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Charity blog

Our charity law blog gives up to date news on the latest legal and policy decisions affecting the charity sector.

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225 items

06 Jan 2025

11 mins

What's in store for the charity sector in 2025?

What's in store for the charities sector in 2025? We have rounded up the predictions of our exceptional professional support lawyers from across the firm, from straight charity law to major changes in employment law and pensions.

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28 Nov 2024

1 min

Charity Fraud Awareness Week and Failure to Prevent Fraud

The UK Government has recently published guidance on the new corporate offence of failure to prevent fraud.

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25 Nov 2024

1 min

Charity Fraud Awareness Week

Charity Fraud is a persistent problem. Charity Fraud Awareness Week seeks to tackle fraud and cybercrime by raising awareness and sharing good practice.

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21 Nov 2024

3 mins

Lessons learned from the Captain Tom Foundation Statutory Inquiry

The Charity Commission’s statutory inquiry into the Captain Tom Foundation delivers some critically important lessons for all charities. Here’s our analysis.

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20 Nov 2024

2 mins

New ethical guidance on accepting and refusing donations

Charities sometimes have very difficult decisions to make when deciding whether to accept or refuse donations. New guidance from Rogare and the Chartered institute of Fundraising gives a thought provoking and nuanced perspective.

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19 Nov 2024

< 1 min

Key challenges in decarbonising heritage properties

Charities play a key role in the preservation of heritage buildings. But what about the need to decarbonise?

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12 Nov 2024

1 min

Fundraising Regulator investigation: useful lessons for charities working with fundraising agencies

Last week the Fundraising Regulator published a report into a complaint made against Cancer Relief and its fundraising agency.

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24 Oct 2024

2 mins

Top tips for setting up trading subsidiaries

We have highlighted below some key considerations for a charity in deciding whether to set up a trading subsidiary.

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24 Oct 2024

3 mins

Charity trustees may now gain protection as whistleblowers

A significant Employment Appeal Tribunal decision was published on Monday. In MacLennan v The British Psychological Society the tribunal was asked to consider whether the applicant, a charity trustee who was President-Elect could claim protection under whistleblowing legislation.

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21 Oct 2024

1 min

Civil Society Covenant launch

On Thursday 17 October the government announced its new Civil Society Covenant, which originated with NCVO and ACEVO’s voluntary sector manifesto. The government is inviting feedback until 12 December.

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18 Oct 2024

7 mins

Charity inquiry: Fashion for Relief

The Charity Commission report “Public trust in Charities 2023”, identified that following a number of high-profile scandals involving charities between 2015- 2020, public confidence in the third sector faced a significant decline.

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15 Oct 2024

3 mins

Charity Commission busy updating guidance

One of the Charity Commission’s key functions as set out in statute is ‘encouraging and facilitating the better administration of charities’ through various means, including guidance. 2024 has so far been a bumper year for guidance updates.

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14 Oct 2024

5 mins

Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024: what does it mean for charities?

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (“DMCCA”) is a hugely wide ranging and ambitious bit of legislation. It gained royal assent on 24 May 2024. Many of its grander ambitions will not directly affect charities, but are worth being aware of.

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19 Aug 2024

< 1 min

Commercial Participators and Professional Fundraisers - useful new guidance from the Fundraising Regulator

New detailed guidance has been published by the Fundraising Regulator on the more complex rules on commercial participator agreements and professional fundraisers. Here's our one minute summary.

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19 Aug 2024

2 mins

How did charities do in the recent election?

The Charity Commission has worked hard to support and encourage legal charity campaigning in the recent election. Let's find out how well the Commission thinks charities managed to keep inside the rules.

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05 Aug 2024

1 min

Charity Banking Problems and Resources

Nearly half of charities are receiving poor service from their banks – here are some sources of support and advice.

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02 Aug 2024

2 mins

VAT on private school fees – what are the new rules?

The government has announced that, as of 1 January 2025, all education services and vocational training supplied by private schools will be subject to VAT at the standard rate of 20%.

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01 Aug 2024

1 min

Post pandemic meetings – is your charity getting it right?

During and since the pandemic, charities have been holding meetings and making decisions virtually. Updated Charity Commission guidance makes it clear that to continue doing so, express constitutional provisions are needed.

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