The Charity Commission has registered the first three Charitable Incorporated Organisations, and received 30 applications in total so far.
The first CIO to be registered is the Lara Jones Charitable Foundation, which has been set up in memory of Lancashire backpacker Lara Jones who died while travelling in Cuba in April 2012. Lara worked as an English teacher, teaching to non-native speakers in South America. Her eponymous foundation will operate both in the UK and overseas, working to build English-language capacity in areas where such knowledge is essential to access higher education, enhance employment choices and quality of employment.
Lara's Foundation seeks to bring key individuals to the UK and provide tuition in a British Council-approved college. The individuals chosen are not children but people who are in a position to cascade down their learning and in so doing build capacity in their community.
The first two scholarships were awarded to two 49-year-old female teachers from a small village in Colombia. They were selected for a number of reasons but mainly owing to their commitment to their community.
Each scholar must undertake to return to their community and remain in the public sector for a minimum of two years after the scholarship and must agree to pass down their learning to both their students and other teachers in that community.
A statement on the website of Lara's Foundation today said: "Until now Lara's Foundation has been operated as a charitable trust through the Charities Aid Foundation. However, given the level of funds raised to date and the fact that we are now ready to award our first scholarships, it was decided that the time was right to register as an independent charity."
The second CIO registered was The Better Way to Be, a grantmaker registered in the City of London, and the third was Khushi Feet, a charity that aims to improve the lives of street children in India.
According to the Charity Commission, 107 people have started an application to register a CIO but not submitted it to the Commission yet.
A spokeswoman told civilsociety.co.uk: “The first flurry of interest has seen just over 300 calls made to our contact centre, most of which were able to find the answer to their query when directed to the information on our website. We would therefore encourage people to access the guidance and timetable on the website in the first instance.”
Registering as a CIO confers all the same benefits as registering as a charity, particularly the benefit of limited liability from contractual and certain other types of liabilities, but spares the organisation the dual administrative burden of complying with company law as well as charity law. Secondary legislation to introduce CIOs was approved by Parliament in early December 2012, finally bringing to an end the long wait for the new legal form.
At present only new charities with income of more than £5,000 are able to apply for CIO status. Registrations of other sizes of new charities, and existing charities, will be phased in over the next couple of years to allow the Charity Commission to cope with the expected demand.
