What Is Public Benefit, and How Do You Show It?
The legal test at the heart of being a charity – and what “showing” it really means Public benefit is the legal test at the heart of being a charity: every one of a charity’s purposes has to be for…
Governance & Compliance
Charities work under rules that change, and the duty to keep pace sits with the trustees. This is where we cover what the Charity Commission and other regulators expect, how to run a board that works, and the compliance obligations that come with being registered – set out plainly, so you know where you stand and can deal with problems before they grow. Setting a charity up sits here too: registration, HMRC recognition, charitable objects and governing documents.
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How to Choose a Charity Structure
CIO, charitable company, trust or association – and how to decide between them Your charity’s structure is its legal form – the thing your governing document creates – and it decides three practical things: whether your charity can hold property…
Charity Trustees
Who can be one, what the role requires, and how to appoint your first board A charity trustee is one of the people who holds overall responsibility for a charity; for its direction, its money, and making sure it does…
How to Write Charitable Objects That Pass
What the Charity Commission tests in your objects clause and why most rejections start here Your charitable objects are the clause in your governing document that states, in legal terms, what your charity exists to do. They are the part…
Why Was My Charity Registration Application Refused?
What the Commission is really telling you, and what to do next A refusal letter from the Charity Commission rarely lands where you expected. You were braced for a problem with a form or a missing signature. Instead, the letter…
How to Read Your Charity’s Accounts
You open the accounts pack. There is a covering report. There is a page with two columns of numbers. There is a page that looks like a snapshot of where the charity stands. And there is a letter from someone…
How to Register a CIO Charity in the UK
You’ve got a brilliant idea that could change lives in your community. Perhaps it’s setting up a food bank in your local area, creating mental health support groups for young people, or establishing a poverty relief charitable organisation that could…
How Charity Accounting Works: A Map for Trustees & CEOs
You have been handed the accounts pack. Forty pages. Numbers in columns. Words you half-recognise. And in two weeks, you are being asked to sign it off as a trustee. Most trustees inherit accounting responsibility this way. Nobody walks them…
How to Register Your Charity in the UK
A step-by-step guide to registering with the Charity Commission for England and Wales Registering a charity in England and Wales follows a clear sequence: settle what your organisation is for, choose a structure, get your objects and governing document right,…