A charitable trust is a trust organized to serve private or public charitable purposes.

A legal definition of charity includes the relief of poverty, the advancement of education, the advancement of religion or other purposes considered beneficial to the community.

Some are referred to as foundations. Charitable trusts are usually non-profit organisations or have been registered with the government of a country, and which has to account for its activities (especially financial) to the government, usually on an annual basis. There is normally an obligation to register a non-profitable charitable organisation as the public is entitled to some oversight of organisations that wish to act for the public good. In the United States because of the principle of separation of church and state churches and other religious organisations are often exempt from this legal requirement, though they are often overseen by a church hierarchy. In the United States there are complex tax law differences between private and public charities. The use of the word "foundation" in an organization's name does not impart any legal benefit, generally speaking.

In many countires the charity sector is fast growing. For example, the annual income for charities in England and Wales has risen from about 37.41 million US dollars in 1998 to about 65.47 US million dollars in 2004. Charities take over services that used to be provided by the state — like health, old age and unemployment — as the state finds it increasingly difficult to fulfil its traditional social responsibility.

Charities in different countries

Australia

In Australia non-profit organisations and charities are registered with the Australian Taxation Office as deductible gift recipients DGR .

Canada

Canada has over 75,000 registered charities. Of which more than 40% are places or worship such as churches and mosques. Other registered charities include institutions such as universities and libraries. About 23% of registered charities exist to help the disadvantaged. Annual giving in Canada is over $90 billion CDN, if one puts a dollar figure on volunteer time. The most charitable province is Newfoundland, which has the highest rate of individual donations per capita. Canadians give, on average, $239 dollars per year to charity. About one third of Canadians volunteer annually and 5% of corporations make donations. In Canada about two-thirds of the funding for charitable foundations comes from the government.

The level of government funding has recently caused controversy as cutbacks have led to problems with such programmes as food banks. Another controversy is the denial of charitable status to environmental and political groups. There have also been calls for greater regulation of the charitable sector. Recent years have seen a new breed of charities that pour most of their donations into marketing. These groups grow quickly and attract many donors but a far smaller fraction of each donation goes to help the needy.

• Charities in Canada are registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)

United Kingdom

There were over 200,000 registered charities in the UK at the start of 2005.

• The 180,000+ charities in the England and Wales are registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The Charity Commission has an online register listing them all.
• The 20,000 or so charities in the Scotland are registered with the Inland Revenue. However, in 2006 a bill will be passed and then charities will be registered with The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR ).
• The 5,000 or so charities in Northern Ireland are registered with the Inland Revenue. There is no central register of these charities.

United States

In the United States of America, the Attorney General of each state maintains a Registry of charitable organizations. Donations to charities in the United States are deductible for income tax purposes if the organization has exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, usually under non-profit organization sec. 501(c)(3) of the Tax

US tax law also allows trusts to be set up with specific provisions and get significant tax advantages, even though they do not qualify as exempt under 501(c)(3).[1] These are called Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRT) and Charitable Lead Trusts (CLT). Charitable Remainder Trusts are so named because the remainder of the assets in the trust passes to a designated charity at the death of the grantor or one or more beneficiaries. A current tax deduction is given for the portion that is determined to be the expected amount the charity will recieve in the future, which is called the remainder. During the lifetime of the primary beneficiary, a percentage of assets or a fixed dollar amount are paid to the primary beneficary. There are two primary types of CRT's: Charitable Remainder Unitrusts (CRUT) where a percentage of assets is recieved by the lifetime beneficiary and Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts (CRAT), where a fixed dollar amount is recieved. The Charitable lead trust is essentially the reverse of a Charitable remainder trust.[2] In this form the lifetime payments go to the charity and the remainder returns to the donor or to the donor's estate or other benficiaries. Thus the two types of CLT's are CLUT's and CLAT's which are analogous to CRUT's and CRAT's.

Similarly named and often confused with CRUT's and CRAT's are are Grantor Retained Unitrusts (GRUT) and Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRAT). [3], but those do not involve charitable beneficiaries and are not given the charitable deduction.

List of charities

See: List of charities

See also

• List of environmental organizations
• List of civic, fraternal, service, and professional organizations
• Charity
• Social enterprise

External links: for charity regulating bodies

• Charity Commission for England and Wales
• The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR)
• Canadian Revenue Agency
• Australian Taxation Office

External links: for news, information and services in the charity sector

International

• Charities Aid Foundation

United Kingdom

• Charity Facts
• New Philanthropy Capital
• nfpSynergy
• The Institute of Fundraising
• Intelligent Giving
• Society Guardian Voluntary Sector
• National Council for Voluntary Organisations

United States

In the United States of America, the Attorney General of each state maintains a Registry of charitable organizations. Donations to charities in the United States are deductible for income tax purposes if the organization has exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, usually under non-profit organization sec. 501(c)(3) of the Tax

External links: for evaluations of charities

United States

• The Charity Navigator
• The American Institute for Philanthropy
• Guide Star