National Antivisection Society
The NAVS and charitable status
. Updated: 30 August 2011
Unfortunately for a great many non-profit groups such as the National Anti-Vivisection Society, charity law in Britain remains antiquated and based on a definition written in 1891. In fact, many activities today which society regards as charitable are not deemed charitable under this outdated definition.
This means that in order to take up charitable status, the NAVS would be obliged to give up our work for legal protection for animals, which includes drafting legislation, working with government departments and educating legislators around the world, in addition to our public education work. In our view, this work is the most important thing we can do to achieve lasting protection for animals and so our Board has made the decision that we must sacrifice the financial benefits of charitable status in order to do what is right and necessary for animals.
Although successive governments have relaxed the rules on lobbying activities by charities, the current rules would not allow us to continue with our most important work. The alternative is the creation of an expensive system of separated administrative and financial affairs. We do, however, keep this under review.
