Starting a Non-Profit Organisation

Savvy_Sue

renowen wrote: »

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?

Well you said you'd been looking into the Treasurer's Account thing.

At the moment you've got a personal website, which presumably you're paying for personally. Planning for the future would mean ensuring that if you needed to take 'time out' of maintaining it, someone else could take it over easily. Also if you wanted to start sending out written materials rather than leaving people to print out from a website, costs would start to increase. None of these are essential, however.

I am wondering, however, if any of the established 'eye' charities would take you under their wing, as it were, and help you start a support group / improve the information available on the web.

Is your website the one I found? If not, could you try contacting those people and combine forces?

Good luck!

Zabki

Hi,

Sorry I am hijacking this thread a bit.

I am in a similar situation as above but not sure what to apply for.

We are starting a university society and unfortunately we are not getting any advise or tips from either the university or the students union on how to set up and organise our society.

Our aim is to set up a proper society that will continue even when we have left the university, like leaving a legacy. Our aim is to send a delegation to WorldMUN (A practice version of a UN conference for universities around the world Model United Nations) each year. As it is in Mexico this year we will have to raise around £15,000 to send delegates for our alotted 18 places.

We do not want to make any profit but just to allow members from our university to each year be sent to the WorldMUN conference and different local conferences like LiMUN and MUNEX (in London and Sussex) etc. Any surplus we get would either be carried over to the following year or be donated to charitable causes.

So my question is what do I need to apply for???? Charity status, Non profit association/organisation or something else???

Any help is welcome, thanks.

Savvy_Sue

As it's late, I'll either say far too much or too little. And fengirl may disagree with me.

But as with the OP, I'd say you wanted to start as a Society with a constitution / governing document / articles of association. Using the word 'non-profit' probably won't make any difference, you may be limited to saying what happens to any money left over if the society winds up or at the end of each year.

With thought, you should I think be able to do this in a way which does not make becoming a charity in due course difficult. I've not re-read the previous answers but I'm sure the benefits of being a charity are up there, and if not there's at least one sticky at the top.

If the SU really doesn't have a model constitution for you to base yours on I'm gob-smacked, but you could always pinch one from another society you ARE a member of. Maybe they're a bit floored because you want the society to continue after you've gone, but plenty of societies do that.

If it's that you anticipate continued personal involvement after you've left Uni, that may confuse them, but your local Council for Voluntary Service should then be able to help: google VOSCUR for my local which I know has lots of useful downloads.

And then you need a bank account: have you approached any banks which have branches on campus because they may have a 'model' they'd like you to use.

Enough, brain in shut down mode ...

KD

Trying to decipher all the acronyms posted in this thread - can someone help identify the ones relevant for me? I'm sure there is some brilliant information out there if i could tap into it.

I've just taken over the local amateur swimming club (committee resigned en-mass...say no more..) and I wanted to know if we would be eligible for charity status or not. (It has a constitution and new committee and actually has been in existence for about 40 years).

All the money paid in by parents is to pay for pool hire and competition entry etc. We try and do as much fund raising as possible to ease the burden on parents, inevitably much of the fund raising relies on parents and friends!

If charity status is not possible has anyone got any other suggestions on maximising the funds we can gather?

Savvy_Sue

Sorry we get carried away. Although I think all of these except the last were given when they were originally mentioned ...

NFP: Not for Profit

CVS: Council for Voluntary Service (it may be called something else, but googling CVS and your nearest town or your county will probably identify it) - my local is called VOSCUR which did stand for something once but now they're just VOSCUR

CIC: Community Interest Company, a new idea, not sure where the necessary legislation has got to but reading up on the Charity Commission website will tell you

OP: Original Poster

So, to your questions ...

I would contact your local CVS first, because you are using volunteers, and they will have a wealth of useful information. And they may have advice on grants you could apply for or access to FunderFinder. I am not sure that Charity status would be possible now but looking at the Charity Commission website should help.

I presume you are members of the Amateur Swimming Association or whatever it's called these days, so they will have advice too. If THEY are a charity, then you MAY be able to benefit from Gift Aid on subscriptions - I know the Scouts do this, and each individual group does NOT have to be a separate charity, it's all done through the 'central' charity status.

Best of luck ...

ABDK

Hi,

All of advice has been very useful, However I am still slightly bamboozled about the steps I need to take next and was not sure if my idea is or inst a non-profit organsiation.

What I was planning on doing was selling stethescopes to medical students cheaply by buying in bulk. My argument for setting up as a non-profit organsation was that I will not be making any profit from this and I will selling to students for their educational puropses. My motivation for setting up a non-profit organisation was that by doing this is I was hoping I might be able to claim back VAT and therefore sell the stethescopes even cheaper. But I must emphasize again I would not be making any profit.

If you any ideas or suggestions I would be very greatful or if you dont think my idea will get off the ground please let me know. Thanks in advance!!

Amit

ABDK

Sorry I forgot to add before that I am a medical student myself and will be selling these stethescopes to friends. There RRP is around 50GBP for a cheap one and as students I am sure everyone would much appreciate any way of getting them cheaper!

jobbingmusician

ABDK wrote: »

Hi,

All of advice has been very useful, However I am still slightly bamboozled about the steps I need to take next and was not sure if my idea is or inst a non-profit organsiation.

What I was planning on doing was selling stethescopes to medical students cheaply by buying in bulk. My argument for setting up as a non-profit organsation was that I will not be making any profit from this and I will selling to students for their educational puropses. My motivation for setting up a non-profit organisation was that by doing this is I was hoping I might be able to claim back VAT and therefore sell the stethescopes even cheaper. But I must emphasize again I would not be making any profit.

If you any ideas or suggestions I would be very greatful or if you dont think my idea will get off the ground please let me know. Thanks in advance!!

Amit

You need to set up a trading company which will covenant all its profits back to a charity. So I suspect you would need to set up a charity as well, sadly. In older times a charity would have taken your profits and processed them for you, but no one will do that nowadays because of the risk of money laundering....

Not much idea how to set up a trading subisdiary, I'm afraid, but NCVO may well be able to help.

PS Just to say that Savvy Sue's advice on this thread is, as ever, excellent throughout.... (no association, although we did exchange letters once!)

PS About CVS - to find your local one go to http://webdb.navca.org.uk/home.aspx

Savvy_Sue

jobbingmusician wrote: »

PS Just to say that Savvy Sue's advice on this thread is, as ever, excellent throughout....

But don't ever discount what fengirl says, I have a feeling she has more 'current' knowledge than me.

fengirl_2

You dont just start a not for profit organisation by declaring that its 'not for profit'! This is why I dislike the coining of this term as it has no legal status in the UK and is misleading - not least to the people involved in running them!
This is all tied up with taxation legislation - if you are an individual who is trading, then you are self employed and liable to income tax, if you are a partnership or a company which does not have charitable purposes, then it is similarly liable to tax.
If you are truely buying and selling stethoscopes, or whatever, and not making a profit, then the simplest thing would be to just start trading and declare nil profits. If, however, you are going to need donations or grant income in order to develop the service, then you might want to start a charitable organisation which requires the writing of a constitution or Mem and Arts. If you are making profits, but want to put them back into the community (or into training doctors, for instance), then you probably want to start a Community Interest Company (which can NEVER be charitable).
You dont necessarily need to have a separate company to trade through - if the trade contriutes to the charitable objects, then the charity can trade with no limits as this is regarded as primary purpose trading. For instance if your charity's objects were to train doctors, then selling them medical equipment would be contributing to those objects and so be allowable within the charity. If, however, you were selling them cars, this would need a separarte trading company as cars will not contribute to their training.
You need one to one advice from either your CVS or Coperative development Agency. Although be aware that each might have their own agendas - depending on how they are funded!