Charity

Charity is a term with several distinct, but related, meanings. The term is usually traced to the Latin caritas, one of several Latin words for love (along with eros and agapé. The second, related meaning of charity alludes to action based in (love?), especially care for, or concern about, others.

In law, the concept of "charitable" purpose has a technical meaning growing out of the second definition, which is still not quite the same as the way that the word is used in normal language. This leads to unending confusion in discussions of charity. In common law jurisdictions, the concept derives loosely from the meandering list of charitable purposes in the Statute of Charitable Uses 1601, interpreted and expanded in a considerable body of case law. (The Statute of Charitable Uses and the more well-known Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 were adopted by Parliament in the same year.) In a British court ruling, Commissioners for Special Purposes of Income Tax v Pemsel (1891), Lord McNaughten identified four main categories of charity: (1) relief of poverty, (2) the advancement of education, (3) the advancement of religion, and (4) other purposes considered beneficial to the community.

Reflecting the ambiguities in the term charity in law and culture, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) uses the term public charity to define a broad class of nonprofit corporations, distinguished from other tax-exempt entities also known as nonprofits.