BIG BIRD FLYING HIGH

The big bird charity does more than you might think - from lobbying to conservation to education to research. It manages 202 nature reserves in the UK and also does some international conservation work. Sound reporting gives lots of information on achievements for the year and a fair assessment of how the charity monitors its work. Long-term plans and a clearer disclosure of what didn't go so well would make it even better.

Read the charity's reply [0]

QUALITY OF REPORTING What is this?	75 %
How much info does the charity want to share? This score, taken from our search for 43 key points in the annual report, gives the answer. Top mark is 100%. Anything over 70% is a good effort.
SIZE OF CHARITY... What is this?	Extra large
We only profile the largest charities in England & Wales, and our sizes are relative to the largest and smallest among them. So where we describe a charity as 'Small', it is still much larger than the national average.
HIGHEST SALARY What is this?	£100k to £149k
Taken from the vague bandings given in annual reports; note that 'Under £60k' could be £9k or £59k. Nonetheless the number of bars should roughly correlate with the 'Size of charity' bars.
RESERVES WOULD LAST... What is this?	6 months
If income dried up, how long could work continue? 3-12 months is normal. Less may be precarious. 12+ months may be over-cautious (or if very high, may represent the value of the charity's property).
ETHICAL INVESTMENT POLICY What is this?	Yes
We asked the charity if it has an ethical investment policy. If yes, it gets an angel. Those with no policy but which don't invest in tobacco/arms get a halo. Those without investments, or who didn't respond, appear neutral. Those with stakes in arms/tobacco get a fallen angel.

But don't just take our word for it...

• The charity's website [1]
• View their work on the Big Give [2]
• GuideStar financial overview [3]
• Charity Commission entry and link to annual report [4]

The Annual Expenditure figure quoted excludes the capital cost of buying and setting up nature reserves at £7.3m in 2007-08.

It is factually incorrect to quote reserves of £46,477k and then use the phrase "spare cash the charity can use however it chooses". It is not "spare cash". Whilst the RSPB understands Intelligent Giving's intention to turn accounting jargon into language that the lay person can understand, this balance sheet figure is incorrectly interpreted. The correct interpretation of our accounts would reveal that of this figure, £33,783k is the cost of nature reserves acquired over the years with unrestricted funds. The RSPB's Free Financial Reserves which are available to be applied, at the discretion of the Trustees, to any of the RSPB's charitable purposes stand at £10,944k. All figures quoted here are as at 31 March 2007.