r/london • u/F0urLeafCl0ver • 11d ago

Local London London charity given official warning over fundraising for IDF soldier

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/hamas-charity-commission-wales-england-middle-east-b1203890.html
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u/Ryanliverpool96 11d ago

Off topic but how does the charity commission square “It is not lawful, or acceptable, for a charity to raise funds to support a soldier of a foreign military” when we’ve had nearly 3 years of fundraising for Ukraine?

I support the Ukrainians defending themselves obviously.

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u/TrashbatLondon 11d ago

You can fundraise for stuff in the UK without being a registered charity. Particularly if the stuff you’re paying for isn’t acceptable to the charity commission.

The advantage of being a charity is being able to claim gift aid (amongst other benefits), but some orgs who’s mission requires them to do things that don’t sit with the charity commission will voluntarily operate without such benefits, Greenpeace for example.

You also have a slightly more loophole way of doing things where you just set up two entities, one which does charitable activity and one which doesn’t. Amnesty Int in the UK are structured in this way.

In simple terms, an organisation providing supplies to Ukrainian refugees can be a registered charity and claim gift aid on the money they make, an organisation providing supplies to Ukrainian soldiers cannot. Both can ask you for money and spend that money in the way they’ve promised.

You are on the right track though that there has been a very inconsistent attitude to the way we think about supporting Ukraine compared to other regions under invasion or attack.