Your challenges
Charities and social enterprises face a number of challenges. Competing for resources in a difficult economic climate, a significant number of organisations have had to restructure to save costs, while increasing commercial activities to try to fill the funding gap.
In addition, charities are seeking to ensure compliance with charity law such as the Charities Act 2006 with its “public benefit” requirement, as well as with the multitude of other laws applicable to charities depending on their activities. For an increasing number of charities, regulatory compliance is a daily challenge.
There are also the long-standing pressures that affect charities and social enterprise organisations to consider: how to manage resources and projects effectively, how to run efficient and appropriate fundraising initiatives and how to attract the right individuals to participate in the sector.
Achieving your ambitions
Whether you work in a charity or a social enterprise, you need practical advice and assistance from your lawyers to help you to operate effectively and efficiently. We will provide you with clear, prompt and good value advice.
We will work closely with you to understand the unique challenges that you face. We will also draw on our extensive experience, gained from acting for hundreds of charities and social enterprises across the country, to help you plan effectively to prevent legal problems arising.
Over 250 charities rely on our specialist expertise to help them accomplish their objectives. The clients we support have diverse charitable aims and activities, and range in size from large organisations like the Wellcome Trust and the British Council to tiny parish charities with a few pounds of income. You can be confident that our charity lawyers have the insight needed to provide you with practical, cost effective and proven solutions.
The strength you need
Our team of charity lawyers is well placed to advise you on the full range of charity law, governance and regulatory issues, including:
- The setting up of new charitable organisations
- Constitutional and governance issues
- Charity trustee duties and powers
- Charitable pledges and donation agreements
- Permanent endowment issues
- Commercial activities, including the use of trading subsidiaries
- Risk management, including the incorporation of charitable trusts or associations
- Restructuring and hive offs
- Charity mergers and joint ventures
- Dealing with regulators, such as the Charity Commission, Companies House, the FSA and the CIC regulator
- The administration of grant making charitable organisations
- The dissolution of charitable organisations
You will also have access to advice from our other teams of lawyers specialising in the complex areas of corporate, property, employment, litigation, intellectual property and tax law. Bringing together the expertise of our nationally respected practices, we have over 200 lawyers with experience of using their specialist knowledge to help charities and social enterprises.
If you work in the health or education sectors, our knowledge of these areas of work is especially well developed. We act for over 120 education institutions, including many of the UK's leading universities, several further education colleges, independent schools and educational trusts. We also advise over 100 healthcare trusts and NHS bodies.
Lawyers you can trust
Our charities team is highly rated by Chambers UK and by the Legal 500, which recognises both our general expertise in charity law, and particularly our experience in the health and education sectors.