[Sulfolobus]

It isn't a charity as far as I can tell (or at least does not have UK charitable status): the only registered charity with Chagos in the name is the Chagos Conservation Trust[1].

This means that UK Chagos Support Association does not have to follow charity law (i.e. be open about their work among other things), have a purpose considered as "charitable" [2], be run my trustees that don't personally benefit and/or be run independently. However, they could still be doing these things but be unable to register as a charity due wanting to do things that are prohibited as a charity e.g. "benefiting interests of a narrow closed group" or "campaigning for a change of government" among others [3]

(Of course it is open to debate whether many actual charities properly fulfil the stated requirements)

[1] http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfC...

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-makes-a-char...

[3] https://www.gov.uk/how-to-set-up-a-charity-cc21a#step-1-deci...

[eli]

Thanks for the detailed answer. Even if the law doesn't require it, I'm pretty wary of donating to a cause that doesn't voluntarily open its books.

And I say that as a .IO owner who was ready to get out my credit card.

[chagosuk]

Hi all, my name's Stefan Donnelly and I am the Committee Chair of UK Chagos Support Association. Firstly, thanks for the donations for those who have chipped in!

To answer some of the questions raised about our group, we are not a registered charity. We did attempt to register but were told our aims were too overtly political to qualify as a charity. So yes we are a non-profit, entirely voluntary I should add, we have no paid staff and committee members get nothing for their work.

On where the money goes, its pretty evenly split between supporting Chagossian community projects (including training classes and Chagos Islands football team), supporting impoverished Chagossians in times of hardship and campaigning for Chagossian right to return.

Over the past year we have done a lot on the latter as the previous Government committed to 'resolving the issue,' though then did not do so. This is everything from paying for transport to protests and printing materials to promoted posts of Facebook.

For reasons of scale we haven't in the past arranged to be audited or published full accounts as it just wouldn't have been worth it for the small amount of money and limited donor base we had. As we look to fundraise more online, however, I appreciate it is reassuring to have that bit of extra detail and I think our next AGM will publish much more substantial reports on our income and spending, which we'll be happy to make public.

The point has been made before to me that the Gmail address looks at bit dodgy and transferring it over to the @chagossuport address (which we do actually hold) is certainly on the to-do list.

Hope that's answered some of the, very legitimate, concerns raised. If anyone has any further questions, on this or anything else about the campaign, feel free to ask

[frandroid]

I don't know how it works in the UK, but they could be a non-profit that's not (yet) registered as a charity. The rules for being registered as a charity in Canada preclude political advocacy like this; I wouldn't be surprised if this is similar in the UK. There is a public registry of charities, but not of non-profits.