Charity chooser
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 Scotland and Northern IrelandUNFORTUNATELY, WE CAN’T COVER charities from Scotland and Northern Ireland, for two reasons. First, the Scottish charity regulator’s website doesn’t contain downloadable annual reports for the charities it regulates, something we need to do our work. And, second, the Northern Irish regulator doesn’t exist yet, and won’t be operational until the end of 2008. Until these things change, here are some useful details and links:Scotland Created under the 2005 Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act, the charity regulator north of the border is the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR). As well as regulating the sector, OSCR keeps the register of over 23,500 Scottish charities, available on its website. The register gives details of a charity’s contact details and website, its purpose and objects, and an idea of who its beneficiaries are. It also includes the charity’s annual income and expenditure from 2005, and the date its latest annual report was sent to OSCR. Unfortunately, OSCR has decided not to publish details of Scottish charity trustees. Nor does it put downloadable annual reports on the site (unlike the Charity Commission for England and Wales). The public still has the right to see a charity’s latest annual report and its constitution, but you must contact the organization directly to get hold of these documents Getting in touch with the largest Scottish charities so they can send us their latest annual report is not practical for them or for us. So for now, we are sticking to England and Wales. Northern Ireland The situation in Northern Ireland is different. At the moment, the Province still doesn’t have its own charity regulator, unlike the rest of the UK. But this is about to change. Thanks to the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008, plans are afoot to introduce Northern Ireland’s own Charity Commission, with powers to regulate the sector, by the end of 2008. The Act also means that Northern Irish charities will have to register with the new Commission and submit annual reports and accounts much like their British counterparts. Until then, all you need to do to set up a charity in Northern Ireland is to contact the HM Revenue and Customs and apply for charitable status for tax purposes. A letter from the HMRC granting charitable status for tax purposes is the only proof needed that you are a charity. The Executive department responsible for charities is the ‘Voluntary and Community’ section of the Department for Social Development. In 2007, they published a helpful guide to setting up a charity in Northern Ireland, which is still applicable. It’s available here. The Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) is another useful website. It is an umbrella organisation of voluntary and community organizations in Northern Ireland with over 1,000 members. It conducts research and provides advices on governance and fundraising matters, but it doesn’t have any regulatory power. And if you need to double-check… …you can use HM Revenue & Customs’ Charities Search to see whether or not an organisation in Scotland or Northern Ireland qualifies as a charity. |
