Charities law and governance

Setting up a charity

Helping you to decide how best to structure a new charity, advising on charitable purposes, negotiating with the Charity Commission and achieving the registration of the new charity. We can assist with the ongoing administration of the trust.

Trustees’ roles and responsibilities

There is an increasing emphasis on the duties and requirements of trustees and many trustees are understandably daunted by the burden of their responsibilities. We offer trustee training to guide trustees on charity requirements and highlight potential areas of difficulty.

Understandably, trustees are concerned that they could be putting themselves personally at risk by becoming a trustee. We can advise on the pros and cons of taking out trustee indemnity insurance.

Incorporation

We can help you decide what type of governing document your charity should have. It can either be set up as an unincorporated trust or as a company limited by guarantee. Now that the Charities Act has been passed, it will soon be possible to use a new structure – the Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) – which will retain the benefits of being a company but without the burden of complying with the Companies Act as well as the Charity Commission.

Charity Commission issues

There are a host of regulations that are specific to charities. We can advise on all aspects of charity law and all dealings with the Charity Commission. These include

• mergers, takeovers and dissolution.
• constitutional reviews and restructuring.
• investment and trading issues.
• charity investigations and enquiries.
• risk management issues.
• accounting and reporting practices.
• how to make the most of gift aid.