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Becoming a Charity
- What is a charity?
- Meeting the charity test
- Preparing for your application
- How to apply
- Resume an application
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Meeting the Charity Test: Guidance
- Introduction
- Charitable purposes and how to write them
- (a) the prevention or relief of poverty
- (b) the advancement of education
- (c) the advancement of religion
- (d) the advancement of health
- (e) the saving of lives
- (f) the advancement of citizenship or community development
- (g) the advancement of the arts, heritage, culture or science
- (h) the advancement of public participation in sport
- (i) the provision of recreational facilities, or the organisation of recreational activities
- (j) the advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation
- (k) the promotion of religious or racial harmony
- (l) the promotion of equality and diversity
- (m) the advancement of environmental protection or improvement
- (n) the relief of those in need
- (o) the advancement of animal welfare
- (p) any other purpose that may reasonably be regarded as analogous to any of the preceding purposes
- Public benefit
- Private benefit
- Disbenefit
- Undue restrictions
- Use of assets
- Ministerial direction or control
- Party political purposes
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Preparing for your application: Guidance
- 1. Do you need to be a charity?
- 2. Who will run the charity?
- 3. Do the charity trustees understand their responsibilities?
- 4. Where will you get funding from?
- 5. What activities do you plan to carry out?
- 6. Where will the charity be based?
- 7. What assets and ongoing costs might you have?
- 8. Have you chosen your charity’s legal form?
- 9. Have you written the organisation’s charitable purposes?
- 10. Have you prepared the correct governing document for the proposed charity?
- Ready to apply?
- Cross-border charity regulation in Scotland: Guidance
- Cross-border charity regulation
- Online application to become a charity: Guidance
- Help and advice for Scottish charities
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Managing a Charity
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Managing charity trustees
- Guidance and good practice for charity trustees
- Registration Logo
- Trustee information & guidance pack
- Being a charity in Scotland
- Adding and removing trustees from your charity
- Disqualification criteria for charity trustees
- Who's in charge: Control and independence in Scottish charities
- A brief guide to grant giving
- Charities and campaigning on political issues: guidance
- Safeguarding guidance
- Guidance on disqualification criteria for charity trustees and those undertaking a senior management function from summer 2025
- Apply for an exemption from publication of trustee details
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Charity accounting
- Receipts & payments accounts
- External scrutiny
- Trustees' Annual Report Guidance
- Accounting Glossary
- A guide to charity accounts
- Fully accrued accounts
- Trustees' Annual Reports
- Receipts & payments accounts work pack
- Charity reserves: Guidance
- Charities and trading: guidance
- Charity investments guidance
- Annual reporting
- Using OSCR Online
- Responsibilities of SCIOs and other legal forms
- Making changes and reorganising
- Closing your charity
- Fundraising
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FAQs
- Managing trustees
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Managing charity trustees
- Forms
- Raise a Concern
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News
- OSCR welcomes latest proposals to improve charity regulation
- Guidance on charity trustee disqualification
- Interim Inquiry Report: West Wemyss Community Trust Limited (SC043268)
- Webinar: Changes in Law Affecting Charities Working with Children and Protected Adults
- Inquiry report: The King’s Foundation (SC038770)
- Updated SORP: Charities encouraged to respond to consultation and be ready for change
- Website maintenance - 31/03/25
- Get ready for new charity regulations coming this year
- Companies House introduce new identification verification service
- Applying to dissolve a solvent SCIO: top tips to get it right
- Public holiday office closure May 2025
- Updated guidance for Scottish charities on campaigning about political issues
- Guidance on the Israel-Gaza conflict for Scottish charities
- OSCR: a regulator, not a mediator
- Charities asked to prepare for changes to the Scottish Charity Register
- Fundraising Regulator publishes new Code of Fundraising Practice
- OSCR launches new checking facility for charity trustees
- The Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 changes – are you ready?
- Give us your views on important changes to charity law
- OSCR publishes Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24
- Stay up to date with OSCR notices and alerts
- Inquiry Report: SC042623 The Great Scottish Tapestry Charitable Trust
- Join the OSCR WhatsApp channel
- Katriona Carmichael appointed as OSCR's new Chief Executive
- Scottish Ministers test demand for review of key aspects of charity law
- OSCR’s Chief Executive
- Charity law has changed
- The Notifiable Events process has been replaced: changes in the way charities report important issues to OSCR
- Coming soon: changes to charity law and the way we regulate
- Does your charity own land and property in Scotland?
- Improvements to the online annual return process
- OSCR removes another 48 charities from the Scottish Charity Register
- Is your online annual return deadline coming up?
- Interim Inquiry Report: AK McCosh Trust for Coulter Church (SC006875)
- UK Charity Regulators write to banks over charity banking
- OSCR removes 30 more charities from Scottish Charity Register
- VIDEO: Top tips on what makes a good, well-managed Scottish charity
- VIDEO: OSCR’s vision for the next three years
- VIDEO: OSCR’s Regulatory Priorities 2023-26
- VIDEO: OSCR’s refreshed approach to inquiries
- OSCR removes 31 charities from Scottish Charity Register
- Interim Inquiry Report: ZesT Football Club
- VIDEO: How does OSCR handle concerns about Scottish charities?
- Become a member of the Scottish Third Sector Tracker
- Updated Interim Inquiry Report: Pollokshields Development Agency
- OSCR publishes Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23
- OSCR adds new features to updated Sector Overview Report
- What do the changes to Scottish charity law mean for you?
- Inquiry Report: Free Wheel North
- OSCR becomes a Volunteer Charter Champion
- OSCR's Corporate Strategy 2023-26
- OSCR launches new podcast
- Interim Inquiry Report: Pollokshields Development Agency
- OSCR launches new Inquiry Policy
- OSCR publishes new Sector Overview Report
- Inquiry reports: The World's Big Sleep Out Trust & Social Bite Fund
- Revitalising Trusts project tracks down millions for public benefit
- Turkey-Syria earthquake: Safe methods of giving support
- 2022 in numbers
- Share your views on the new Charities Bill
- Video: Learning points for charity trustees webinar
- OSCR welcomes publication of new Charities Bill
- Celebrating Trustees' Week
- New report on Charity Reserves Management
- Marieke Dwarshuis has been appointed as the new Chair of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR)
- Statement on the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
- Providing trustee information to OSCR
- OSCR Online unavailable due to essential maintenance: 10–12 May
- OSCR updates automatic disqualification guidance ahead of new charity law changes
- Interim inquiry report - Free Wheel North, Scottish charity number SC039789
- Interim Inquiry Report: Teddy Bear Foundation
- Interim Inquiry Report: Dudgeon Park Community Centre
- New OSCR Board members announced
- Mark your calendar: Get ready to submit charity trustee information from 30 June 2025
- Towards the new SORP
- Reduced OSCR phone service on 10 June 2025
- Prepare now for new automatic disqualification criteria coming 31 August 2025
- Scottish Government launches consultation on proposed changes to SCIO Dissolution Regulations
- OSCR launches charity trustee information requirements to strengthen transparency in the sector
- How to add charity trustee information in OSCR Online
- Improvement to the Record of Removed Persons search
- Inquiry report: Free Wheel North (SC039789)
- New charity banking guide published by the Charity Finance Group
- Board Members reappointed to the Scottish Charity Regulator
- Inquiry report: Nicholas James Lee Gray LLC
- Strong early response as Scottish charities embrace new charity trustee reporting
- We are recruiting for a new Board member
- New OSCR Online features make charity trustee submissions easier
- Inquiry Report: Clan Donald Lands Trust (SC007862)
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