Short Form Constitution for a Small Unincorporated Charity
This Short Form Constitution for a Small Unincorporated Charity is designed to be used for a small charity (in terms of its assets) which is set up in unincorporated form (rather than as a company).
It is for use by a charity which will not own or lease a building, hold assets (e.g. a vehicle), employ people, enter into contracts to deliver services (or other commercial contracts), or raise finance through borrowing, and whose annual income will not exceed £5,000.
Any assets that the charity owns will need to be held under separate arrangements (e.g. by setting up a
A charity whose annual income does not exceed £5,000 is not required to register with the Charity Commission. (Once it exceeds that amount, it will need to register and to adopt a more suitable constitution.)
Even if the charity is not going be registered with the Commission, its purposes (as described in the Constitution) must be charitable and it must have demonstrable public benefit,
If it is a charity in law, it may refer to itself as a “charity”, but not otherwise. If HMRC has also formally
This Constitution provides for the charity to be run by a management committee of at least three trustees.
Since the charity will be in unincorporated form, it will not have an independent legal identity/personality. This means that its trustees will be more at risk of personal liability for debts or other liabilities than trustees of an incorporated
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