Charitable appeal meaning

When starting a charitable public appeal, there is scant, if any, certainty that it will be successful. Accordingly, it is sensible to outline the key matters to be handled at the outset. This checklist aids the practitioner in explaining clearly those potential issues, or it can be passed to the promoters of the appeal to help keep these points front of mind...

What are the practical implications of this case? Where the 2008 Regulations bite, not giving written notification of the cancellation right may stop solicitors recovering their fees from clients and block a winning party from obtaining costs from the opponent. It is a criminal offence as well. The 2008 Regulations cover any CFA concluded by solicitors and clients at the client’s home or workplace. If the CFA was agreed somewhere else away from the solicitor’s offices, the Court of Appeal held that one must assess the particular setting and the purpose of the meeting to decide whether the 2008 Regulations are engaged. The 2008 Regulations have no application to agreements made on or after 13 June 2014, when the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 took effect. The Court of Appeal did not express a view on how matters would fall under the present regime. What was this case about? A charitable organisation called the Cemevi, serving the Turkish Cypriot community in London,...

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Original news Trustees of the Alice Ellen Cooper-Dean Charitable Foundation v Greensleeves Owners Limited [2015] UKUT 0320 (LC). The UT affirmed the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT) decision that a ‘two-stage’ enfranchisement resulted in no payment being due to the freeholder. What were the facts? The position can be broken down into three stages. Stage one The property was split into eight residential flats. Each flat lease provided for an initial ground rent of £300, with a review scheduled for late 2015. At the same time, a headlease was granted to a third party management company unconnected with the landlord. Under that headlease, the freeholder’s initial ground rent was £2,400, also subject to review in late 2015. Stage two In 2011, six of the flat tenants sought and obtained lease extensions under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (LRHUDA 1993). As a consequence, the ground rent payable to the management company under each of those six leases was reduced from £300...

ARCHIVED: This key charity litigation case is archived and is not being maintained. The Supreme Court matter of Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (UK) v Attorney General illustrates how a substantial philanthropic trust can become entangled in matrimonial disputes and engage a range of charity litigation issues. Key facts The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (UK) (CIFF) was a charity and a company limited by guarantee, incorporated and registered in 2002 by a husband (H) and his then wife (W). H and W acted as trustees of the charity and were also members of the company. The company’s only other member was Dr Marko Lehtimäki. After the breakdown of their marriage, H and C agreed that W would resign as a member and trustee of CIFF. In return, CIFF would provide a grant of $360m to a new charity founded by W. First instance judgment and appeal A company cannot make a payment for loss of office to a director (as contemplated by the agreement) unless it is...

Charitable appeals Appeals for charity are commonplace, yet it is often overlooked that when members of the public contribute to an appeal for a purpose that is charitable in law, a trust for that purpose arises automatically by operation of law. This remains true even where the written terms are remarkably brief, eg ‘Save the Rembrandt for the Nation!’ or ‘Little Snoring Village Hall Roof Appeal’, or where there is no written notice at all but only an oral statement such as ‘A retiring collection will be made for Cancer Research’. The act of giving for a charitable purpose places those who receive the funds under a fiduciary obligation to apply them to that purpose, and to no other. Put another way, the recipients hold the money as charitable trustees. The nature of the purposes and appeals, the intended audience, and the amount sought (and in fact raised) vary widely. Initiatives may range from a modest local endeavour to a national campaign, and the totals collected may extend from...

Advances in worldwide communications and mass media have produced concerted campaigns, for example through the Disaster Emergencies Committee (DEC), to collect funds for people affected by natural and man-made catastrophes. The monies gathered are, for the most part, channelled via established charities that possess the infrastructure, contacts and expertise needed to deploy them well. The charities’ own aims, typically focused on relieving (and preventing) poverty and illness, are ordinarily sufficiently wide to include supplying the basic essentials for survival—such as rescue, food, medical care and shelter—that victims may need. A further development has emerged among international animal welfare organisations, able to draw on their existing resources for this purpose, to solicit donations to save and care for pets and wildlife caught up in a disaster whose needs might otherwise receive lower priority. Calamities can also strike closer to home, and an appeal for contributions to assist those affected by a natural disaster in the UK, or by the consequences of human error or grave criminal acts such as riots or...