Charity Commission application questions explained
The Commission publishes the questions in a 9-page PDF. Your answers must satisfy it of two things: that you're a charity that should register, and that your trustees understand their role. Many questions only appear if they apply to you.
The organisation's details
| They ask | A good answer |
|---|---|
| Main name and working names | Explain any acronym, made-up or non-English word. Attach a PDF of permission for words like "Royal". |
| Public contact | A named person or organisation, with postal address, email, phone and their role. This is public. |
| Public address, email, website | A real postal address, not usually a PO box. Give a separate private address if you don't operate from the public one. |
| Email for the Commission | An address someone checks. It isn't published. |
| You, as applicant | Your role (trustee, founder or adviser), name, phone and email, and whether you're a person or a firm. |
Trustees
- how many trustees you have, and the minimum your governing document allows
- whether they're individuals or a single corporate trustee, such as a local authority
- for each: full name, previous names, postal address, email if they have one, date of birth (not for a corporate trustee), and date of appointment if applicable
Only names are published. You can give reasons why a trustee's name shouldn't be. The signed declaration goes in as a PDF. What to collect.
If you work with children or vulnerable adults, you confirm the trustees have read, understood and follow the Commission's safeguarding guidance.
Structure and governing document
The type of document, whether another organisation or umbrella body issued it, and the date it took effect, if applicable. If you're replacing an existing charity, its name and number.
What you do, for whom, where
You pick purposes from a list, then sub-options. Some purposes bring extra questions:
| Purpose | Extra questions |
|---|---|
| Religion | The tenets of faith; any moral or ethical framework; the specific ways you advance it. |
| Arts | How trustees decide work has artistic merit; how work is chosen for the public. If you promote individual artists: how their work is promoted, how they're chosen and why their personal benefit is incidental. |
| Amateur sport | Social or members-only facilities for non-players; payments or benefits to players, trainers and coaches; competitions and teams. |
| Animal welfare | How you identify animals in need; the qualifications and experience your people need; how rehoming, return or release is decided. If you'll care for sick, neglected, abandoned, lost or mistreated animals: evidence or realistic plans for people, money, facilities, vet bills and legal compliance. |
Who you help: one or more groups, with as much detail as you can. The form's own examples: children living in a specified area or attending a named school; people with a particular illness; other charities.
Where: named places, such as a county, a London borough, all of England or Wales, or named countries abroad.
Other regulators: if you're a company, the company number and certificate of incorporation. With "charity" in the name and no company yet, you apply before incorporating and send these later. If you're regulated by them, your number with Ofsted, the FCA, the social housing regulator, the CQC, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales or their Welsh equivalents.
How you provide benefit
- Purposes: exactly as written in the governing document. If they differ, explain why. It can take longer.
- How you carry them out: real activities. What, where, how often, for how many. A business plan PDF can go with it.
- Actual, demonstrable benefit: the identifiable benefit of your purposes. Some benefits are obvious; where they aren't, attach evidence.
- Restricted groups: if you only help, say, women or one faith, explain why that's justified under the Equality Act.
- Membership: if people must be members to benefit, what members get, why it's limited to members, who can join, and the reason for any cap and how places are allocated.
- Trustees' criteria: how they decide who benefits, what work to do and what work to support.
- Grants: your criteria for grants to people or organisations.
- Facilities or services: what, when the public can use them, and the reasons for any limits on who, when or what.
Benefits to people involved
You say whether the charity employs or will employ, or buys or will buy from, a trustee, the founder, a relative of either, or an organisation connected to them. If yes, attach the minutes of any meeting at which the trustees agreed it, as a PDF.
Any other benefit someone involved gets from the charity is listed separately: their name, the benefit and the connection.
If you use, or will use, premises owned by a trustee, the founder or someone connected: who owns them, how you use them, the lease or agreement, and minutes showing it's in the charity's best interests. If the premises are shared, explain how costs are split by use and why any benefit to the owner is incidental.
Minutes don't make an arrangement acceptable on their own. The trustee declaration requires payments to trustees, and payments to trustees or connected people for goods or services, to be lawful, authorised and in the charity's best interests.
Working overseas
The needs, how you'll meet them and the evidence you used to identify them. For partners abroad: who, how you chose them, the agreements, and how you'll monitor their work and the money. For your own operations: how you choose and fund activities, select staff or volunteers, and manage the risks to them.
Money, tax and assets
- Income: non-CIOs prove it's over £5,000 with a bank statement or latest accounts. A formal offer from a recognised funding body may be accepted. If you're replacing a registered charity, its latest accounts and gross income.
- Bank account: name, bank, account number and sort code (or roll number), if you have one.
- Tax relief: Gift Aid (with your HMRC number if you have one), business rates, VAT, corporation tax, investment relief. Any other tax planning, and whether HMRC knows.
Funding
| Source | They ask |
|---|---|
| Donations and legacies | How you'll identify and verify donors, and handle conditions attached to gifts. |
| Grants | Who will give them: another charity, a public body. |
| Fees and charges | What you charge for and how much. If more than poorer people can afford: how you decided that, the factors you weighed, and what provision you make for them. A charity can't exclude the poor. |
| Companies | Any company you know will donate. For sponsorship, the arrangement and why it's in the charity's interests. |
| Professional fundraisers | The arrangement and why it's in the charity's interests. |
| Loans | How the loan works. Whether the lender is connected to a trustee, employee or founder. |
Special circumstances
Tell the Commission about anything that affects your application, such as an urgent disaster appeal where the trustees haven't had time to meet and agree the governing document. If you need registration by a date, apply well before it. A started application can be saved for 3 months.