Charity Registration

Most Scout groups in the UK are registered charities, and so are most districts and counties. Recording your charity registration in Scoutworks does two things: it adds a short "Registered charity no…" line to the footer of your outbound emails (which most regulators expect on official correspondence), and it sets you up for future reporting features that need to know who your regulator is.

If your unit isn't a charity in its own right — most Explorer Units aren't — or you operate below the registration threshold, that's fine. Choose Not registered / exempt / not applicable and you're done. Either way, making the declaration matters: until you do, your District sees your unit as still awaiting a response.

Where to find this#

This section lives on the Settings page. It's available at both group level (every Scout group) and district level (for districts and counties).

• Group admins open Settings from the sidebar and expand the Charity Registration section.
• District admins switch into the district using the context switcher (top-left), open Settings, and expand the same section there.

Only Group Admins can edit the group-level registration. District-level registration follows the same pattern — only district admins can edit it.

Declaring your status#

Start with Registration status. It's an active choice — Scoutworks never assumes an answer, and the three options mean different things:

If you're a registered charity#

If you're not registered#

Pick a Reason (optional) so your District knows why:

Click Save when you're done. The section header updates straight away — either "Registered as 1234567 with Charity Commission (England & Wales)" or "Marked as Explorer Scout Unit — not separately registered".

Looking up your number on the register#

If your group is registered with the Charity Commission (England & Wales) and you don't have your registration number to hand, you don't have to go digging through old paperwork — searching the register is the normal way to fill this in.

1. Set Registration status to Registered charity. Instead of a blank charity number box you'll see Find your charity, with a search field reading Search the Charity Register….
2. Click it and start typing your group's registered name. Results appear once you've typed a couple of letters.
3. Click the row that matches. The regulator, number and registered name are all filled in for you.

Once a charity is linked, it's confirmed on screen with its name and number. Change clears it so you can search again.

The lookup is only available for the Charity Commission (England & Wales) register. Scotland (OSCR) and Northern Ireland (CCNI) publish their registers on separate sites and don't offer the same kind of search, so for those you'll need to type the number in directly.

What appears on your outbound emails#

Once a charity number is saved, every branded email your group sends — RSVPs, payment requests, weekly digests, the lot — picks up an extra line in the footer:

The short tag in brackets (CC, OSCR or CCNI) tells the recipient which register your number is on. There's no extra setup — once the number is in settings, the line appears automatically.

What's next#

• Group Settings — the other Group Admin–only sections on the Settings page.
• Managing Groups in Your District — district-level admin and connected-group data sharing.
• Gift Aid — claim 25p from HMRC for every £1 your charity receives in eligible donations.