Generate Your Compliance Checklist — Free Tool for UK Charities

Small UK charities face compliance obligations from multiple regulators: the Charity Commission (annual returns, trustee records), HMRC (Gift Aid), the ICO (data protection), and the DBS service (safeguarding checks). Each has different deadlines, requirements, and renewal cycles. Missing any one of them can trigger regulatory action.

The challenge is not that any single obligation is difficult — it is that tracking all of them across spreadsheets, emails, and shared folders creates gaps. The Charity Commission removed over 1,900 charities from the register in 2023 for late annual returns alone. In most cases, the return was not deliberately ignored — someone simply lost track of the deadline.

This tool generates a personalised checklist based on your charity's size, activities, and obligations. Required items are legal obligations or strong Charity Commission expectations for your charity's circumstances. Recommended items are additional governance good practice that strengthens your charity's position with funders, the Commission, and your beneficiaries.

Review your checklist annually, ideally at the start of your financial year. Use it to assign responsibilities among trustees and set calendar reminders for key deadlines.