What is meant by charitable class? A charitable class is a group of individuals that may properly receive assistance from a charitable organization. A charitable class must be either large enough that the potential beneficiaries cannot be individually identified, or sufficiently indefinite that the community as a whole, rather than a pre-selected group of people, benefits when a charity provides assistance. For example, a charitable class could consist of all individuals located in a city, county, or state. This charitable class is large and benefits to it benefit the entire geographic community. If the group of eligible beneficiaries is more limited, such as employees of a particular employer, the group of individuals eligible for disaster assistance (the class) must be indefinite. Otherwise, the charitable class would consist of a pre-selected group of people, which is prohibited. To benefit an indefinite charitable class, the relief program must be open-ended and include employees affected by the current disaster and those who may be affected by a future disaster. In this situation, the total number of potential members making up the charitable class cannot be counted or identified. Thus, while it may be possible to identify the employees who were victims of a present disaster (which is prohibited as pre-selection), it is not possible to identify employees who could be affected by future disasters. Accordingly, if a charity follows a policy of assisting employees who are victims of all disasters, present and future, it would be providing assistance to an indefinite charitable class. Caution: If the facts and circumstances indicate that a newly established disaster relief program to help employees is intended to benefit only current beneficiaries without any intention to provide for future disasters, a charitable class would not be present.
