Supporting charities, social enterprises and other voluntary sector organisations with all aspects of their activities

At WBW we appreciate the issues involved in running charities and not for profit organisations – we have first hand experience from volunteering for charities, working for them or acting as trustees.

We understand that increasingly `charity means business’ and the pressures that charities face from the growing regulatory burden.

We aim to provide practical, realistic and cost effective solutions to our clients.

We can assist with a broad spectrum of issues including:

• advice on charitable status
• registration of new charities
• constitutional reviews and reorganisations – tailoring new trust documents or amending existing constitutions
• governance
• trustee duties
• advice on the liability of charity trustees and directors
• difficulties with the Charity Commission
• property advice - acquisitions, sales, mortgages and transfers and compliance with the Charities Act 1993
• application for Charity Commission Schemes
• tax planning
• particular issues for religious charities
• legacy management - we actively participate in Will Aid and we can also assist where a legacy has been left to a charity to ensure that the estate is properly administered
• employment - including new contracts, alteration of existing contracts, disciplinary and grievance procedures

In addition, we provide a holistic service to our clients and, from other specialisms across the practice, we can offer advice on commercial contracts, planning, employment and dispute resolution.

We are happy to work with our clients and tailor the amount of input they want. Every charity is different and will have individual needs but will already have resources and skills available to it.