[foundation-board] Charitable Incorporation follow-up from September Board meeting

Fri Oct 9 08:19:54 UTC 2015

Looks good to me.

Regards
Paula

On 5 October 2015 at 13:16, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:

> The expert we consulted re charitable designation has confirm our approach
> is a sound one:
>
> - seeking charitable status (in the UK) is largely orthogonal to legal
> structure
> - the legal structure we have (company limited by guarantee) is the right
> one
>
> Given this I:
>
> a) assume that the conditional approval given in the board meeting to
> proceed with charitable work is now fully approved
> b) will move on this effective immediately
>
> Please say if you have any concerns. @helen: it would be great if you
> could confirm you are happy with the outcome as I know you were the one
> especially flagging this in the meeting.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rufus
>
> At Board meeting on 9th September Board indicated consulting re our
> charitable incorporation plans with an expert Justin Greig (suggested by
> Helen Turvey).
>
> We conducted two calls with Justin. These were very useful - beyond our
> specific remit too - and so big thanks to Helen for arranging this.
>
>  Key points:
>
>
>    -
>
>    Charitable designation in the UK seems most sensible (vs e.g. 501(c)3)
>    - assuming we want to pursue that designation
>    -
>
>       Various things to think about e.g. the need to very strict on
>       purposes
>       -
>
>    Charitable designation and legal vehicle are orthogonal
>    -
>
>    Legal vehicle: should be company limited by guarantee (which we are
>    already)
>    -
>
>    Cannot have any commercial activity
>    - So commercial activity must move to a for-profit subsidiary
>
>
> He also provided some useful thoughts about the "costs" of being a charity:
>
>
>    -
>
>    Far more rigorous re purposes: as trustees you have to check that
>     activities comply with our purpose. You have to be meticulous - trustees
>    are personally responsible
>    -
>
>       As a company limited by guarantee you can pretty much do anything
>       -
>
>       One possibility is to incorporate a subsidiary and perform work
>       through that if needed
>       -
>
>    Accounting has to be done properly, acceptable to charity
>    commissioner. Not a big deal as you already have this generally
>    -
>
>    Have to have audited accounts. Slightly stricter / slightly different.
>    Already do this basically. Cost effect is relatively minor.
>    -
>
>    Governance
>    -
>
>       Want to spell out your governance very clearly
>       - Same set of staff can administer the charity and the subsidiaries
>
>
> --
>
> *Rufus PollockFounder and President | skype: rufuspollock | @rufuspollock
> <https://twitter.com/rufuspollock>Open Knowledge <http://okfn.org/> - see
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