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Your group’s public benefit and charitable purposes

Your ‘charitable purposes’ describes what your scout group (charity), is set up to achieve and helps the general public understand what it does, who it helps and where it works (the public benefit).

These purposes should be set out in the statement of purpose or objects clause of your group constitution. This clause sets out what your scout group has been set up to achieve. Each purpose must be exclusively charitable.

It is essential that your charity purposes are clear to your trustees, beneficiaries, any funders and donors, as well as the general public.

Your charitable purposes should be published in your annual report and if your are registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, will be published in the online register of charities along with your charity information.

A charitable purpose is one that:

Why purposes are important

Your charity’s purposes are important for:

  • the Charity Commission – to decide if your organisation is a charity
  • HM Revenue and Customs – to decide if you qualify for tax relief
  • anyone joining, supporting or benefiting from your group – so they can understand what it does, who it helps, where and how it works
  • your trustees – the purposes set out the limit of what your scout group can do; your trustees must make decisions and run the group in a way that is consistent with its purposes

How to write your charity’s purposes

Your charity’s purposes should make it clear:

  • what outcomes your charity is set up to achieve
  • how it will achieve these outcomes
  • who will benefit from these outcomes
  • where the benefits extend to

Defining your group’s public benefit and charitable purposes will ensure your scout group:

  • complies with UK charity law
  • meets the requirements laid out in policy, organisation & rules
  • stays focused when planning
  • demonstrate what their charity does and the value of its work, particularly when applying for grant funding or fundraising
  • link with impact reporting and demonstrating the charity’s transparency and accountability
  • improve the overall quality of reporting on the charity’s work
  • make decisions that are consistent with those purposes

 

Example public benefit and charitable purposes