Cy-près

As near as possible (from the old French, literally "near to").

In the context of charities, the cy-près doctrine allows the wishes of a donor to charity to be carried out even if the original purpose of the gift has failed. For the doctrine to apply, the new purpose should be as close as possible to the original purpose.

The Charity Commission has a statutory power to apply the cy-près doctrine to charities whose existing trusts can no longer be carried out (for example, because the original purpose no longer exists or has become illegal or because there are no remaining trustees).

The cy-près doctrine applies both to lifetime gifts and gifts by will. A cy-près power is often expressly included in a gift by will so that if the original charity no longer exists by the time the testator dies, the power can be used to make the gift to another charity whose purposes are as close as possible to those of the original charity.