Author: joycesawford

Tell the Charity Commission about a Change to Your Charity

Changes you can make yourself

You can change your charity’s governing document yourself if either:

  • your governing document specifies that you have ‘the power’ to make the change
  • the law (for example, the Charities Act or the Companies Act) allows you to make this kind of change

Changes allowed by governing documents

Your charity’s governing document may contain a ‘power of amendment’ that allows you to make certain changes yourself. If it does, check if:

  • the amendment you want to make is allowed by that power
  • you need to get the commission (or someone else) to approve the change

If your charity is a company or CIO, you can usually change its articles of association (for companies) or constitution (for CIOs) yourself, unless the change is a ‘regulated alteration’ (see ‘changes the commission needs to approve’).

Use this service to update your charity’s details, such as the:

  • name of the charity
  • governing document
  • contact details, address or bank account details

You can also use it to ask the Charity Commission for permission to make a change, if your governing document says you need to.


Tell the Charity Commission online

You’ll need your charity registration number to sign in

If you’re changing your charity’s name or governing document, you’ll need to upload a PDF of the decision (‘resolution’) to make the change.

You may also need to upload a PDF of your:

  • updated certificate of incorporation from Companies House, if your charity is a company and you’re changing its name
  • new governing document, if you’re a charitable incorporated organisation

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Charity fundraising appeals: using donations when you’ve raised more than you need

If your charity makes an appeal for a specific purpose or purposes, you must use the donations only for that purpose or purposes.

However, you may receive more donations than you need. For example:

an appeal to refurbish a community café might raise more than needed for the refurbishment; that is, the café is refurbished and there is money left over

an appeal to buy equipment for a playground might raise more than needed – all the equipment has been bought and there is money left over

If this happens, you have donations given for a particular purpose, but you cannot use them for this.

Look at your appeal wording. It may allow you to spend the donations on your charity’s other projects.

If not, you will need to follow the required process set out below to decide a new purpose for the donations, so that you can use them.

Donations to an appeal are usually money, but can be property of any kind. For example, goods.

More detailed information and guidance can be found here