Charities
Charities may be considering whether they can help the effort to tackle COVID-19 and its severe impact on people and communities. A charity should first consider the terms of your charity’s existing charitable purposes (sometimes known as objects). These are set out in your governing document.
Purposes that might already allow you to offer support include:
- the relief of poverty
- the relief of need hardship or distress
- the relief of the elderly
- the advancement of education or advancement in life of young people
- the advancement of health
Trustees of charities with other purposes may also be able to adapt and respond to COVID-19 either directly or indirectly.
If your existing purposes do not allow you to help, you may be able to amend your governing document to change them. But consider carefully:
- whether there are other charities that may be better placed to respond than yours.
- the wider and longer-term impacts if you use your charity’s money for purposes other than those for which it was raised. Your existing beneficiaries - whose needs may be less pressing but no less deserving - may also lose out
See guidance on changing your governing document
COVID-19 Charities Fund
Communities Minister Deidre Hargey has announced a Covid-19 Charities fund worth £15 million to help support local charities that have been impacted by the current COVID-19 crisis.
More information is expected in the coming weeks.