Setting uo a non-profit organisation

[quote]Alex,

I notice that your e-mail is almost a year ago so you may have already established something. I am in the same position as you were in back then- only I would like to set up an orphanage in kenya and haven't yet found someone to help me found it. Do you have any learnings for me? I too am wondering about whether I should set up a charity or collaborate with an existing one and I don't know what the pros and cons are of each or even how to set about doing this. Any advice you have would be gratefully received![/quote]

Regarding the orphanage in Kenya - a word of advice. Please see the following link of African NGOs in Kenya.

[url]http://www.unpan.org/NGO-Africa-Directory/index.htm[/url]

I would STRONGLY recommend that you partner with existing community-based organizations. My organization - [url]www.imani-development.org[/url] operates under this principle - of supporting existing organizations and community groups run by African peoples. Too often well-intentioned outsiders set up charities that do not operate according to the needs of local people but instead impose their own agenda. You must also bear in mind that respect African cultural traditions and values must be at the forefront of any development progranmmes.

> Do you mean the Indian Embassy Sandre?

The latest post on thread was about setting up in Kenya, so no :)

However, what Graham said about restrictions/regulations on NGOs operating in country applies anywhere - the Embassy for that country should be able to advise.

If there are no restrictions on what you want to do - and there may not be - please still make sure that you *really* understand the need and make every effort to contact relevant authorities/Ministries. Otherwise it's just paternalism. (Remembering someone randomly deciding to go and set up an alternative health service in an African country without reference to the authorities. Alternative health is a Good Thing - but not when most of the people in the country don't even have clean water. Someone who really wants to help will ask people what they need/want rather than deciding for them.)

Do you mean the Indian Embassy Sandre?

Alex - I'd recommend you get up to speed with Indian law regarding foreign NGOs. I know that they have certain restrictions (quite heavy compared to other developing countries if I recall correctly). The Indian Embassy (or another NGO if you're going to partner with them) should be able to clarify (the changes came in just as I left international fundraising for UK based work).

Hope this helps

Best bet for finding out who is working in the area already is the Kenyan Embassy. For what you are trying to do, I would suggest that collaboration with an existing charity will get best results for your evident enthusiasm.

Alex,

I notice that your e-mail is almost a year ago so you may have already established something. I am in the same position as you were in back then- only I would like to set up an orphanage in kenya and haven't yet found someone to help me found it. Do you have any learnings for me? I too am wondering about whether I should set up a charity or collaborate with an existing one and I don't know what the pros and cons are of each or even how to set about doing this. Any advice you have would be gratefully received!

Smaller organisations MAY register as charities, but HMRC will register for gift aid if your purpose is charitable in law.

I recently did a quick guide to the implementation of the new Act which is on the FINE website (events, 2006 and all that) and includes links to the main sources of info - [url]www.fine.org.uk[/url]

In practice, if you're aiming to go for Gift Aid, and if you're aiming to grow, registration is probably advisable, though waiting until the CIO comes in may be your best course.

Cheers

Gerry

Just seeking clarification on the subject of setting up a charity. I have recently set up a non-profit organization limited by guarantee, but as it is very new, it does not yet have an income. I understand that in order to register a charity with the Charity Commission, it has to have an annual income of £10,000. If a company cannot register as a charity as it does not have the required level of income, does it still qualify for tax benefits and the other benefits that go with it such as Gift-aid?

Usual question - this is getting to be my catchphrase...

Why set up a new charity when there are hundreds out there working in the same field?

And another question - why not affiliate with an existing organisation in India, rather than starting from scratch?

If it's going to need a great deal of funding, then setting up as a charity is the only sensible option: you're throwing away reclaimable tax otherwise. I'm not quite sure what you think the cost for setting up a charity is, but I dimly remember setting up a limited company and an associated charity registration for under £100 a while back. I think the charity part of that was free, at the time.

But as well as a charity number, you're going to need to be able to make a very good case for why people should support your organisation rather than a more established one: if you can't establish that you've got a way to achieve more with less money than existing organisations, it's going to be very hard going. The only charities I've seen succeed from this sort of start is ones that have had a small group of initial supporters who had enough enthusiasm to throw tens, often hundreds of thousands of pounds of their own money in to get it off the ground until the charity had a track record of success.