Charity Commission checks explained for funders

The Charity Commission for England and Wales maintains the public register of charities, and it is the first place a funder should look when assessing an applicant. A few minutes with the register tells you whether an organisation is what it says it is, and flags anything that deserves a closer look.

What the register tells you

For a registered charity, the public record confirms a lot:

• That the charity exists and is registered, with its official name and number.
• Its charitable purposes and the areas it works in.
• Whether its filings, accounts and annual returns, are up to date or overdue.
• Whether it is subject to any current regulatory action or concern.
• Basic financial information from its filings.

Matching the registered name and number to the applicant in front of you is the simplest, most valuable check you can make.

How to use it in due diligence

Use the register to confirm the basics and to flag exceptions, not to build a dossier. A charity that is registered, filing on time and free of regulatory concern clears the bar. Overdue filings or an open concern are not automatic disqualifiers, but they are prompts for a human to look closer and decide. Keep the result with the application so the panel sees it and you can refer to it later.

Remember that not every legitimate applicant is a registered charity. Small organisations below the registration threshold, community groups, and charitable companies may appear differently or not at all. The check is one input, not the whole judgement.

When a check cannot be completed

Registers and their interfaces are not always available. The cardinal rule is honesty: when a check cannot be completed, the result should say so plainly, and never be presented as a clean pass or a false finding. A human can then wait, check manually, or proceed with a note. A confident but wrong answer is worse than an honest "unavailable". We made this point more broadly in UK charity due diligence.

Pair it with Companies House

For charitable companies and CICs, the Charity Commission check pairs with a Companies House check on the corporate entity. Together they give a fuller picture. See Companies House checks for funders.

Grantledger runs Charity Commission checks as part of intake, stores the response for provenance, returns "unavailable" rather than inventing a finding, and keeps the result against the application for the panel.