The charitable purpose of the organization must be stated in its constituent documents, and these documents must also limit the activities of the organization to this charitable purpose. For example, if the organization is a non-profit, the charitable purpose and restrictions on activities will be specified in the charter.
The organization should attach to the application any documents that describe the activities of the organization and its charitable purpose. These can be pamphlets or brochures, a website address or minutes of meetings.
Public benefit
Regardless of the charitable purpose of the organization, the charitable activity must benefit the public and the benefit of the organization’s activities must extend to the public as a whole or to a significant part of it.
To be registered as a charity, an organization must have exclusively charitable purposes. There are four categories of charitable purposes:
Poverty alleviation means helping people who lack the basic necessities of life or simple amenities available to the majority. Examples of this are food banks, non-profit housing for low-income people, and disaster relief.
Educational development means doing things that increase people’s knowledge and skills or improve human knowledge through research. Examples include establishing and operating schools, providing scholarships, or conducting research in a recognized field of knowledge and making the results available to the public.
Promoting religion means preaching and following a religious faith. For something to be considered religious, there must be worship of a deity or deities. Examples of this are establishing and maintaining a building for religious worship, providing religious instruction and missionary work.
Purposes that provide a benefit to society include a number of purposes that do not fall into the above categories but which are recognised as charitable purposes. Examples of such purposes include running an animal shelter, volunteer fire department, elderly care facility or hospital. There are some purposes that are not considered charitable, such as organizations established for political purposes and organizations established to promote sports.
If the organization is already active, copies of meeting minutes, newspaper articles, videos, CDs, fundraising materials, pamphlets, brochures, and any other items that describe the work and goals of the organization.
Specific activities that the organization will undertake to achieve its charitable purpose should be included in the application. The list of your activities is an important part of the application for registered charity status, and most delays in processing applications are due to the activities being too broad or vague. For example, if an organisation is going to establish and run a school, factors such as the location of the school, the size of the school, the pupils who will attend, who the instructors will be and their qualifications, and the pupils to be taught will all need to be detailed.
You need to answer at least these questions about your activities
What exactly does the organization do or plan to do?
How does the activity help to achieve the stated objectives of the organisation?
Where will the organization carry out its activities?
Will the organization carry out its activities itself (through employees or volunteers) or will it use an intermediary to carry out its activities?
How many employees and/or volunteers does the organization have or expects to have? Does the organization have the capacity to carry out its activities?
Who benefits from the organization’s activities and how are the beneficiaries selected?
What fees, if any, will the organization charge its clients?
How does the organization intend to raise funds?