Starting a UK branch of a US charity

There are UK charities that function mainly as fundraising arms of the USA parent. Often leading members of the US charity sit on the UK charity board.

I believe that World Emergency Relief, Samaritans Purse and World Vision might fit into this category.

At the risk of Sandre and I becoming a Mutual Appreciation Society (again!), she's right. I also wanted to say, following your second post, that we have one or two of the 190,000 raising funds for the same purpose. Would your American friends consider a partnership with one of our existing charities who do similar work?

Cheers

Gerry

I'm afraid my reaction is fairly similar to Gerry's - the last thing we need is more competition in an extremely overcrowded sector. Although I'm not going to repeat him, just add the following:

Charity legislation here: [url]http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/[/url]

We do not have as high a level of individual philanthropy as you do in the US. Which is a shame. It's also partly due to not having tax breaks like you do over there - not just culture. It's not that we're mean - despite having the highest individual tax burden of any European country, we are also the most generous in Europe.

However, at the last count, there are over 190,000 registered charities in the UK. In a total population of 60 million. Add in any number of smaller groups who are not registered (not every organisation carrying out "charitable activity" in the UK is obliged to register as I understand is the case in the US). Add in any number of groups that solely carry out fundraising activities for their charity - who as Gerry has correctly said, are not allowed to register. We have plenty of overseas development charities of our own - why would anyone fund yours?

You may know all this already. But your original question doesn't indicate what research you have carried out, if any, so I thought I'd post it anyway.

Putting aside protectionism of UK charities, objectively speaking, don't you think on the basis of this evidence that you'd get a better return from raising your profile and increasing your donor base in the US?

Hello Gerry

Thank you for your very quick reply.

I realise now that I did not give the complete picture, for which I apologise.

The US charity raises funds to support child care work in Africa, and they are just looking for an extra source of funding, but without them losing control.

Hope this clarifies things a bit.

John

Hi, John

The first reaction could be a snippy, "Why? Don't they have enough money over there?"

There is nothing to prevent an American charity soliciting funds in the UK, but if they want to garner the meagre tax benefits available in our system, they'll have to have a UK charity, for which they will need trustees, who can act independently within their constitution.

Fundraising is not, in itself, a charitable activity, so the objects will need to be something else - what is the purpose of the US charity?

I'll confess that, if this turned up on my desk, on the basis of what you've said so far, I'd probably run a mile! I don't think it's ethical for an overseas charity to view the UK as a field ripe for harvesting, but equally, without some local ownership of the cause, I don't think it would raise much money.

Cheers

Gerry