Political campaigning One of the current criteria that a charity must meet is to have aims which are clearly stated, lawful and exclusively charitable . In the consultation paper the idea of changing the word lawful and changing it to 'not against public policy' is put forward. The Centre is concerned with the possible interpretation of the term 'against public policy'. We fear it could open the way for government to discriminate against volunteers who work lawfully for charities that do not happen to agree with government policy at the time. There is an important distinction between being of public benefit and being in support of public policy .
All charities involve volunteers, even if it is confined to a trustee level.
While the interests of users, clients and the cause for which it is set up are paramount, any well run charity also needs to cherish its human resources, both paid and voluntary, and we would like to see this expectation made explicit. We are committed to providing equality of opportunity in access to membership, goods and services. National Centre for Volunteering, 2001.