THE NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS ACT, 2019 (ACT NO. 25 OF 2019)

THE NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2019 (ACT NO. 28 OF 2019)

("THE NPO ACT")

Take Notice of the following:

A. Section 7 of the NPO Act, provides that a Non-Profit Organisation shall not carry out its operations unless it is registered under the NPO Act;

B. Section 2 of the NPO Act defines a Non-Profit Organisation as -

"a body of persons whether incorporated or unincorporated, formed and established for the purpose of promoting public policies or objects that are religious, charitable, educational, scientific, environmental, historical, cultural, fraternal, literary, sporting, artistic, athletic or promoting health, and whose gross annual income or any part thereof, if any, and other income are applied to the promotion of those objects, and there is a prohibition of any dividend or refund of contributions to its members, but excludes a religious or charitably founded school registered with the Ministry of Education, and any organisation with political objectives";

C. When submitting the completed registration form for an unincorporated and incorporated Non-Profit Organisation, the following must be attached to, or fully disclosed in the registration form -

  1. declaration of purposes of the NPO;
  2. proof of the identity of the controller and other members of the NPO;
  3. copies of particulars of the organisational documents; and
  4. evidence of the board structure;

Applications for registration can be downloaded from the Attorney-General's website at http://www.bahamas.gov.bs/attorneygeneral or the Registrar General Department's website http://www.bahamas.gov.bs/rgd commencing Monday, 25th May, 2020. Completed forms along with supporting documents should be submitted to the following email address: nporganisations@bahamas.gov.bs;

D. Registration forms must be completed in full. The Registrar of Non-Profit Organisations accepts no responsibility for any information that is inaccurate or incomplete;

E. Section 7 of the NPO Act provides that a person who carries on operations without registering commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) or a term of imprisonment not exceeding one year, or to both such fine and term of imprisonment; and

F. Section 25 of the NPO Act provides further, that a financial institution or a designated non-financial business and profession shall not open or maintain –

  1. a bank account; or
  2. an account ledger; or
  3. any other type account,

for a non-profit organisation unless the organisation has registered under the Act and presents evidence of such registration.

Dated this 25th day of May, 2020

E. SALLYANN LOCKHART-PRATT REGISTRAR GENERAL

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.