What it means
Section 496.404 defines the working terms of Florida's charitable solicitation law, the Solicitation of Contributions Act. The definition people miss is subsection (7): “department” means the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — charity registration in Florida is policed from Agriculture, not from the Attorney General's office.
A “charitable organization” is any person established for a benevolent, educational, philanthropic, humane, scientific, patriotic, civic, or similar purpose — or one that employs charitable appeals in solicitation. “Solicitation” covers any request, direct or indirect, for money or anything of value on the representation that it will be used for a charitable purpose. Between those two definitions, very little fundraising happens in Florida outside the Act.
- Subsection (7): “department” = the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — the regulator behind chapter 496 registration.
- “Charitable organization” reaches any person organized for a listed charitable purpose or one using charitable appeals in solicitation.
- “Solicitation” includes indirect requests — anything of value sought on the representation it will serve a charitable purpose.
- The section also defines professional solicitors, fundraising consultants, commercial co-venturers, and sponsors — each with separate obligations under the Act.
- Florida's charity oversight is split: solicitation registration at Agriculture, charitable-trust enforcement at Legal Affairs.
How it plays out
This section decides which regulator a probate question goes to. When a charity named in a will can't be found, has dissolved, or looks dubious, we check its chapter 496 registration with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — that record shows whether the organization actually operates and who runs it. And when a family is solicited for memorial donations by an organization nobody has heard of, the same lookup answers the first question worth asking: is this charity registered to solicit in Florida at all?
