Charity set up checklist

Write your charitable purposes

Charitable purposes state what your charity is set up to achieve

See these steps

Decide your charity structure

Organising the structure of your charity early on will help once you start to scale

See these steps

Choose the governing document that’s right for you

A governing document is a set of rules for the way you run your charity

See these steps

Recruit your trustees

Your trustees have the ultimate responsibility for the running of your charity

See these steps

Money Matters

It’s best to open a charity bank account before your charity becomes operational

See these steps

Apply for registration

Completing the online application to register

See these steps

What to do next:

Apply for registration

Completing the online application to register

See these steps

Keeping minutes of meetings

Keeping a minutes book is essentially just keeping a record of all your important discussions and decisions at meetings.

See these steps

Download this checklist

You can download this checklist as a PDF to keep handy and mark your progress through as you set up your charity. Just pop in your email address so we can email the PDF to you: