Helping you get governance right for your charity or social enterprise
Having the right legal and governance structure for your charity, or social enterprise, is vital to help ensure the organisation functions effectively and delivers social impact.
Getting the right legal structure
We are highly experienced in advising on all the many different legal structures available to charities and social enterprises, including:
- Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs)
- Community Interest Companies (CICs), both limited by shares or guarantee
- Community Benefit Societies and Co-Operative Societies (Co-ops)
- Companies limited by guarantee (CLGs)
- Charitable Trusts
- Unincorporated Associations
We also regularly help existing organisations move to a more appropriate legal structure to meet their needs. Recent examples of our work include advising on:
- conversions of CLGs to CIO status
- conversions of CICs to CIO status
- incorporations of unincorporated charities to CIO or CLG status
- setting up new trading subsidiaries for charities
Reviewing your organisation’s constitution
Many charities have outdated constitutions which are no longer fit for purpose. We regularly advise on constitutional issues and help charities and social enterprises update their constitutions to ensure they reflect the desired governance structure and comply with the latest legislation and best practice.
This includes obtaining where necessary any Charity Commission consent requirements, and helping the legal formalities in adopting and registering the new constitution with the relevant regulator, such as Companies House, Charity Commission or the FCA.
Is governance in your organisation fit for purpose?
We can help organisations in reviewing their current governance arrangements, policies and procedures, for example:
- conflict of interest policies
- board codes of conduct
- trustee induction processes and documentation
- governance and financial relationship with trading subsidiaries
- ensuring compliance with the Charity Governance Code
Why choose Tozers?
Our charity and social enterprise lawyers are specialists, focused on this sector. We work with you to understand your needs and desired goals, helping deliver them efficiently.
Our team has a wealth of knowledge in relation to charity and social enterprise law and regularly speak at seminars and conferences and well as hosting our own networking events.