Charitable trust

A charitable trust is a trust fund which has been established with the intention of raising money for a charity or using money gathered through the charitable trust for charitable purposes. As people are able to create a trust after their death by requesting so in their will people who have died, from a type of illness for example, will often create a charitable trust in their will in order to raise funds to benefit research into the illness they died of. The purpose of such a charitable trust is to benefit everyone and not just specific individuals, as the exemplified scenario a charitable trust fund created in the name of somebody who had died of an illness would benefit the general popular by raising awareness of the illness and funds to combat it.

There are very few limits governing what a charitable trust may or may not benefit and there are numerous examples of charitable trusts set in place to benefit, research into diseases, the armed forces and sports. A charitable trust can exist for any purpose of charity depending on the wishes of the trustee.

Setting up and maintaining trust funds can be a complicated legal procedure, however due to the beneficial nature of a charitable trust will enjoy more relaxed regulations, particularly concerning the purposes of the charitable trust as trust finds usual need to specify a very specific reason for their creation in order to be allowed.