How Charities Work
Why a Charity's Staff Are Paid, and How Pay Gets Decided
The objection to charity salaries is intuitive and rests on a category error. Understanding how pay is set makes the real questions…
How Charities Work
Overheads, accounts, ratings and reading an annual report honestly.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 2 of 2
How Charities Work
The Income Mix Tells You More About a Charity Than Its Mission Statement
Where the money comes from shapes what an organisation can do, how fast it can change and who it ultimately answers to.
How Charities Work
Public Service Contracts and What Happens When a Charity Becomes a Supplier
Delivering a public service under contract changes an organisation's incentives, its independence and sometimes the population it…
How Charities Work
Campaigning, Lobbying and the Line Regulators Draw
Charities are generally allowed to campaign and generally not allowed to be political parties. Where exactly the line sits depends…
How Charities Work
Legacies Are the Most Volatile Income a Charity Has
Gifts in wills fund a substantial part of some organisations and cannot be predicted, budgeted or accelerated. That combination…
How Charities Work
What an Independent Examination Is and Why It Is Not an Audit
Small charities usually get their accounts checked by something cheaper and weaker than an audit. Knowing which one you are reading…
How Charities Work
Why a Charity Sets Up a Separate Trading Company
A shop chain or a cafe often sits inside a normal company owned by the charity. The structure exists for tax and risk reasons that…
How Charities Work
Safeguarding Failures Are Governance Failures, Not Bad Luck
Serious harm in an organisation almost always follows the same structural pattern. The pattern is visible in advance to anyone who…
How Charities Work
Why Two Charities With the Same Name Are Different Organisations
Federations, national bodies and local branches share branding and rarely share bank accounts. Donors regularly give to one while…