Pet Charity Advice

niceaddress

hi,

my kitten has recently been diagnosed with a condition that requires an operation that will cost £3-4k. For various reasons our insurance company will not pay. We can't afford to pay for the operation so I was thinking of making and selling cakes at my local market to raise funds.

ideally I would like to set up a charity for this as I believe there may be tax benefits that mean the funds could be raised quicker. Can anyone offer any advice as to whether this situation provides a solid foundation for a charity. From regulations I have researched it seems to be a grey area on the definition of 'public benefit' since there will be only one beneficiary.

But...I have seen charities that do focus on one individual person or animal before.

Is there a 'right' way to do this? Legally and morally?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Savvy_Sue

Welcome to the boards.

You can't set up a charity which only benefits one person: I'm not sure there's specific guidance about only benefiting one animal ...

However, before you can register as a charity, you need to have income of at least £5000, so that's probably not a go-er.

the 'right' way to do this, IMO, is to consider whether there is actually a need for yet another charity. Is this a common condition in kittens? Is it often difficult to get the op done? Does the kitten go on to lead a long and happy life? Would research make this condition less common? Are you willing to put in hours of effort in the long term to set up and keep going a legal entity? If there's a yes to all or most of those, then maybe, just maybe, see if there's a charity need in there, but generally my advice would be to support existing charities.

On our 'small biz and charity organisers' board we have a sticky about starting a charity, you could take a look at that as well.

I_dunno

Did you managed to get the money for your kitty's operation?

Pi_the_dog

A guy I worked with made a Facebook and Twitter appeal for money to pay for his holiday. Unbelievably he received enough donations to pay for the holiday with spending money left over. I'm sure a life saving operation for a kitten is even more of a heartstring story that people would be willing to donate to.