Do schools actually need to register their charity groups? 17 March at 11:50AM in Charities 4 replies 121 views

Parkhall

Our school wants to form a group which will raise money for a poor country. Then teachers and students will travel to that country and spend the money on aid for the needy. Does this group need to register as a charity?

sevenhills

I guess it would depend on the charities income and if those donating require it to be registered.
Is it the intension that the charity will pay for flights? If so, we are talking about the charity having monies in the many hundreds of thousands.
So I would say it does need to be registered, with a chairman and treasurer etc.
https://charitycommission.blog.gov.uk/2016/03/22/want-to-set-up-a-charity-three-big-questions-to-consider/

Savvy_Sue

If there is already a charity working in thar area, it's often a better idea to link with that. As the links above show, registration of a new charity is not a trivial matter.

NorthYorkie

Why do the teachers and students need to travel to that country? Why cannot you raise funds for an existing charity already working in that country? That would be much simpler. 

Undervalued

NorthYorkie said:

Why do the teachers and students need to travel to that country? Why cannot you raise funds for an existing charity already working in that country? That would be much simpler. 

That would be my question too.

I may do doing them an injustice, however my reading of the OP would suggest that this charity would be more for the benefit of the teachers and students than for the "needy" in the poor country?

This seems to me to be a variation on the many "charities" that seem to exist more for the careers and salaries of the people involved, with the level of benefit to the actual charitable aim being secondary.

Hopefully I am wrong in this case?