.charity Domains for Giving and Nonprofit Campaigns
.charity was recorded in the root zone on 17 May 2018, and the IANA entry names Public Interest Registry as the sponsoring organisation, the same operator behind .org. The newest ending covered here, it was defined for charities, fundraising campaigns and public benefit projects. The nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026 shows 7,536 registrations in the zone.
Eligibility deserves a clear answer. In the policy the registry publishes, eligibility criteria are set out for .ngo and .ong alone, while this name is listed as an extension under the general registration policy with no criteria of its own. Expect no validation step, in other words. Collecting donations, by contrast, is licensed and supervised at country level, and the ending answers none of that. Try candidate names through a domain name search.
.CHARITY Domain at a Glance
- Registry Public Interest Registry (also the operator of .org)
- Root zone record 17 May 2018
- Eligibility condition No criteria specific to this ending in the registry policy
- Siblings that require validation .ngo and .ong — the seven-point test applies to those
- Registered names 7,536 (nTLDstats, 11 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .charity domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 1 - 13 servers
.charity Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
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New Registration
$14.99 /year -
Transfer
$35.50 /year -
Renewal
$39.05 /year -
Restore
$124.90
Included With Every .charity Domain
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Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
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Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
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Free WHOIS privacy
Your name, address and phone stay out of public WHOIS records, which cuts down spam and scam calls.
.charity Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .charity domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .charity address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .charity domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .charity returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.charity Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.charity Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .charity domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 1 - 13 servers
.charity Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .charity Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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The policy the registry publishes sets out no eligibility criteria specific to this ending. In that document the seven-point test applies to .ngo and .ong alone, while this name appears among the extensions governed by the general registration policy. Expect no validation at registration, in other words. Permission to raise funds is a separate matter and follows the rules of the country you operate in.
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The validation step. For .ngo and .ong the registry publishes a seven-point eligibility framework: acting in the public interest, being non-profit, staying free of government control, acting independently, being active, being structured under bylaws or governance, and acting lawfully. No matching criteria are set out for this name in the same document, so the two endings carry different signals.
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The full legal name, the registration number and a contact address come first. A donor should be able to confirm who receives the money, so show the official record and any audit reports you publish. Where the money goes comes second, and a breakdown by item convinces more than a one-line percentage. The payment flow needs an encrypted connection, installed from the SSL certificate page.
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It is a choice between recognition and clarity. .org has been associated with nonprofit bodies for decades and feels familiar to a visitor, while this ending states what you do in one word. For a main institutional address, familiarity usually wins. For a specific appeal or a foundation's relief programme, clarity moves ahead, and running both together is a common answer.
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Redirect it rather than close it. A campaign address keeps living in links, news copy and social posts long after the appeal, and shutting it down leaves those links pointing nowhere while the record of the work disappears. Keep renewing the name, redirect it to the organisation's main page and publish the outcome report there. Confirm the registration details with a whois search.
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Watching similar names and using one official address are the two effective steps. Appeals are easy to copy, so announce a campaign only from the address the public already knows and pin that address on your social accounts. Email to donors has to leave from the same domain as well, because a different sender address leaves an open door for imitation.
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