Charity in Spain

[Janet]

I promised at the end of last year to produce something on charities in Spain, and I've now set up THIS page on my website which includes the information from previous posts about charitable giving and foodbanks, and adds the following. Hopefully the new page will provide easy reference and clarity.

This is the new part I've added today:

Something frequently overlooked when we talk about charities in Spain is the actual word "charity", in the sense of an organization. Despite constant use of the word in fund raising activities, there is actually no direct equivalent in Spain to that which we understand as a charity in the UK. Rather, there are two types of charitable organizations: a fundación (foundation) and an asociación (association). There is a large difference between the two, since a fundación must have an asset base of €30,000 and a board of trustees as basic legal requirements, whereas an asociación is far simpler and virtually free to set up.

Even though there is no central charity commission in Spain as there is in the UK, there are strict administrative, fiscal and legal controls over the fundraising activities and expenditure of fundaciones, in addition to the requirement for them to have significant assets and a board of trustees. It is, too, only fundaciónes whose names are legally required to be registered, and only they benefit from tax relief on donations (law HERE).  An asociación can only gain such fiscal benefits if they have a declaration of "utilidad pública" (public usefulness) from the Ministerio del Interior, for which they must already have been in existence, and acting effectively, for at least two years.

From the foregoing, it will be clear that only fundaciones really equate to what we recognize as charities. This is not to say that asociaciones don't often do sterling work, but it is also fair to say that Spain has known scandal after scandal concerning bogus "charities". At the very least, I hope the above has helped provide some information for readers to begin to check that they are donating to genuine causes, rather than putting them off donating at all, because there is increasing need for, and reliance on, charitable giving in Spain at present. JA