Operation Orphan

Registered charity 1136170 · since 2010operation-orphan.org·International·Updated 29 October 2026

At a glance

£132k

Annual giving, year to 28 February 2025

From filed accounts

Key takeaways

If your work centres on orphans or vulnerable children, this funder's focus fits, and it operates globally through local partners.
Do not apply if your main beneficiaries are not children with a substantial absence of parental involvement, support and input, since the charity says it does not fund such work.
The annual report gives total annual giving of £132,261, which may include grants to individuals, and no grant range is stated, so keep any request modest and do not assume a size.
No application process is published, so use the contact given to get in touch first, and note that the charity looks for overwhelming evidence that the people you work with love the children and are personally invested in their support.
Show how local partners lead the work and how the project will build a long-term care structure rather than depend solely on international funds.

Overview

Operation Orphan is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (charity number 1136170).

Operation Orphan is a charity registered in England and Wales that exists to keep orphans and vulnerable children around the world safe, warm, healthy and learning. Its work runs under five strands: education, health, sustainable development, poverty relief, and spiritual and psychosocial care. Its Keep A Child Scheme covers long-term global projects run with local partners, and Forget-Me-Notts is its UK-based project, which helps local people and businesses meet the practical emergency needs of vulnerable children in their community. The annual report gives total annual giving of £132,261, which may include grants to individuals.

What they fund

Priority Areas

Operation Orphan’s purpose is to keep orphans and vulnerable children safe, warm, healthy and learning. It focuses on children whose parental structure has been substantially weakened or is no longer in place, including those at risk through poverty or crisis. Its work spans sustainable development, education, health care, poverty relief and spiritual and psychosocial support: helping partners and communities build self-sufficiency, support access to education and health care, provide essentials such as clean water, nutrition and sanitation, and respond to less visible needs. The charity operates globally, prioritising areas of greatest need and seeking to avoid duplication. It works through trusted local partners, with local power and decision-making, deep collaboration and shared responsibility. Projects are adapted to their context and are intended to build long-term care structures rather than dependence on international funds.

Themes

Sustainable development
Education
Health care
Poverty relief
Spiritual and psychosocial care

Geographic Focus

Global.

What they don't fund

Work where the primary beneficiary is not a child who has a substantial absence of parental involvement, support and input in their lives

How to apply

No application process is published in the charity's annual report, its register entry or its website. The contact shown is for getting in touch.

Application success factors

What the charity says:

It looks for overwhelming evidence that the people it partners with love the children and have personally invested in their support.
It enables local partners to flourish through local power and decision-making and to apply their local knowledge and skills.
Each project should build sustainability through a long-term care structure rather than become solely dependent on international funds.

Where they fund

Where it says it funds

International

Similar funders

Funders supporting work similar to Operation Orphan.

Orphans in NeedInvitation onlyGave £20.9M Lonely OrphansNo public processGave £15,000 Save An OrphanNo public processGave £813k World Children's FundRollingGave £242k Be Kind FoundationNo public process Save the Children UKInvitation onlyGave £154M From Babies with Love FoundationNo public processGave £174k Azad Welfare TrustNo public process The Georg and Emily von Opel FoundationRollingGave £1.9M The Newstar FoundationNo public processGave £277k

Five years of accounts

Financial year	Income	Expenditure	Grants paid	Accounts document
year to 28 February 2021	£241,871	£245,881	—	Accounts for year to 28 February 2021
year to 28 February 2022	£321,009	£311,021	—	Accounts for year to 28 February 2022
year to 28 February 2023	£578,764	£410,920	—	Accounts for year to 28 February 2023
year to 29 February 2024	£317,936	£430,912	—	Accounts for year to 29 February 2024
year to 28 February 2025	£302,226	£353,158	£132,261	Accounts for year to 28 February 2025

Grants paid, year to 28 February 2025: the accounts do not say whether this is grants awarded or paid.

— No grants figure for that year.

Figures from the charity’s filed accounts and its register entry. The document icon links to the charity’s entry on the Charity Commission register, where its filed accounts can be found.