How to find newly registered charities in England and Wales

Updated 19 October 2026. Official sources checked 19 October 2026.

Step by step: the free official route

1. Search the register of charities online

   The Charity Commission's register of charities shows what each charity does, its finances and any regulatory action. You can export up to 10,000 records from a search, and a separate search finds charities by the postcode, parliamentary constituency or local authority of their named contact.

2. Download the daily data extract

   For a complete list, use the register data download: the Commission publishes a daily extract of publicly available data in JSON and tab-delimited formats, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The main charity file was about 44 MB zipped on 19 October 2026.

3. Filter by registration date

   In the charity file, the date_of_registration field is "the date the charity was registered with the Charity Commission" (Commission data definition). Keep rows registered in the last 7 days with a registration status of Registered. Join the charity_classification file to see what each charity does, who it helps and how it helps, for example by making grants.

4. Know which charities will appear

   Usually, a charity based in England or Wales must register with the Commission if its income is over £5,000 a year, and a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) must register whatever its income. Some charities do not have to register at all (GOV.UK guidance CC21b lists them), so small charities below the threshold that are not CIOs, and those not required to register, will not show up.

5. Add Scotland and Northern Ireland if you need them

   Scottish charities are on the Scottish Charity Register kept by OSCR, and Northern Ireland charities on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register. They are separate from the England and Wales register.

What the free tools do, and what they leave to you

The register and the extract are free, official and updated daily. The work is in handling the files every week: downloading the zip, filtering by date, joining the classification file, removing personal details you do not need, and turning it into a list your team can use.