/charitycommission/charities/search

POST /api/charitycommission/charities/search

Price: 10 credits

Search the register of charities for England and Wales by keyword, registration status, income and expenditure bands, registration and removal dates, what the charity does, who it helps, how it helps, employee benefit bands and the areas it operates in. Returns a card per charity with its registered number and latest income.

How to use it

Take `charity_number` from a card and pass it to charitycommission/charities and to the trustee, financial, annual-return, governance and linked-charity endpoints — they all key on that number. Left empty, `search_in` matches the keyword against every searchable field at once, so a bare charity number can pull in unrelated charities that merely mention it; pass `charityNumber` to pin it. Linked sub-charities carry a suffixed number such as 1089464-1 and are withheld unless `include_linked_charities` is set.

Parameters

• access-token string required

Request body

• timeout integer — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
• query string nullable — Words matched against the register; omit it to browse by the filters alone (examples: "cancer", "1089464"; minLength: 1)
• search_in array — Restrict what `query` is matched against; matched against everything when empty (default: []; one of: "charityName", "charityNumber", "charityObjectsAndActivities", "charityClassifications", "charityWhereTheCharityOperates"; examples: ["charityName"], ["charityNumber"])
• status string nullable — Whether the charity is still on the register or has been removed from it (one of: "registered", "removed")
• include_linked_charities boolean — Also return the linked sub-charities of a charity group, which carry a suffixed number (default: false)
• income_from number nullable — Lowest latest annual income in GBP (examples: 1000000; min: 0)
• income_to number nullable — Highest latest annual income in GBP (examples: 10000; min: 0)
• expenditure_from number nullable — Lowest latest annual expenditure in GBP (min: 0)
• expenditure_to number nullable — Highest latest annual expenditure in GBP (min: 0)
• registration_date_from string nullable — Earliest registration date, as dd/mm/yyyy (examples: "01/01/2015"; minLength: 1)
• registration_date_to string nullable — Latest registration date, as dd/mm/yyyy (examples: "01/01/2005"; minLength: 1)
• removed_date_from string nullable — Earliest date of removal from the register, as dd/mm/yyyy (minLength: 1)
• removed_date_to string nullable — Latest date of removal from the register, as dd/mm/yyyy (minLength: 1)
• documents_overdue boolean nullable — Set true to keep only charities whose annual documents are overdue; the register offers no way to exclude them, so false returns the unfiltered set
• grant_giving boolean nullable — Set true to keep only charities whose main way of working is making grants; the register offers no way to exclude them, so false returns the unfiltered set
• purposes array — What the charity does, as classified on the register (default: []; one of: "101:General Charitable Purposes", "102:Education/training", "103:The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives", "104:Disability", "105:The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty", "106:Overseas Aid/famine Relief", "107:Accommodation/housing", "108:Religious Activities", "109:Arts/culture/heritage/science", "110:Amateur Sport", "111:Animals", "112:Environment/conservation/heritage", "113:Economic/community Development/employment", "114:Armed Forces/emergency Service Efficiency", "115:Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity", "116:Recreation", "117:Other Charitable Purposes")
• beneficiaries array — Who the charity helps, as classified on the register (default: []; one of: "201:Children/young People", "202:Elderly/old People", "203:People With Disabilities", "204:People Of A Particular Ethnic Or Racial Origin", "205:Other Charities Or Voluntary Bodies", "206:Other Defined Groups", "207:The General Public/mankind")
• activities array — How the charity helps, as classified on the register (default: []; one of: "301:Makes Grants To Individuals", "302:Makes Grants To Organisations", "303:Provides Other Finance", "304:Provides Human Resources", "305:Provides Buildings/facilities/open Space", "306:Provides Services", "307:Provides Advocacy/advice/information", "308:Sponsors Or Undertakes Research", "309:Acts As An Umbrella Or Resource Body", "310:Other Charitable Activities")
• employee_benefit_bands array — Keep only charities reporting employees in these total benefit bands (default: []; one of: "band_60001_70000", "band_70001_80000", "band_80001_90000", "band_90001_100000", "band_100001_110000", "band_110001_120000", "band_120001_130000", "band_130001_140000", "band_140001_150000", "band_150001_200000", "band_200001_250000", "band_250001_300000", "band_300001_350000", "band_350001_400000", "band_400001_450000", "band_450001_500000", "band_over_500000")
• working_nationally string nullable — National area the charity states it operates throughout (one of: "Throughout England And Wales", "Throughout England", "Throughout London", "Throughout Wales")
• england_authorities array — English local authority areas the charity operates in, as the register names them (default: []; examples: ["Birmingham City"])
• london_authorities array — London borough areas the charity operates in, as the register names them (default: []; examples: ["Camden"])
• wales_authorities array — Welsh local authority areas the charity operates in, as the register names them (default: []; examples: ["Cardiff"])
• countries array — Countries outside the UK the charity operates in, as the register names them (default: []; examples: ["Kenya"])
• sort string — Column the results are ordered by (default: "charity-number"; one of: "charity-name", "charity-number", "charity-income", "charity-status", "charity-reporting")
• sort_direction string — Direction the chosen sort column is ordered in (default: "asc"; one of: "asc", "desc")
• count integer required — Max number of charities to return (min: 1; max: 10000)

Response

• @type string (default: "CharitycommissionCharityCard")
• charity_number string required
• organisation_number string required
• name string required
• url string required
• status string nullable
• latest_income number nullable
• reporting_status string nullable

Errors

• 422 — The request body did not validate Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.
• 408 — The request ran past its time limit Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.
• 412 — The entity was not found, or a precondition failed Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.
• 429 — Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.
• 500 — Something broke on our side Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.
• 529 — Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

Response headers

• X-Error — Error message text (present only on error)
• X-Request-ID — Unique request identifier
• X-Execution-Time — Execution time in seconds
• X-Result-Count — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
• X-Total-Available-Results — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
• X-Warning — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
• X-Retry-After — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.