Company Charitable Donations & Foundations

There are various types of corporate giving available to businesses, including:

1. Cash — typically done through a ‘Charity of the Year’ partnership, which involves a business selecting a specific charity to support throughout a designated period (usually one or two years). Committing to your charity partner long-term will help to make a bigger impact.
2. In-kind donations — this may be providing projects, services or facilities as part of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. For example, healthcare companies donating medicine or vaccines as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.
3. Volunteering — this can act as an employee engagement tool and help to embed a rewarding culture of ‘giving back’ throughout a company while providing charities with much-needed ‘on the ground’ support.
4. Programme management costs — this could include various initiatives throughout a set period including ‘challenge events’, employee engagement initiatives, marketing partnerships, charity projects and more.
5. Establishing your own corporate foundation — this is an independent structure that’s funded by the business but operates independently to ensure that its activities are solely for charitable purposes and public benefit.

A commercial participator arrangement is where a business works in collaboration with a charity to promote its goods or services in exchange for contributions. One example of this is Innocent’s collaboration with Age UK, which sees the smoothie drinks company donate 25p to Age UK for every 'behatted bottle' it sells. In this instance, Innocent acts as the ‘commercial participator’ on behalf of the charity Age UK.

Alongside having a written agreement in place and monitoring compliance, there are other aspects of commercial participation legislation that must be considered. These serve to protect the reputation of the business and charity concerned. A prime example of the risks in failing to properly manage that relationship can be demonstrated by the Captain Tom Foundation and its lack of agreement with Club Nook Limited for the use of its intellectual property rights and identity, which led to significant regulatory action from the Charity Commission and Fundraising Regulator.

Our company charitable giving team is led by talented Associate Imogen Trafford and Head of Retail Helena Davies. 

As a member of our charities, not-for-profits and social enterprises team, Imogen works closely with corporate foundations on a wide range of charity law matters, offering guidance on their governance and structure, advising on their relationship with associated businesses and helping them to navigate fundraising rules and regulations. Recognised as a 'Leading Associate' by The Legal 500, Imogen combines technical knowledge with practical insight to help organisations achieve their charitable goals.

With a genuine passion for sustainability and community impact, Helena leads our retail sector team. She’s vastly experienced in helping retailers to address a wide range of ESG-related challenges including setting up corporate charity foundations.

Our team also includes highly-regarded charity lawyer Graeme Hughes as well as Ciara Lawlor, who previously spent two years working for the Charity Commission.