Charity constitutions and governing documents

Every charity needs a governing document that is appropriate, up-to-date and legally-compliant. Whatever your charity’s structure, our expert charity governance solicitors can support you to put in place a modern, user-friendly governing document that serves your charity’s needs.

Your governing document sets out your charity’s purposes and the rules for how it must operate. It is therefore vital it is workable and reflects how your charity functions, whilst also fulfilling various legal requirements. Whether you are setting up a new charity, or updating the governing document of an existing one, our specialist lawyers can help to ensure your governing document works for you, and also for the Charity Commission. 

Our charity governance solicitors assist charities of all shapes and sizes with drafting, updating and modernising their governing documents.

We work with charitable companies, charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs), charitable trusts, charitable unincorporated associations, Royal Charter charities and charities governed by Acts of Parliament. We have helped a huge variety of charities, from large international organisations to small community bodies, to adopt governing documents that work for them.

Sometimes changes to charity governing documents require approval from the Charity Commission. We can advise you if this is necessary and, if so, help you to obtain the required consents.

Our dedicated lawyers can support you with:

• drafting a governing document for a new charity
• understanding the legal requirements applicable to charity governing documents
• amending your existing governing document
• making changes to your charity’s membership structure
• applying to the Charity Commission for consent to make certain regulated changes
• interpreting your governing document, e.g. in the case of a dispute as to what it means
  

Our charity solicitors work exclusively for charities and not-for-profits and have a deep understanding of charity governing documents and the law applicable to them. The range of charities we work for is broad and varied, meaning we can help you whatever the size or structure of your charity.

Several of our lawyers have experience as charity trustees or employees, meaning we also understand how important it is for governing documents to be as straightforward and user-friendly as possible.

Our team is close-knit and we have a collaborative approach to working. We pride ourselves on our ability to simplify complex issues and adapt our style to suit your needs. 

Here are some comments made about us.

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.