Charitable purposes and how to write them

What are charitable purposes?

Your organisation’s purposes are usually set out in the objects, aims or purposes section of the governing document. The purposes say what your organisation has been set up to achieve, and should reflect its broad aims rather than the day-to-day activities. Anyone reading the purposes in your governing document should be able to get a clear picture of what your organisation intends to achieve.

You do not have to use the wording from the charitable purposes in the 2005 Act, as long as it is easy to see from your organisation’s purposes how they relate to the ones set out in the 2005 Act.

You only need to have one charitable purpose to meet this requirement of the charity test. Generally, the more charitable purposes an organisation has, the more information we need in your application about how you will advance them. This can cause delays in the application process, and it is often better to focus on a small number of clear charitable purposes at the start.

Charities can apply to us for consent to change their charitable purposes as their activities and aims change over time.

How to write charitable purposes

Each purpose you have must fit within at least one of the 16 charitable purposes set out in the 2005 Act.  

Unclear or badly worded charitable purposes might mean that there is a delay with your application or that it may be refused.

Making sure that the charitable purposes are clear and understandable should help you to communicate with your beneficiaries, the public and us about what your organisation, does or wants to do.

There are a number of ways that you can identify what charitable purposes you may have. If you already have a governing document with an aims or objects section then this is where you would start.

If you are writing (or rewriting) your purposes you could ask the following questions:

• What will the charity do? What are the activities or projects it intends to run?
• Why is it doing these things? What does it aim to achieve?
• Which of the charitable purposes does this best relate to? (it may be more than one)

You could use the following wording to structure your purposes, although you don't have to:

‘To advance… [charitable purpose] by… [very brief outline of activities]’

‘To promote… [charitable purpose] by… [very brief outline of activities]’

‘To provide… [charitable purpose] by… [very brief outline of activities]’

‘To relieve… [charitable purpose] by… [very brief outline of activities]’

If you intend to benefit a particular group of people or a particular geographical area, then this should be clearly stated too. For example:

‘To advance the health of under 16s living in Fife by providing healthy eating and fitness sessions in schools.’

You can get help and advice from a number of organisations when you are writing the purposes. Some charities are set up to benefit specific groups of people who have one or more of the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010, which are:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

If your charity limits its benefits to any group that shares a characteristic protected by the 2010 Act, then that restriction must be stated in your governing document, and you should be able to explain the reasons for the restriction. Our Charities and the Equality Act 2010 guidance gives more detail on how charity and equality law interact.