On Thursday we finally heard back from the Charity Commission that they
have agreed to register us as a charity, number Registered Charity,
No.1144513.
Thank you all very much indeed for your support, patience and forbearance
over the last few months (and years!) while we have been sorting this out,
and to everyone who turned up to amend our Objects a few weeks ago.
This is obviously a hugely significant step for us as an organisation. It
is also a recognition of the quality of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia
movement as a whole - the Charity Commission in their decision took pains
to distinguish Wikipedia from a random collection of information on the
Internet, which is what they were worried we were. And we're also told
this it's a significant development in charity law. (Well, if it was really
simple, we would have done it ages ago...)
We'd like thank to our lawyers (Stone King) and to John Byrne and Steve
Virgin who have carefully navigated our path along this journey. You can
find out more on our blog -http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2011/11/charity/
We already have Gift Aid forms working (why not fill one in here?
http://donate.wikimedia.org.uk/thanks-gift-aid ) and we'll be doing our
best to make sure we can get Gift Aid on as many donations as possible in
this Autumn's fundraiser, which starts next week.
We've been holding off the announcement to try to maximise our press
coverage, but please now join the Board in cracking open a metaphorical
bottle of champagne... :-D
Regards,
Chris
(on behalf of the Wikimedia UK Board)