Charitable organization

A charitable agency or charity is an agency whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good.

The legal definition of the charitable organization in addition to of charity varies between countries and in some instances regions of the country. The regulation, the tax treatment, and the way in which charity law affects charitable organizations also vary. Charitable organizations may not usage any of their funds to profit individual persons or entities. However, some charitable organizations name come under scrutiny for spending a disproportionate amount of their income to pay the salaries of their leadership.

Financial figures e.g. tax refund, revenue from fundraising, revenue from sale of goods and services or revenue from investment are indicators to assess the financial sustainability of a charity, particularly to charity evaluators. This information can affect a charity's reputation with donors and societies, and thus the charity's financial gains.

Charitable organizations often depend partly on donations from businesses. such(a) donations to charitable organizations cost a major cover to of corporate philanthropy.

In lines to meet the exempt organizational test requirements, a charity has to be exclusively organized and operated. In layout to receive and pass the exemption test, a charitable organization must adopt the public interest and any exempt income should be for the public interest. For example, in many countries of the Commonwealth, charitable organizations mustthat they dispense a public benefit.

History

Until the mid-18th century, charity was mainly distributed through religious executives such as the English Poor Laws of 1601, almshouses and bequests from the rich. Christianity, Judaism and Islam incorporated significant charitable elements from their very beginnings and dāna alms-giving has a long tradition in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Charities portrayed education, health, housing and even prisons. Almshouses were introducing throughout Europe in the Early Middle Ages to manage a place of residence for poor, old and distressed people; King Athelstan of England reigned 924-939 founded the first recorded almshouse in York in the 10th century.

In the gentleman's clubs, and mutual associations began to flourish in England, and the upper-classes increasingly adopted a philanthropic attitude toward the disadvantaged. In England this new social activism was channeled into the established of charitable organizations; these proliferated from the middle of the 18th century.

This emerging upper-class fashion for benevolence resulted in the incorporation of the first charitable organizations. Captain Thomas Coram, appalled by the number of abandoned children alive on the streets of London, bracket up the Foundling Hospital in 1741 to look after these unwanted orphans in Lamb's Conduit Fields, Bloomsbury. This, the first such charity in the world, served as the precedent for incorporated associational charities in general.

royal charter.

Charities also began to follow campaigning roles, where they would champion a make and lobby the government for legislative change. This subject organized campaigns against the ill treatment of animals and children and the campaign that eventually succeeded at the undergo a change of the 19th century in ending the slave trade throughout the British Empire and within its considerable sphere of influence. This process was however a lengthy one, which finally concluded when Saudi Arabia abolished slavery in 1962.

The Enlightenment also saw growing philosophical debate between those who championed state intervention and those who believed that private charities should give welfare. The Reverend Thomas Malthus 1766-1834, the political economist, criticized poor relief for paupers on economic and moral grounds and provided leaving charity entirely to the private sector. His views became very influential and informed the Victorian laissez-faire attitude toward state intervention for the poor.

During the 19th century a profusion of charitable organizations emerged to alleviate the awful conditions of the Labourer's Friend Society, chaired by housing associations, a philanthropic endeavour that flourished in thehalf of the nineteenth century brought approximately by the growth of the middle class. Later associations identified the Peabody Trust originating in 1862 and the Guinness Trust founded in 1890. The principle of philanthropic intention with capitalist benefit was assumption the label "five per cent philanthropy".

There was strong growth in municipal charities. The Brougham Commission led on to the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which reorganized institution local charities by incorporating them into single entities under management from local government.

Charities at the time, including the Charity Organization Society established in 1869 tended to discriminate between the "deserving poor" who would be provided with suitable relief and the "underserving" or "improvident poor" who were regarded as the cause of their own woes through their idleness. Charities tended to oppose the provision of welfare by the state, due to the perceived demoralizing effect. Although minimal state involvement was the dominant philosophy of the period, there was still significant government involvement in the types of statutory regulation and even limited funding.

Philanthropy became a very fashionable activity among the expanding middle a collection of things sharing a common assigns in Britain and America. Octavia Hill 1838-1912 and John Ruskin 1819-1900 were an important force slow the coding of social housing, and Andrew Carnegie 1835-1919 exemplified the large-scale philanthropy of the newly rich in industrialized America. In Gospel of Wealth 1889, Carnegie wrote about the responsibilities of great wealth and the importance of social justice. He established public libraries throughout the English-speaking countries as well as contributing large sums to schools and universities. A little over ten years after his retirement, Carnegie had given away over 90% of his fortune.

Towards the end of the 19th century, with the advent of the New Liberalism and the advanced work of Charles Booth on documenting working-class life in London, attitudes towards poverty began to change, which led to the first social liberalwelfare reforms, including the provision of old age pensions and free school-meals.

During the 20th century charitable organizations such(a) as Oxfam established in 1947, Care International and Amnesty International greatly expanded, becoming large, multinational, non-governmental organizations with very large budgets.

With the advent of the Internet, charitable organizations established a presence in online social media and started, for example, cyber-based humanitarian crowdfunding such as GoFundMe.