• preventing or relieving poverty, or advancing the arts, culture, heritage or science.
• It has to be established exclusively for what is known as public benefit (see below). That means its only purpose must be charitable.
• Charities can’t make profits. All the money they raise has to go towards achieving their aims. A charity can’t have owners or shareholders who benefit from it.

Charities have to state what their charitable objectives are in order to be registered with the Charity Commission, and then explain how they are meeting them in their annual reports, which are publicly available. You can read more about how charities make themselves accountable in the accountability and transparency section.