Charities Aid Foundation
international charitable organization based in UK

The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) is a registered UK charity that operates in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Canada. It works with companies, private philanthropists, regular donors, fellow foundations, governments, charities and not-for-profit enterprises to enable them to give more.
In late 2021, CAF was listed by the UK Charity Commission as the country's fourth largest charity by income. It serves as regulatory experts to ensure funds reach charities and social enterprises as quickly and safely as possible via its charity validation which enables effective cross-border giving. CAF also wholly owns CAF Bank, a fully regulated bank that serves more than 14,000 UK-based charities and social enterprises.
CAF Group consists of Charities Aid Foundation and its subsidiaries in the UK including CAF Bank; CAF America; the CAF American Donor Fund and CAF Canada.
CAF's head office is located in Kent, and the charity has a second UK office in central London.
In addition to offices in the UK, America, and Canada, CAF leads a network of independent philanthropic organisations in several other countries.
As well as offering a range of services to charities, philanthropists and businesses, CAF researches charitable giving. CAF produces the World Giving Index as well as the UK Giving report – the largest multi-year study of giving behaviour in the UK.
History
In 1924, the National Council of Social Service set up a Charities Department to encourage efficient giving to charity.
The public source identifies “Charities Aid Foundation” as international charitable organization based in UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Charities, Foundation and international.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5074455. VIAF identifies the subject as 128640307. The Library of Congress control number is n81086887. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2021 and 1924.
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This entry incorporates text from “Charities Aid Foundation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.