Do I need some kind of charity license?

Question

I'm a activities co-ordinator in resedential care home and want to organise a charity night to help raise funds for our ammenities.Do I need to apply for some kind of license in the uk.

Answer 1

you never need a licences for charity work. you may need to apply for a permit to continue doing what you're doing however.

Answer 2

Check with The Charity Commission - look them up... xx

Answer 3

If you are not a charity, then I don't think you need a licence. You only need to advertise that the funds raised will be going towards buying a 'so and so' for the residential home.

Answer 4

Is the care home a charity? If so, then just go ahead.

If the home is a commercial business, then you can fundraise, but you cannot describe the event as 'for charity' or 'charitable'.

Answer 5

Good question, not sure, I would think not as many schools hold similar things for church funds...think it is OK but should check with the local authority who should know.

Answer 6

Definately not mate, the only thing you would have to register for within charities is if your organisation needed to obtain charity trust status, which you are not in a position to do.

You can set up fund raising events as often as you like.

However, I would strongly advise that you keep an account of all of your funds and what you spend them on  just in case some troublemaker makes allegations that you are not acting honestly, believe me there are a lot of those type around.

Another thing that you can think about is this, If you wish to support this as a project okay, why not set yourselves up as a committee.

You can then table out a document stating the aims and objectives of your group.

You can then write a constitution (set of rules) for the group.Give the group a name.

Open a bank account in that name.

Your committee will be made up of a Chairperson.... Secretary.... Treasurer... and at least three other committee members.

Two must be named as co-signatories so that two people will always have to sign a cheque okay.

Once this is done, you can apply by writing letters to local businesses for donations / grants.

You can also apply to your local council  and if you have a Parish council, then you can also apply to them annualy.

I do this with several different committees all year round, that way you can not only have resources to obtaining grants but you can also improve your chances by showing that as a serious group, you also take the time and trouble to "self" fund.

Finally, go to some of the big chain stores with your groups letter head (include a logo)  asking for donations of gifts to use for raffles, it's another great way of fund raising.

Good luck we need more like you  to keep these things alive.