Bounded primary-source read, 9 September 2026. Acquisition CLOSED. This is a donor-side packet; uksic records in this wave belong to the separate recipient/award lane. No case, prior reader or ZIP changed.
Finding
The premise is partly right: registry business helps finance public-benefit work. The acquired record does not describe a simple annual .uk surplus passed straight to charities. It describes a mixed business, accumulated investments/reserves, Board-agreed commitments and a further distribution step through a CAF account. This establishes resource provision, not donor direction of every recipient policy or classification.
Legal actor and corporate authority
The current official governance footer identifies Nominet UK, company 03203859, a company limited by guarantee. Its public governance description reports more than 2,000 members; that is the organisation's current account, not an inspected membership register. Corporate members are not shareholders entitled to distributed profits. [Governance page](http[local research file] substantive body and footer, read 9 September 2026.
The current-linked memorandum permits registry and related services and public-benefit contributions. Clause 3.12 authorizes donations, subscriptions, guarantees or free services for public, charitable or useful objects, with a political-party exclusion. Clause 6 directs income/capital to company objects and bars member profit distribution, subject to specified ordinary compensation/expense exceptions. This is a company constitution, not evidence that Nominet itself is a registered charity. [Memorandum](http[local research file] PDF pages 1–4 and targeted 5–7, clauses 3.12, 6, 8–9. Adoption date not established; the URL's upload directory is not that date.
The current-linked articles, amended by special resolution 22 September 2020, give members election rights for up to four non-executive directors; the Board can appoint additional non-executives and executives under separate provisions. Board-appointed non-executives must seek member reappointment by ordinary resolution at the following AGM and periodically thereafter (article 30); executive appointments remain a separate category. Articles 35–42 put management of affairs/property with the Board, provide meeting/quorum/conflict rules, and permit delegation to committees or executives on conditions the Board can change or revoke. These powers support a Board-budget authority path, not an identified vote approving the UKSIC grant. [Articles](http[local research file] PDF pages 5–12, articles 19, 26–31 and 33–42. Registry-policy consultation under article 43 is not a general grant-approval consultation right.
The current-linked dated voting by-law allocates 25% of poll votes equally among members and 75% by paid-for domains associated with member tags, with caps and connected-party rules. This makes commercial involvement relevant to constitutional/election voting; it does not establish a particular registrar's control of grant decisions. This is the linked 2012-file rule, not a reconstruction of every later ballot's applicable caps. No current member-weight register, decisive ballot or donor appointment instruction was acquired. [Voting by-law](http[local research file] PDF pages 1–3, clauses 4.1–4.3, scoped text through line 82.
Dated financial path: year ended 31 March 2025
Group figures in the [FY2025 report](http[local research file] registry revenue £40.147m, DNS revenue £15.750m, total £55.897m (PDF32). Registry is not necessarily exclusively .uk; recognized revenue is not cash receipts.
The 2021 commitment of up to £65m could use reserves or annual surplus. FY2025 trading operating profit was £5.463m; public-benefit expense was £10.979m. Investment assets were £88.6m. These are distinct flow/stock measures (PDF5–6,26).
Public-benefit expense comprised programme £10.585m and operating costs £0.394m. Programme spending included £1.6m transferred to Nominet's CAF account for onward distribution in FY2026/27. The grant table excludes that transfer and reports UKSIC £1.647m. Do not add the transfer again or equate expenses with beneficiary bank receipts (PDF6).
The former Public Benefit Committee's work moved to the main Board. Accounting policy recognizes public-benefit initiatives on an accrual basis against Board-agreed commitments; donations have a different paid-recipient recognition condition (PDF13,21). This establishes reported governance/accounting, not observed grant approval or completion.
Mechanism and competing interpretation
The supported path is business income plus accumulated reserves → Nominet Board resource decisions → programme commitments/distribution arrangements → recipient work. A second path is commercially weighted member votes → some director appointments → Board oversight. These should remain distinct: neither proves that large registrars ordered a specific grant or that receiving a grant surrendered editorial discretion.
The public constitution lets the Board delegate; it does not reveal whether a particular programme award required a Board vote, delegated approval or later amendments. Financial review and reported impact monitoring are also different from a contractual right to clear recipients' advocacy. Recipient autonomy remains a live alternative unless the actual instrument assigns such rights.
Limits, custody and next record
The annual-reports page now links FY2026. Its web reader rejected the PDF for size; the single ordinary public GET returned 403. It was not read. FY2025 is therefore a dated inspected financial snapshot, not a claim about the latest balance sheet or current budget.
Seven ordinary GETs returned identical 403 error bodies. They are retained with hashes as access observations only. The constitution and FY2025 claims above come from inspected official web-reader text; no successful PDF-original bytes were retained in this lane. donor-captures.json records exact scopes, reader-only status and error-body custody. The already-read current landing links establish which older instruments the site presented, not that no later instrument exists.
The next discriminating records are the current public-benefit budget/reserve policy and actual UKSIC award/renewal instrument or approval minute, including delegated limits, payment schedule, reporting, termination and any policy-clearance clauses. Board powers and accounting categories alone do not answer those questions. No wider donor genealogy or operational registry inquiry was opened.