From today Aniridia Network has full charity status.

Previously we were only registered with HMRC as a charity to let us claim Gift Aid on donations.

For many years we’ve wanted to register with the Charity Commission, to get the talisman of a proper charity number and all that brings. However, until recently we were not big enough to qualify and didn’t have the time to work on it. That’s now changed.

The Charity Commission accepted our registration to be a charitable incorporated organisation. This took a lot of preparation work by trustees. It also required a vote at the annual general meeting in September 2015. There members voted for a process that would technically close the existing association and create a new one that could register as a full charity. As part of this we have also dropped the ‘UK’ from our name.

The 2018 annual general meeting at this year’s conference will therefore be the first for the new organisation. You can read the new Aniridia Network CIO governing document.