Guide to Checking a Charity Before You Give

What section 88 means

Section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance is a tax-exemption status granted by the Inland Revenue Department. A charity on that list is exempt from tax. Donations of money to it, for charitable purposes, can be tax-deductible.

Section 88 is not a quality rating, an endorsement of the organisation's work, or a licence to collect money.

Confirm it is on the current list

Search the organisation's name on the IRD's Search for Tax-Exempt Charities. That search is the official check.

Charity Finder is updated from the IRD monthly list. It is a convenient place to read a listing, and it is not a substitute for the official search.

Match the Chinese and English names

Similar names are common. Check both the Chinese name and the English name, and look at any subsidiary or alias shown on the charity's listing, before you decide it is the organisation you mean.

Give through the organisation's own page

Donate from the charity's own website. Open that site yourself, from a web address you have checked, and use the donate page published there.

A social post, a forwarded message, or a QR code is not the organisation. If you did not open the link from the charity's own site, treat it as unverified.

Ask the charity for the receipt

Ask the charity for a donation receipt in its name. The Guide to Charitable Donations explains which gifts can be deducted and how long to keep the receipt.

If it has left the list

Organisations are added to and removed from the section 88 list. IRD updates shows recent additions and removals. Delisted charities lists organisations that were on the list and are no longer on it.

What the IRD list does not include

The monthly list is names. It does not publish audited figures. Financial information on Charity Finder is incomplete, and the year on a listing is often an older one. The audit research guide explains what those figures are.

The list is not a fundraising-permit register. A listing on Charity Finder is not an endorsement of the organisation. Read the disclaimer before you rely on a page here.