Philanthropic foundation administration
We are committed to supporting you throughout your giving journey.
Once you have established a philanthropic foundation, you may want some support from experienced professionals in administering it.
Depending on your preferences and circumstances, we may be able to support your foundation with:
- maintaining a registered office and public contact for the foundation
- record-keeping and financial book-keeping
- completion of regulatory filings
- liaising with the foundation’s investment manager, accountants and auditors
- governance changes
- preparing board policies
- addressing compliance with the Common Reporting Standard
In addition, our experienced charities & philanthropy team is able to advise on all manner of legal issues that arise for foundations as they operate.
For further help or information
Get in touchMeet the team
How the team can help
Track record
Association of NHS Charities
The Association of NHS Charities is the voice of NHS Charities through England and Wales, and works to represent and support the interests of these organisations as well as offering a network of support. Withers acted on the Association's behalf in preparing the Department of Health's guidance for the deregulation of NHS Charities.
SSAFA, the armed forces charity
Withers has had a long and very successful relationship with the armed forces charity SSAFA and we have acted for them on many issues over the years. We are immensely proud of our continued association with this worthwhile organization. Our team was on hand to advise when the charity went through a redundancy exercise and TUPE transfer in Germany. We successfully negotiated when two senior executive roles were terminated, alongside more junior members of staff, one of whom brought a disability discrimination claim. In another notable instance, we advised an Employment Tribunal in the UK over whether the charity could be held liable for an allegedly discriminatory decision taken by the MOD. We secured a ruling in our client's favour.
Well-known UK charities
Advising several large, well-known, UK charities in relation to their pension obligations, including in the context on a transfer of former public sector employees under a business sale, and in another case, how a regional branch office might manage its risks and liabilities in relation to a final salary pension scheme in which it participated for non-associated employers in the voluntary sector.
Worldwide philanthropic activities
Charity of international sportsman
Advising the World Wildlife fund and other charities in a will dispute
We represented the charities who successfully argued that English law governs the validity of a will dealing with English immovable property (the first judicial approval of the rule in Dicey). The court also held that England rather than Alabama is the appropriate forum for the dispute, despite the testatrix's nephew, Mr Clark, having obtained letters of administration in Jefferson County, Alabama