It's Official! PeopleStories Passed the Charity Assessment!

I am very excited to share great news with you. PeopleStories has finally been assessed and recognised with full charity status! Yay!! ​

Some of you may think ‘What?’, I thought you have been a charity all along? Let me explain. 

Right from the start 3 years ago we knew that we wanted to set up the charity. This included formulating a clear purpose and vision that serves the world, enduring values as well as procedures and processes that ensure proper governance, use of funds and of course protection of students. 
 
PeopleStories was initially set up as a Not-For-Profit organization. Practically means that neither shareholders nor directors will receive any remuneration.  The difference to becoming a charity is the external vetting and review to ensure that we do what we’d actually set out to do, charitable work.  

​After a lengthy and thorough assessment process (close to 2 years) and a few 50-pages evidence reports to support, this review has finally concluded and authority in Hong Kong has formally granted charity status. What a milestone! ​

You now may ask ‘Why is this important?’. ​
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Well, for starters formal charity status means that donations in Hong Kong will be tax deductible and we can start thinking how we extend this to other jurisdictions. It also has a direct impact on practical matters such as applying for grants which are usually only allowed for charities.  In other words, every dollar of donation can go even further for the children of Cambodia from now.  How good is that! 
 
It is for these reasons that I am so excited about the news and I very much look forward to growing PeopleStories further with your kind support. ​​