Starting a charity

The_Doctor179

It's a shame that this site does not support charities unless they are a registered charity, however as this site knows you CAN NOT register unless you have taken £5000. I think this is a disgrace for Martin Lewis's site and i will be contacting him about the way the so called Board Guide remove posts that are a genuine unregistered charity fighting to suceed in these times.
I will not post which site i am talking about as this will be removed but it is a site set up by an ex service man who served his country in the 1st Gulf war and only wants to help the UK forces and their families who have suffered from past and present conflicts.

The_Doctor179

The_Doctor179 wrote: »

It's a shame that this site does not support charities unless they are a registered charity, however as this site knows you CAN NOT register unless you have taken £5000. I think this is a disgrace for Martin Lewis's site and i will be contacting him about the way the so called Board Guide remove posts that are a genuine unregistered charity fighting to suceed in these times.
I will not post which site i am talking about as this will be removed but it is a site set up by an ex service man who served his country in the 1st Gulf war and only wants to help the UK forces and their families who have suffered from past and present conflicts.

I Meant to say that my posts were removed yesterday:mad:

FSI

I work for a great charitable organisation, the FSI, which provides free strategic planning, fundraising and general charitable advice to small charities and their employees. If anyone needs free training, advice or resources and works for a small UK charity (don't have to be registered) with a turnover of less than £1.5 million (voluntary income) then feel free to get in touch.
We love small charities!
website: thefsi.org

fade2pink

Great info at fengirl

Miss_S_4

Here is a short letter I wrote please read it.


Hello I’m Sarah I am 25 from Bath.
I have a sister Samantha (23) and a sister Scarlett(15)
Both my sisters have has a rare incurable neuromuscular disease called Char-cot Marie Tooth (CMT).
They both have severe muscle wasting to both the upper and lower legs, they both have considerable mobility difficulties,
finding walking any distance difficult and painful.


Scarlett also has Scoliosis (Curvature of the Spine), hip pain and a stiff heart.
Because Scarlett's heart does not relax properly she is not able to have an operation to correct her spine.
So all we can do now is supply comfort aids for her to keep her a comfortable as possible.
Scarlett's spine curves at a 108 degree angle and her ribs are sitting on her pelvis.








Samantha is a mum of 2 and has CMT with respiratory failure and the doctors
have told her that her respiratory system could stop working
any day.
It takes a lot of effort for Samantha to complete
day-to-day tasks so I and my mother are always on hand to support her.
Because Samantha's immune system is very week every time she gets a cold it
turns into a chest infection, Every chest infection she has her lungs are get weaker.
At the present time she is getting a chest infection roughly every month.


Both Sam and Scarlett are on Bi-pap a machine to help push air into there lungs.
They live every day in pain and all we can do now is supply them with comfort aids to help there every day lives.


I'm starting up a charity to help my sisters and other people with CMT.

Any advice would be a massive help.

Savvy_Sue

Miss_S wrote: »

I'm starting up a charity to help my sisters and other people with CMT.

Any advice would be a massive help.

1. Read the first post on this thread.
2. Work through the steps one by one.

I'm sorry if this is a bit abrupt, but it is the best advice I can give: fengirl was an expert! Starting a charity is not to be undertaken lightly.

As you already know, there is a charity for which the first of its Aims and Objectives is

To offer assistance and support to those people who have Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease

I would respectfully suggest that you do fundraising for your sisters and others affected in your area either under their 'umbrella', or without becoming a charity. There is nothing to prevent you doing that.

antioola

fengirl wrote: »

Don’t forget that trustees cannot be paid for their role, nor can they be employed by the organisation of which they are a trustee. So, if you are planning to become the paid manager of your group, you cannot be a trustee. It’s also not good practice for people who volunteer in the organisation to also be trustees.[/SIZE][/FONT]

From the Charity Commissions website which i cannot link to:
A charity trustee may only be paid for serving as a trustee where this is clearly in the interests of the charity and provides a significant and clear advantage over all other options. There is no general power in law for this type of payment - a charity would need a specific authority which may be found in its governing document, or be provided by the Commission, or, more rarely, the Courts.

I am not sure why you would give out incorrect advice but this seems silly.

Savvy_Sue

antioola wrote: »

From the Charity Commissions website which i cannot link to:
A charity trustee may only be paid for serving as a trustee where this is clearly in the interests of the charity and provides a significant and clear advantage over all other options. There is no general power in law for this type of payment - a charity would need a specific authority which may be found in its governing document, or be provided by the Commission, or, more rarely, the Courts.

I am not sure why you would give out incorrect advice but this seems silly.

fengirl is no longer with us, but it is possible that at the time she posted that advice it was correct. There have been recent changes to charity legislation, and one of the longstanding discussions has been whether to allow for paid / salaried Trustees rather than only having volunteers in these roles.

However, it would be unusual for a small charity to be paying its trustees anything other than expenses.

Indeed, the section from which you quote starts by saying:

The concept of unpaid trusteeship has been one of the defining characteristics of the charitable sector, contributing greatly to public confidence in charities.

The advice comes from this page.

antioola

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

fengirl is no longer with us, but it is possible that at the time she posted that advice it was correct. There have been recent changes to charity legislation, and one of the longstanding discussions has been whether to allow for paid / salaried Trustees rather than only having volunteers in these roles.

However, it would be unusual for a small charity to be paying its trustees anything other than expenses.

Indeed, the section from which you quote starts by saying:

Hi, there are many fully paid trustees, several of the biggest charities have paid trustees. This has been the case for a long time.

Again to quote from the site:

Ten of the 23 charities in the top 100 paid trustees as non-executive trustees. Of these ten charities:

two charities paid every board member; and
the remaining eight boards consisted of a mixture of executive, non-executive, and voluntary (unpaid) board members.5
with one exception, payments to non-executive trustees taking the role of chair averaged £23,371;6 and
payments to all other non-executive board members in the top 100 charities varied between £5,000 and £18,000.

The information provided by that lady was wrong. It seems she was pushing for what she believed rather than what was and is the case in UK law.

the top charities not only pay their trustees, the chair gets a full time wage and the others get part time wages if not equal.

It seems logical that a charity should and would be run by it's founders to give it a direction and those founders should be allowed to take a wage in exchange for keeping the charity productive and on top, successful etc. This is common practice.

Savvy_Sue

antioola wrote: »

It seems logical that a charity should and would be run by it's founders to give it a direction and those founders should be allowed to take a wage in exchange for keeping the charity productive and on top, successful etc. This is common practice.

We will have to disagree that it is 'common practice', whatever may happen in the largest charities, which are of course also Ltd Companies where there may be some overlap between the Trustees of the Charity and the Directors of the Company. But many in the voluntary sector view the idea of paying the founders of a charity a salary to allow them to continue to act as its trustees, or paying its trustees a 'salary' with deep misgiving.

Indeed, in the guidance offered to new trustees or those considering taking on such responsibilities, it says:

F2. Can trustees be paid for their duties? The short answer
Generally, no. Most trustees are unpaid, and must not benefit in any way from their connection with the charity. There are limited exceptions to this rule and the 1993 Act allows trustees to be paid in certain circumstances for providing services to the charity over and above their normal trustee duties.

There is more detail, but the longer answer includes:

This does not include contracted employment or payment for acting as a trustee.

fengirl came and I come from a 'small charity' background, as do most of the people seeking charity advice on this board. In a small charity, the Trustees should be giving oversight and guidance, not taking day to day decisions.