What's a charity?
According to the Charities Act 2006 a "body or trust which is for a charitable purpose that provides benefit to the public". There are 13 charitable purposes listed in the act and a charity must fall into one of those.
Until the 2006 Act is was legally presumed that charities for the relief of poverty, the advancement of religion and education were of benefit to the public. Now they will have to prove it. It's arousing a lot of debate on whether prestigious private schools like Eton College or certain religious groups really provide benefit for wider society - and whether they should be charities at all.
What does having charitable status mean?
Access to tax relief schemes for income, corporation and council tax amongst other things. Some grant-giving trusts and foundations only give to recognised charities.
Who registers charities?
In England and Wales, the Charity Commission is the independent regulator and registrar. In Scotland, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has the same role.
Northern Ireland doesn't have a charities regulator, though the Inland Revenue does give out charitable status. A new regulator is something being drafted in the Northern Ireland Charities Bill right now.
What regulation is there?
Charities must abide by a long series of charities acts, the latest being the Charities Act 2006. Depending on what the charity does, they might also be subject to competition law, trust law, laws pertaining to social services, the environment and marketing...
The Charity Commission scrutinises whether charities are abiding by charity law. It requires charities registered with it that have an income of more than £10,000 to submit an annual accounts report. The OSCR also collects accounts reports and enforces Scottish charity law. The Inland Revenue collects accounts reports in Northern Ireland.
There's plenty of voluntary regulation associated with fundraising too. The Institute of Fundraising encourages members to abide by its codes of good practice. The new Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) handles public complaints and the Public Fundraising Regulatory Authority upholds the Institute's code on face to face fundraising.
Which charities get the most in the UK?
The Charities Aid Foundation Individual Giving Report shows that in 2006/7, medical research got the highest proportion of donations with a 17 per cent share of all giving, closely followed by religious causes at 16 per cent.
It also recorded in 2007 that the top 100 charities absorbed two thirds of the total income of all the top 500 charities in the UK.
How does UK giving compare with other countries?
The most recent comparative figures are from November 2006 and look at giving as a percentage of GDP. The US comes highest with 1.67 per cent while the UK lags behind at 0.73 per cent.
However, the UK is way ahead of Germany at 0.22 and France at 0.14 per cent. This is put down to a much higher rate of social security taxation in France and Germany.
Who are the main donors?
Statistically, women, people aged 45-64 and those in managerial or professional employment are more likely to give to charity.
The Individual Giving Report shows that 7 per cent of donors give 49 per cent of all donations.
A lot of column inches have been generated of late by the super-rich giving away record amounts. City financier Christopher Hohn recently parted with £500m of his personal wealth, the biggest single donation ever made by a Briton, while Scottish entrepreneur Tom Hunter has pledged to give away £1bn in his lifetime.
News
It's early days yet, but self-regulation is working for fundraising charities, a spokesperson from the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) has said.
Charities that get a lot of money from bequests will feel the blow of falling house prices, according to the director of a legacy market research project.
Donations to religious organisations could increase if they lose their charitable status, according to a group whose members support ethical living without religion.
The umbrella organisation representing 13 UK aid agencies has warned it’s too early to say if the credit crunch has impacted on charity donations.