Stonewall no longer meets the public benefit requirements of a charity. Unfortunately the Charity Commission is an absolutely toothless organisation that seems incapable of stripping an organisation of charitable status.
The public benefit requirement for a charity states (my bolding):
For an organisation to be a charity, each of its purposes must be for the public benefit. The Charities Act 2011 calls this the ‘public benefit requirement’.
The public benefit requirement has two aspects:
The ‘benefit aspect’
To satisfy this aspect:
a purpose must be beneficial - this must be in a way that is identifiable and capable of being proved by evidence where necessary and which is not based on personal views
<strong>any detriment or harm that results from the purpose (to people, property or the environment) must not outweigh the benefit - this is also based on evidence and not on personal views</strong>
The ‘public aspect’
To satisfy this aspect the purpose must:
benefit the public in general, or <strong>a sufficient section of the public - what is a ‘sufficient section of the public’ varies from purpose to purpose</strong>
not give rise to more than incidental personal benefit - personal benefit is ‘incidental’ where (having regard both to its nature and to its amount) it is a necessary result or by-product of carrying out the purpose