[Osmf-talk] Community Interest Company

[David Earl]

On 18/08/2009 16:09, Jonathan Bennett wrote:
> One possible problem is that CICs cannot carry out "political"
> activities[4], which campaigning for release of public data could be
> seen as. I've tried wading through the legalese of the regulations to
> see if this is the case, and there does seem to be a clause that says
> such activities are allowed as long as they're "incidental", but IANAL.

The same is true of charities, but the rules are much more relaxed than 
they used to be. You can campaign for political change that will further 
the aims of the organisation, but the campaigning can't be an aim in 
itself. Campaigns can't be indefinite either: they need to have a goal.

Charitable status is on top of whatever organisational structure you 
might choose for an organisation, and basically gives certain 
concessions (like tax breaks) in return for the organisation doing a 
public good, defined fairly generously by the rules.

Charitable status also gives access to many sources of grant funding 
that you can't otherwise get. Funders often use charitable status as an 
indication that the commissioners have given a stamp of authority to the 
validity of the organisation.

David