Starting a charity

When Dr Barnardo set up his first home for boys in 1870, the world was very different from today. The law has changed too. People still set up charities to help people, animals, places or things – but now you can't just give yourself a name and start collecting money.

Anyone who collects money for charity has to have an identification tag. This tag must give the name of the person collecting, the charity, and the charity's registration number.

If you want to set up a charity, you have to register it. You do this with the Charity Commission at www.charity-commission.gov.uk. This is a way of making sure that what you do is legal. And it's a way of reassuring your supporters that the money they give you will go to the causes they want to support.

You have to have a purpose for the charity – some idea of what you want it to achieve. In the UK, there are four purposes for which you can set up charities. These are:

to relieve poverty
to advance education
to advance religion
for other purposes that will benefit the community.

Can you think of a charity you know for each of these purposes?

These "charitable purposes" are the reasons for a charity's existence. What do you think the charitable purposes of Barnardo's are? Visit the Barnardo's main website to see if you were right.

Click to try a worksheet on setting up a charity.