Philanthropy and charitable giving

Whether you are a company, individual or family, our specialist philanthropy and charity lawyers will work with you to help align your giving with your values and goals to positively impact the world.

Whether setting up a charitable foundation, making a large donation to a specific cause or charity, or planning a legacy in your will, we can help you realise your philanthropic goals while protecting you, your assets and your reputation. 

If you would like to establish a family foundation or other philanthropic structure, we can assist you with: 

Individual giving

• the process of setting up and running a charity, either during your life or as part of estate planning.
• making larger, or complex gifts to charities, museums or specific causes
• ensuring that your giving is tax-efficient and advise on other options for philanthropy, such as donor-advised funds.

Corporate giving

We are also proud to advise many businesses on their corporate social responsibility programmes and charitable giving having worked  with leading companies that have established, or wish to establish, a corporate foundation.

We can help you with:

• deciding if setting up a family foundation is the right option
• choosing a legal structure that best protects you
• creating a governance structure for a family foundation 
• obtaining registration with the Charity Commission and HMRC
• tax efficient giving
• setting up a corporate foundation
• complying with legal and regulatory requirements
• making large gifts and naming rights
• working with donor advised funds
• protecting your family and business from reputational harm.

Giving to charity is increasingly important to many people and we take time to listen so we can provide advice that is tailored to you. Our specialist charity and philanthropy lawyers have a deep understanding of the charity sector and years of experience helping individuals and businesses achieve the desired impact through their giving.

In tandem, our private client and family office specialists offer clear, practical advice on wills and inheritance issues, asset protection through trusts, loss of mental capacity and all tax advice. With an empathetic approach to helping individuals and families make informed decisions, we provide seamless access to the specialist advice you need. We can help you to maximise the opportunity to use your wealth to do good, through effective estate, tax and succession planning, both during your lifetime and to shape the legacy you leave behind.

We are also highly experienced at working with corporate foundations, navigating the legal and regulatory landscape to achieve successful charitable registration and ensure that the relationship between the charity and the business is compliant and constructive. 

Here are some comments made about us.

Our nationally recognised charity team is highly rated in the Legal 500 directory which states that Russell-Cooke "provides service beyond normal legal advice—coordination for complex projects involving multiple advisors and useful strategic insights."
The Legal 500 (2024)

The Legal 500 says our private client team’s “advice is easy to understand and yet very sophisticated”.
The Legal 500 (2024)

Charges are based on hourly rates plus administrative charges and disbursements but we’re flexible and are happy to discuss charging rates in relation to your budget for a particular piece of work. Where there is unpredictability or for the initial stages of a project, we’ll provide an estimate of your likely legal costs and will update this as your requirements or the circumstances of the work change.

For work where we can predict or clearly anticipate the work to be done, we can also act on a fixed or capped fee basis.

We’re happy to discuss your requirements free of charge and will then provide an estimate of costs.