Just a quick note to say that setting up a Charity is harder than you might think (probably for good reasons). However with COVID the number of new Charities that have been set up has been apparently quite high.
We started off with several meetings to agree the constitution and work out how we needed to be organised. This meant that we needed to have a set of Trustees and a Governing Document.
We thought we could just apply to be a Charity (to the Charities Commission) and filled in a lot of online forms only to be informed afterward that we needed a Bank Account…
We thought we could claim GiftAid via HMRC… but you need a Bank Account…
We tried several Banks (Lloyds, Barclay’s, HSBC, TSB) and none of them are opening up new ‘Business’ or ‘Charity’ accounts. Apparently COVID has meant that they are too busy setting up Gov’t backed loans that they don’t have time to set up new accounts.
However Metro Bank was (as of Oct 4th) still accepting new applications for Charity accounts. Two of Trustees went into the branch to sign up that day and we’ve been waiting…
Having telephoned to enquire after 2 weeks, we heard that even Metro Bank has stopped taking new applications for bank accounts – (they stopped on 9th Oct).
But today (20th October) we heard the good news… the account is now open!
Rosemary has already paid in the cheques and online JustGiving funds from her Charity walk. So we’ve got a good start in the account on the first day!
So we’re ready to accept more donations (or better still monthly Standing Orders if you want to donate that way!). Please get in touch by emailing us if you want to make a BACS transfer donation.
EMAIL: info@fosalm.org
Next step… start claiming HMRC gift aid!