What is a charity or a voluntary organisation?

Voluntary Organisations are:

• set up for charitable, social, philanthropic, religious, political or similar purpose
• required to use any profit or surplus only for the organisation's purposes
• not a part of any governing department, local authority or other statutory body.

Voluntary organisations have a legal structure or status, being an unincorporated association, or a trust or company limited by guarantee. The constitution or governing document and the governing body depend on the legal structure:

• If the organisation is a registered company, the governing document will be a memorandum and articles of association and the governing body is comprised of company directors.
• If the organisation is a trust, a trust deed or declaration of trust will be the governing document and a board of trustees will govern.
• If the organisation is an association set up exclusively for charitable purposes, it will be governed by a constitution or rules, and members of the governing body have all the duties of charity trustees.
• If the organsiation is both charitable and a company, the voting members are both directors and trustees.

A registered charity may be all of the above, but is not permitted to have political objectives or undertake political lobbying other than in a generally educational sense. Only registered charities may benefit from preferential tax status.