Starting a Non-Profit Organisation

renowen

Hi im hoping someone can help me

My daughter has a pretty much unheard of condition called Ocular Motor Apraxia (OMA)
Although unheard of and uncommon, there are many children and adults who have it, but amazingly apart from ONE yahoo group there is very little support and information for parents and carers! Im not just talking about here in the UK, the problem is the same all over the world it seems!

So we members of the oma group have been thinking about starting a non-profit organisation - but have no clue how to get started!
We need a 'proper' website that will appear in the search engines but unfortunatly these cost money, Ive looked at the information about opening a treasurers account and shall be forwarding it on so thank you for that bu where do we go from here

Any help greatly appreciated

barrymung

This guy designs websites for not-for-profit organisations and doesn't charge a penny:

http://www.kingqueen.org.uk/#design

(He's disabled and lives in a residential home so does it simply to pass the time and keep his mind active.)

PasturesNew

What are the legal issues with just setting up a NfP organisation?
Any?
None?
Is this simply treated like any other personal income/business? i.e. if the site made £10k for charity and all monies after running costs were donated to research, making a "profit = £0", would it simply be enough to submit this as a person's personal tax assessment?

fengirl_2

There is no such thing as a not for profit organisation in the UK.
You need to set up a charity and your local Council for Voluntary Service will help you with this (Google your town and CVS).
Charitable status will enable you to fundraise with a charity number and there are tax reliefs for the charity and people who donate.
If your CVS is unable to help, send me a message and I will be happy to.

Savvy_Sue

fengirl wrote: »

There is no such thing as a not for profit organisation in the UK.

That's not the case: I have twice set up and helped run out of school childcare on that basis. We did not register as a charity (which takes a lot of work!) but we did have a constitution and management committee. Minimal fuss and perfectly adequate. There are advantages and disadvantages to operating in this way

fengirl wrote: »

You need to set up a charity and your local Council for Voluntary Service will help you with this (Google your town and CVS).

Setting up a charity takes a lot of time and energy (think there's a sticky on it); forming your own NFP support group is quick and easy! You can form the NFP on the way to becoming a charity, and that may well be helpful!

But your local CVS certainly SHOULD be able to help, which way you decide to go: they should be used to working with ANYONE who uses volunteers, and that includes charities who are limited companies, NFP groups and people like you who are thinking about where to go next. Our local one (Voscur) has useful documents about all sorts of things which you can download.

fengirl wrote: »

Charitable status will enable you to fundraise with a charity number and there are tax reliefs for the charity and people who donate.

I agree that being a charity DOES have advantages for fundraising, especially face to face, but NOT being a charity doesn't stop you doing so. We successfully applied for grants and ran fundraising events. The BIG advantage of being a charity is that individuals can Gift Aid any donations, so long term this may well be where you want to go.

BTW: what is OMD? Is it where your eyes keep changing so that some days you need glasses and others you don't? If so I think a colleague has it!

In haste ...

fengirl_2

I am sorry to disagree, but there is no concept of not for profit in the UK.
There are several vehicles for this sort of work:
Association, trust, company limited by guarantee, community interest company and, coming soon, charitable incorporated organisation.
All of these can make profits, although the profits cannot be distributed to members.
The questioner would need to set up under one of these structures in order not to be classed as a business. There are many sources of income for this group which would only be available to charities....and they would have to register once their income reaches £5000 in any case.

Savvy_Sue

We are probably disagreeing over technicalities, but a quick search of the NCVO website seems to indicate that both they and the government have SOME concept of not for profit organisations. And banks DO offer bank accounts to organisations which are neither businesses nor charities. They will expect some kind of formal 'vehicle' such as you mention, and the changes to charity law may well make a difference to what is the most appropriate way of doing this.

I am also unclear about how new charities become registered: at present the Charity Commission doesn't seem to be registering charities until their income is over £5000 per year, which is probably some way off for the OP.

So, I would suggest that the way forward for the OP would be to look at the very comprehensive and helpful information about starting a new charity on the Charity Commission website, but not to be put off by that necessarily rigorous process. At the same time, use the local VCS to get advice on setting up an appropriate starter 'Association' which could be transformed in time into a Charity, CIC or CIO when the time comes! I am sure it would be possible to use a constitution which would need minimal adjustment when the time comes to become a charity.

In the meantime there is no reason why you can't start fundraising or setting up a website and information service if you want to. As long as you don't call yourself a charity before you are you can run events and apply for grants etc. If you start applying for grants there WILL be some you won't be eligible for before you're a charity, and most will want you to have a formal structure, but not all. Financially, the main advantage of being a charity IMO is that individuals can Gift Aid their donations, so the government gives you money on top, but there's lots you can do before you reach that stage.

Savvy_Sue

BTW, have you found this website? Although it's not very whizzy, there's a UK contact address, and although the guest book has overseas entries, they are not ancient ancient ...

fengirl_2

It is essential that you take on some sort of formal structure, like an association. This is not just for banking purposes, but to ensure that you are not classed as a business for tax purposes. If you are considering having a website, it looks as if your income would be over £5000 pretty soon, so you will need to register at that stage.
It is not straightforward to change form an association to a company limited by guarantee, so make sure you choose the right structure. A CIC can never be charitable and is most used when the organisation is trading for community benefit.

Savvy_Sue

This latest post clarifies where some of my confusion is coming from. I do think the OP needs to work out where they want to go next: do they want to fundraise in order to support research, or do they want to raise awareness and support each other? Clearly the two are not mutually exclusive, but you can do a lot of the latter on a shoestring. I don't see having a website necessarily being linked with an income over £5000.

Perhaps I should have been clearer: if you get some advice and are clear that your eventual aim is to register as a charity, then it should be possible to get an appropriate 'association' or whatever set up, which CAN then be changed into a charity without too much difficulty. Things will be more difficult if you start from the 'wrong' place.

I don't know what the timescale on the new CIO is: fengirl this is probably more your area of expertise. My understanding is that it will be a very useful option: at the moment many charities are registered as limited companies to limit the liability of the trustees, and the CIO will do that without all the palaver of being a limited company as well ...

Anyway, I hope we haven't put the OP off!

renowen

HI!

Thanks for the response! Oh and you have by no means put me off!

The purpose of the organisation is to simply raise awareness and offer much needed support - I already have a very simple, personal website which I am currently trying to update and get to a good standard. My main problem with it is getting the hit count I need to get up the search engine list!

I dont really want to apply as a charity ... cause thats not what we intend to be, we dont want money, we just want to educate and assist others. I cant even see why we would need a bank account?
All we hope to achieve at this moment in time is a decent website that can be found by simply typing the name of the condition into a search engine - as that would be alot more than what we have now

xx