Private company
Logo: bhf.org.uk4
United Kingdom charity
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is a cardiovascular research charity in the United Kingdom. It funds medical research related to heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors, and runs influencing work aimed at shaping public policy and raising awareness. In 2021, a study conducted by YouGov ranked the British Heart Foundation as the top charity or organisation in the UK by per cent of adults who hold a positive opinion of the organisation.2 It employed 4,545 people in 2025.1 Its revenue was £411 million in 2025.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0
Last updated Oct 21, 2026.
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The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is a cardiovascular research charity in the United Kingdom. It funds medical research related to heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors, and runs influencing work aimed at shaping public policy and raising awareness.2
British Heart Foundation sits at the top of its group. 2 entities, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.
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The British Heart Foundation was founded in 1961 by a group of medical professionals who were concerned about the increasing death rate from cardiovascular disease. They wanted to fund extra research into the causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of heart and circulatory diseases.
From Wikipedia’s article on British Heart Foundation, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5
Since 2008 the BHF has been investing in Centres of Research Excellence. The eight current centres bring together scientists from a number of disciplines to work on research projects to beat heart and circulatory disease.
The current Centres of Research are:
University of Cambridge
University College London
University of Edinburgh
Imperial College London
King's College London
University of Leicester
University of Oxford
University of Manchester
The BHF has also funded animal research. In June 2011, Animal Aid targeted BHF and several other health charities in a series of newspaper advertisements urging the public not to donate to the organizations under the pretence of funding experiments on animals. The pressure group argued that 100 dogs had died since 1988 during the experiments. The BHF said it funds animal research only after grant applications have gone through an independent peer review and follows the three Rs principles when considering such grants.
The British Heart Foundation Clinical Research Collaborative was launched in 2019, hosted by the British Cardiovascular Society. Designed to support the planning of high-quality national cardiovascular research, it brings together professional societies, research groups and patient and public involvement to better coordinate and prioritise research efforts. It also launched a fund to support the development of clinical research in cardiovascular disease, providing grants from £5,000-20,000, and all topic ideas will be considered.
Other patients and public activities include:
Information – BHF provides information to help the public reduce their own heart health risk. It also provides numerous resources for patients to better manage their conditions, including the Heart Matters magazine and online hubs on risk factors such as blood pressure and obesity.
Campaigning – BHF influences government to establish policies that minimise the risk of developing heart and circulatory disease, including the funding of reports and research
Support – offering advice to those with heart conditions via their website, information booklets or heart helpline.
Life saving skills – the BHF currently offers free CPR kits to schools and is working with the Department of Health to distribute defibrillators throughout England.
In 2020, The British Heart Foundation had a net income of just over £107m. In the same year, the BHF spent over £93m on funding cardiovascular research.
The charity announced, in June 2021, that it had joined forces with leading cardiovascular research funders around the world to form the Global Cardiovascular Research Funders Forum (GCRFF). In addition to the British Heart Foundation, the Forum's members are:
The American Heart Association
Hjerteforeningen (The Danish Heart Foundation)
Nederlandse Hartstichting (The Dutch Heart Foundation)
Schweizerische Herzstiftung (The Swiss Heart Foundation)
Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research: DZHK)
The Leducq Foundation
The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research
The National Heart Foundation of Australia
The National Heart Foundation of New Zealand
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
The BHF runs the largest network of charity shops in the UK, and generates income through online sales too.
The BHF Retail division made roughly £30 million every year. They had had 470 clothing shops and 181 home stores in the year to March 2026. In 2025/6 it made a net loss of £3.3 million because of “rising operating costs and changing customer habits”.
In June 2026, the charity announced it planned to close up to 150 stores in the UK by 2028.
From Wikipedia’s article on British Heart Foundation, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5
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