trustee register: the current board only, past trustees excluded.

13 trustees on the board

2.3y median 3y
average tenure
6y
longest tenure

Trustees past 6 years

9y
average years in governance

First-time vs portfolio trustees

First-time (11)

Portfolio (2)

13
company-linked trustees

Sector coverage iSector coverageThe charitable fields this board's trustees govern in elsewhere, by Charity Commission classification. Excludes this charity.

Environment/conservation/heritage 13

Commercial experience iCommercial experienceThe industries this board's members are company directors in, by Companies House SIC code. Excludes this organisation's own company.

Professional services 21Arts and leisure 2Business services 2

Gaps to watch

  • Narrow spread of causes across the board

Succession forecast iSuccession forecastThe number of board seats likely to open in the next twelve months - summed across the board from each dated trustee’s tenure - and the profile worth recruiting next. From the filed record, deterministic.

🔒 Succession forecast is a Pro feature - the board seats likely to open in the next year and the ideal next trustee. Explore Pro →

Health of the organisation facts side by side - the conclusion is yours

Income v spending, filed accountsiIncome v spendingTotal gross income and expenditure from filed annual returns, Charity Commission, last 5 years.
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
incomespending£8.7m latest income
ReservesiReserves12 x free reserves / annual expenditure, from the Part B annual return. The sector median is computed across all Part B filers in the same income band.

3.5 months of spending held in free reserves · median for charities its size: 3.7 months · was 2.1 in 2021

163 from 133 in 2021
EmployeesiEmployeesHeadcount as filed in Part B annual returns, per financial year. Shown exactly as filed; year-on-year figures may be filed on different bases, so a comparison is only shown when the filings are plausibly comparable.
18%
Income from governmentiIncome from governmentGovernment contracts plus government grants as a share of total gross income, latest Part A annual return.

Sources

Official record from the Charity Commission register for England and Wales. Governance Register calculates the connections.

Record details
Registered charity number
216652
Status
Registered
Governing document
MEMORANDUM AND ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED 20 OCTOBER 1939 AS AMENDED 18.10.58, 14.10.64, 30.11.74, 1.12.84, 5.12.87, 3.12.88, 6.12.97, 3.12.2005, 28.11.2007 AND 8.12.2007AS AMENDED BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION(S) DATED 06 DEC 2008AS AMENDED BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION(S) DATED 06 DEC 2009AS AMENDED BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION(S) DATED 06 DEC 2014AS AMENDED BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION(S) DATED 09 DEC 2017 as amended on 05 Dec 2020 as amended on 08 Nov 2023
Companies House
Company number 00357284 · Active
Contact on the register
01842750050 · info@bto.org
Edition
Register edition compiled 13th September 2026
Labels
Official record from the register · Calculated derived by Governance Register. Anything added by an organisation or person is labelled as provided by them.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Report an issue · How we handle data