Also known as: relieving poverty · poverty relief · charitable relief · poor relief
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A charitable purpose consisting of providing assistance to individuals experiencing financial hardship.
Roberto Reyes transferred farmland and cash into a trust directing the trustee to make low-interest loans to local family farms struggling with debt. The trustee began distributing funds only to farms owned by Reyes family members. A neighboring commercial operator objected that the distributions served private interests rather than the relief of poverty for an indefinite class.
Rebecca Ross left property in trust to aid worthy persons in her hometown who had fallen on hard times. The will contained no restriction to those in actual poverty and allowed distributions based on general merit. The court held the trust invalid because the purpose was merely benevolent rather than directed to the relief of poverty.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Ralph Richardson created a trust to maintain a city park for public recreation. The instrument limited access to a favored racial group. A court challenge asserted that the restriction prevented the trust from qualifying as one for the relief of poverty or other community benefit because it excluded an indefinite portion of the public.
The trust must direct benefits toward persons experiencing financial hardship rather than conferring private economic advantages on selected individuals. Distributions limited to family members or repeat clients of a single business fail this test because they do not serve an indefinite class in need.
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A benevolent purpose expresses general generosity without requiring that recipients be poor. A purpose for the relief of poverty requires that the beneficiaries be selected because they lack financial resources, and failure to impose that limit renders the trust noncharitable.
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Yes. The purpose remains charitable even when some benefits reach persons who are not poor, provided the dominant intent is to assist those in financial need and the class of beneficiaries is indefinite.
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No. When eligibility is limited to repeat patients of one private clinic and the services are elective rather than essential, the arrangement primarily advances private interests and does not constitute relief of poverty for an indefinite class.
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…some modifications, has since prevailed: " Charity' in its legal sense comprises four principal divisions: trusts for the relief of poverty; trusts for the advancement of education; trusts for the advancement of religion; and trusts for other purposes beneficial to the community, not falling under any of the preceding…