On Thursday we finally heard back from the Charity Commission that they have agreed to register us as a charity, number Registered Charity, No.1144513.

Thank you all very much indeed for your support, patience and forbearance over the last few months (and years!) while we have been sorting this out, and to everyone who turned up to amend our Objects a few weeks ago.

This is obviously a hugely significant step for us as an organisation. It is also a recognition of the quality of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement as a whole - the Charity Commission in their decision took pains to distinguish Wikipedia from a random collection of information on the Internet, which is what they were worried we were.  And we're also told this it's a significant development in charity law. (Well, if it was really simple, we would have done it ages ago...)

We'd like thank to our lawyers (Stone King) and to John Byrne and Steve Virgin who have carefully navigated our path along this journey. You can find out more on our blog -http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2011/11/charity/

We already have Gift Aid forms working (why not fill one in here? http://donate.wikimedia.org.uk/thanks-gift-aid ) and we'll be doing our best to make sure we can get Gift Aid on as many donations as possible in this Autumn's fundraiser, which starts next week.

We've been holding off the announcement to try to maximise our press coverage, but please now join the Board in cracking open a metaphorical bottle of champagne... :-D

Regards,

Chris

(on behalf of the Wikimedia UK Board)