As part of its engagement process to ensure full compliance with the Charities Act 2009, the Charities Regulator has partnered with the network of 21 Volunteer Centres across the country and Volunteer Ireland to offer support services to charitable organisations that have yet to complete their registration with the Regulator.
Each Volunteer Centre will act as a ‘registration hub’ to support organisations to register with the Charities Regulator.
Speaking at the announcement of the venture, Head of Registration for the Charities Regulator, Eamon O’Halloran said:
“Under the Charities Act 2009, all charities operating in Ireland were required to register with the Regulator by last April and failure to do so is an offence. However, the Regulator accepts that there are many organisations out there that may require some assistance in completing their application."
“While there has already been a strong level of engagement from the sector, international practices have shown that initiatives such as this have a direct impact in increasing compliance with the law, which is why we commissioned this venture."
“The Regulator will also be using this process to help identify any dormant charities and reminding these organisations that should they continue to fail to engage that they will lose their charitable status.”
Nina Arwitz, CEO of Volunteer Ireland, added “Charities come in all shapes and sizes including many smaller, volunteer led charities who might need extra support in completing their registration. Volunteer Centres are at the hearts of their local communities with strong links to local groups and are the perfect fit to provide this support. We encourage any charity yet to complete their registration with the Charities Regulator to contact their local Volunteer Centre and avail of this support."
At present the Regulator is engaged with around 12,500 organisations at varying levels, this includes 8500 Charities that held a CHY number with the Revenue Commissioners in October 2014, 1500 new applications for registration and a further 3600 applications from Schools. It is our aim to finalise these registrations and produce a fully up to date register of charities over the next 12 months.
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Notes to Editor
Volunteer Centres will act as local support hubs throughout Ireland for charities to register with the Charities Regulator. They will provide a schedule of drop in times, advertised locally, that will facilitate groups to comply with the legislative requirement to register as a Charity. Volunteer Centres will make available to organisations the necessary physical and electronic resources to equip them to complete the Charities registration process. It is important to note that Volunteer Centres are providing a support role rather than a regulatory role. Contact details for each Volunteer Centre can be found online:
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