How do I set up a charity in the UK?
To set up a charity in the UK, decide it is the right vehicle, form it, register it and apply to HMRC for tax recognition. Forming it means writing purposes, choosing a structure, recruiting trustees and adopting a governing document; you then register with the Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI. This hub takes founders through each step in order, nation by nation.
28 steps, in the order you meet them.
The decisions in this part are the expensive ones to reverse. Choosing a legal form, writing your purposes, deciding whether you have to register at all — each one constrains everything that follows, and some are very hard to undo. There is no statutory route to convert a CIO into another legal form: leaving means transferring the undertaking to a new body and dissolving the old one, with none of the automatic vesting. Changing structure later is possible, but it is a project in itself.
The order matters more than it looks. Purposes before structure, structure before the bank account, and the bank account before you apply to register — because the application form asks for the account details, so the account has to exist first.
Look up
Glossary
- Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
- Grant
- Board of trustees
- Governing document
- Annual return
- Minutes
- Gross income
- HMRC
- Public benefit
- Safeguarding
- Accounting reference date
- Charitable purpose
- Connected person
- OSCR
- Charitable company
Tools
- Am I required to register? — Tool: planned
- Legal structure chooser — Tool: planned
- Purpose checker — Tool: planned
- Should I start a charity? — Tool: planned
- Trustee eligibility checker — Tool: planned
- Which regulator? — Tool: planned
- Charity bank account comparison — Tool: planned
Templates
Understand
- Charitable purposes: the three UK lists — What are the charitable purposes?
- Public benefit in the three jurisdictions — What is public benefit?
- Do you have to register your charity? — Do I have to register my charity?
- Legal structures compared — Which legal structure should my charity have?
- CIC or charity? — What is the difference between a CIC and a charity?
- CASC, community benefit society and the other alternatives — What are the alternatives to setting up a charity?
- What it costs and how long it takes — How much does it cost to set up a charity, and how long does it take?
- Excepted and exempt charities — What is an excepted or exempt charity?
- What you can do while your application is pending — Can we operate before we are registered?
Do
Decide
- Step 1 · Should I set up a charity, or something else?
- Step 2 · Is there already a charity doing this?
Design
- Step 3 · How do I write my charity's purposes?
- Step 4 · How do I show my charity is for the public benefit?
- Step 5 · Which charity regulator do I have to register with?
- Step 6 · Should my charity be a CIO, a company, a trust or an association? · legal risk: personal-liability
- Step 7 · What can I call my charity?
Constitute
- Step 8 · How many trustees do I need, and who should they be?
- Step 9 · Who is disqualified from being a charity trustee?
- Step 10 · How do I write my charity's governing document?
- Step 11 · What else has to be in the governing document besides the objects?
- Step 12 · How do we formally bring the charity into existence?
- Step 13 · How do I set up a charitable company at Companies House?
Register
- Step 14 · Do I need money in the bank before I can register?
- Step 15 · How do I open a bank account for a new charity?
- Step 16 · What do I need to have ready before I start the application?
- Step 17 · How do I apply to register a charity with the Charity Commission?
- Step 18 · How do I apply to register a charity with OSCR?
- Step 19 · How do I apply to register a charity with CCNI?
- Step 20 · What can we do while we are waiting to be registered as a charity? · legal risk: regulatory-sanction
- Step 21 · How do we answer a query on our charity registration?
Launch
- Step 22 · What do I need to do once we are registered?
- Step 23 · Where do I legally have to show that we are a registered charity? · legal risk: criminal
- Step 24 · How do I get charity tax reliefs and Gift Aid?
- Step 25 · What policies does a new charity actually need? · legal risk: criminal
- Step 26 · What should our first board meeting after registration cover?
- Step 27 · What should our financial year end be?
- Step 28 · What do we have to do, and when, in our first year?
Common questions
A CIC cannot be a charity while it remains a CIC. A charity gets charitable tax reliefs and access to charity-only funders but cannot normally pay its trustees; a CIC can pay its directors, gets no charity tax reliefs, and some funders exclude it. What is the difference between a CIC and a charity? compares the two.
Open it before you apply to register in England and Wales, because the application asks for the account details, and start early, because charity account opening is slow. A CIO's founders hold the account on trust until registration. How do I open a bank account for a new charity? covers each nation.
Apply to HMRC for recognition as a charity for tax purposes. It is separate from registering with the Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI, and if you must register with a regulator, HMRC will not consider you until you have. How do I get charity tax reliefs and Gift Aid? explains the test.
In England and Wales you must register once income passes the registration threshold, and a CIO must register whatever its income. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no threshold, for different reasons. Do I have to register my charity? explains why the three nations differ.
The Charity Commission publishes no registration-only decision time: its service standard covers several request types together. OSCR and CCNI publish their own targets, and in Northern Ireland you must first wait to be invited to apply. How much does it cost to set up a charity, and how long does it take? explains the figures.