Two people want to know what your charity achieved this year. The Charity Commission wants your trustees' annual report; your grant funder wants an end-of-grant report. Both are outcome reports — but they are different documents, with different rules, different deadlines and different readers.
This guide covers both. First the statutory side: what the law makes you report, file and by when. Then the funder side: what an end-of-grant report typically contains and how to gather the evidence without hiring an evaluator.
Two outcome reports, one question
| Trustees' annual report | End-of-grant report | |
|---|---|---|
| Who reads it | Charity Commission and the public | Your funder |
| Is it compulsory? | Yes — by law, for every registered charity | Yes — under your grant agreement |
| Deadline | Within 10 months of your financial year end | Set by the funder, usually at the grant's end |
| Focus | The whole charity: purposes, public benefit, finances | One grant: spend, beneficiaries, outcomes, learning |
Hold onto that distinction and the rest of this guide is straightforward.
Your outcome report to the regulator: the trustees' annual report
Every charity registered in England or Wales must prepare a trustees' annual report — no income threshold, no exceptions. The duty comes from section 162 of the Charities Act 2011, which requires "a report by the charity trustees on the activities of the charity during that year". CC15, the Commission's guidance on charity reporting and accounts, puts it plainly: "all registered charities must prepare a trustees' annual report".
Preparing it and filing it are different things. You must send the report to the Commission only if your gross income is over £25,000 — unless you are a CIO (charitable incorporated organisation), which must file its report, accounts and annual return every year "irrespective of income". More on filing below.
What goes in it — smaller charities
If your income is under £500,000, the Commission's guidance on preparing a trustees' annual report requires:
- your charity's name, registration number, address and trustee names
- how it is structured and managed
- "its activities and objectives in the year"
- "its achievements and performance, including reporting on its public benefit"
- a financial review, including your reserves policy
That achievements section is your outcome report to the regulator. It does not need to be long or polished. It needs to be honest: what you set out to do, what you did, and what difference it made.
The public benefit statement
Under the Commission's public benefit reporting guidance (PB3), every trustees' annual report must do two things. Report how the charity carried out its purposes for the public benefit, and state "whether they have complied with their duty to have due regard to" the Commission's public benefit guidance.
For charities under £500,000, "a brief summary setting out the main activities" satisfies the first part. Larger charities must give "a review of the significant activities". The statement itself is usually one sentence — but a missing one is an easy compliance failure for the Commission to spot.
What goes in it — larger charities
Over £500,000 income (or over £250,000 with assets worth more than £3.26 million), you prepare a full trustees' annual report following the Charities SORP — the sector's accounting and reporting rulebook. That adds your "strategies for achieving the stated objectives" and a "review of the significant activities undertaken", with achievements set against those objectives. If that is you this year, read our guide to SORP 2026 for trustees before you start drafting.
Who must file what — and the 10-month rule
The annual return is not the annual report. The return is an online form of questions; the report is the narrative document, uploaded "as a PDF file when you send your annual return". Per the Commission's annual return guidance: "You must submit your annual return within 10 months of the end of your financial year." The same 10-month deadline applies to the report and accounts, where you must file them.
| Gross income | What you must send the Commission |
|---|---|
| Under £10,000 (non-CIO) | Report your income and spending via the annual return service |
| £10,000–£25,000 (non-CIO) | Annual return (questions only) |
| Over £25,000 | Annual return + trustees' annual report + accounts + independent examiner's (or auditor's) report, plus a declaration that "there are no serious incidents that you have not reported to us" |
| Any CIO, any income | Annual return + trustees' annual report + accounts, every year |
The scrutiny thresholds — changing in 2026
Whether your accounts need an independent examination or a full audit depends mainly on income — and the numbers move for accounting years ending on or after 30 September 2026, under the government's changes to charity accounting and reporting. Check which year end applies to you before relying on either column.
| Requirement | Years ending before 30 Sept 2026 | Years ending on or after 30 Sept 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Independent examination needed | Income over £25,000 | Income over £40,000 |
| Professionally qualified examiner | Income over £250,000 | Income over £500,000 |
| Audit needed | Income over £1 million | Income over £1.5 million |
| Receipts and payments accounts allowed (non-company charities) | Income £250,000 or less | Income below £500,000 |
The asset test that can also trigger an audit rises too — see the gov.uk page for how the tests combine. Two things do not change: charitable companies must prepare accruals accounts whatever their income, and the £25,000 filing and £10,000 annual return thresholds stay put.
What the new SORP says about outcomes
A new Charities SORP applies to reporting periods starting on or after 1 January 2026 (SORP 2019 covers earlier years — see charitysorp.org). It sorts charities into three tiers: Tier 1 up to £500,000 income, Tier 2 up to £15 million, Tier 3 above that.
The headline for outcome reporting: under the new SORP, every charity that follows it reports "the difference they have made". For the smallest tier that sits inside the existing achievements and performance section; expectations get fuller as the tiers rise, and the reserves figure in your narrative must reconcile to the accounts. The tier-by-tier detail is in our guide to SORP 2026 for trustees.
One reassurance for the smallest charities: if you prepare receipts and payments accounts, the SORP does not apply to you at all.
Outcome reports for funders: the end-of-grant report
No statute governs these — your grant agreement does. But funders ask remarkably similar questions, so a report built for one usually adapts to the next.
The National Lottery Community Fund's end-of-funding monitoring form typically asks:
- "What progress have you made?" — and "How much change has happened?" against your project outcomes
- "Has your project brought about the changes you expected it to?"
- "What did you spend the money on?"
- "Who has benefited from your project?" — including how you arrived at your beneficiary numbers
- "What have you learned?" — and what you have done so the benefits last after the funding ends
Programme forms vary, so check yours. The Garfield Weston Foundation asks for simple bullet points along the same lines:
- Were you able to do the work you described in your application? If not, what got in the way?
- What has your organisation learned?
- How many people did you work with, and were there any significant changes?
- What are you especially proud of?
Their advice on length is a gift: "keep your report brief – aim for around two sides of A4."
So a typical end-of-grant report covers five things:
- What you did versus what you promised
- What you spent versus the budget
- Who benefited, and how many
- What changed for them
- What you learned — funders genuinely value honesty about what did not work
The outcomes you promised in your application are the ones you will report against, which is worth remembering at application stage — and reporting burden is a fair thing to weigh when choosing funders.
Grant reports write themselves when the board never lost track. Trustee Meetings is a simple board-meetings tool built for small UK charities. It keeps your grant updates, actions and decisions in one place, so the evidence for your annual report and your end-of-grant report is already in your minutes. Free until your first board meeting is done, no card, no clock running. Then £180 a year (or £15 a month), every trustee included. Try it with your board
Outputs, outcomes, impact — in plain English
Funders use these three words precisely, so it pays to do the same.
Outputs are what you delivered and can count: ten lunch clubs run, forty people attending. Outcomes are, in NPC's definition, "changes in your target groups that you believe will contribute to impact" — for a lunch club, attenders telling you they have made friends. Impact is "the sustained change you want to see in your target group" — attenders still connected long after the club ends.
Small charities mostly get asked for outputs and outcomes. Nobody sensible expects a village lunch club to prove long-term impact with a control group.
Collecting the evidence without a system
Evidence is easier gathered as you go than reconstructed in a panic the week the report is due. Four habits cover most funder forms:
- Keep attendance registers.
- Ask one or two before-and-after questions of the people you help.
- Collect quotes, photos and thank-you notes as they arrive.
- Keep every receipt and invoice in a grant file — The National Lottery Community Fund, for example, can ask to see receipts, invoices and bank statements at any time during a project and for up to seven years after it finishes.
Make grant reporting a standing item in your board pack, and the board's oversight of grants does the evidence-gathering for you.
Frequently asked questions
Do all charities have to write an annual report? Yes — every registered charity in England and Wales, whatever its income. You only file it with the Commission if income tops £25,000, or if you are a CIO, which files every year regardless.
What is the difference between the annual return and the annual report? The return is an online form of questions; the report is the written story of your year. Over £25,000 income, you upload the report and accounts with the return — all within 10 months of year end.
What must a small charity say about its achievements? Under £500,000 income: your activities and objectives for the year, and your "achievements and performance, including reporting on its public benefit". A brief honest summary is enough.
What is the public benefit statement? Two things: a description of how you carried out your purposes for the public benefit, and a statement of whether trustees have had due regard to the Commission's public benefit guidance. It is required in every trustees' annual report.
Are the charity audit and independent examination thresholds changing? Yes — for accounting years ending on or after 30 September 2026, independent examination starts at £40,000, audit at £1.5 million, and receipts and payments accounts stretch to income below £500,000. Check your year end before relying on either set of figures.
What do grant funders want in an end-of-grant report? Typically: what you did versus what you promised, spend versus budget, who benefited and how many, what changed for them, and what you learned. Two sides of A4 usually does it.
What is the difference between outputs and outcomes? Outputs are what you delivered and can count — sessions run, people attending. Outcomes are the changes in people that resulted. Impact is the sustained, longer-term change; funders increasingly ask about outcomes, not just outputs.
How long should we keep grant spending records? Up to seven years after the project finishes, in the National Lottery Community Fund's case. Keep a file per grant and this never becomes a problem.
This guide covers England and Wales; Scotland (OSCR) and Northern Ireland (CCNI) have their own reporting regimes with different rules.
When both the regulator and your funder ask what you achieved this year, the answer should already be sitting in your minutes. For the statutory side, read SORP 2026 for trustees; for the funder side, see grants and your board and your charity's first grant application. Browse the full guides library, or try it with your board.