Insight Articles
Our straight-talking articles and guides are designed to cut through charity professional industry jargon and answer your pertinent questions.
What trustess need to know if your charity is in financial distress
What do you need to know if your charity faces financial distress? Understanding trustee responsibilities and ...
Charities Law Brief November 2024
Autumn Budget 2024 - significant increase in charities' staffing costs The new Government's first budg...
What action can employers take in response to incidents of public disorder?
While the UK has previously seen incidents of public disorder, these have tended to be restricted in terms of ...
Updated guidance for charities on holding meetings in the Zoom era
On 19th July 2024, the Charity Commission refreshed its meetings guidance for charities in what it’s called ‘t...
Reporting serious incidents to the Charity Commission – is there a legacy context?
The Charity Commission regards Serious Incident Reporting as an important element of its regulatory approach. ...
Working hand in hand with Charities
The charities sector group at Shakespeare Martineau have created a new video to help try and explain what we d...
Charities Act 2022: further changes coming into force on 7 March 2024
When the Charities Act 2022 (the Act) first received Royal Assent back on 24 February 2022, it introduced a nu...
Charities Act 2022 – Latest Developments
The next tranche of charity law reforms under the Charities Act 2022 are due to be implemented in March this y...
Has your Board had its MOT?
My car had its MOT last week and, at the same time, I had my NHS well-woman check, double whammy, and raising...
The spectre of personal criminal liability for charity trustees
A summary of the key takeaways from a recent webinar on the spectre of personal criminal liability for charity...
Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill: Consumer rights v the Gift Aid regime
What mattersAs currently drafted, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill now passing through the ...
Q&A: Charity & election law for campaign charities
The next UK general election must be no later than January 2025, and might be as soon as spring 2024, dependin...
Personal criminal liability for charity trustees - is this possible?
This week – 6 to 10 November - is Trustees’ Week, a time to celebrate the achievements of nearly one million t...
Charities and businesses working together for mutual benefit: what this might look like
The idea of achieving purpose alongside profit has been part of the business world for centuries, but the impo...
New Social Media Guidance for Charities
On 18 September 2023, the Charity Commission published its new guidance for charities on using social med...
Charities – Top Five Tips For Successful Borrowing
Overview Borrowing money on a secured basis can be a normal part of running a successful charity. However, the...
A Lasting Legacy
In this series, we examine the spectrum of mental health issues that impact will-making by those who are vulne...
Charity fundraising supply chains and ESG
“Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing; ’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousa...
Data protection changes on the horizon – positive news for charities
News of further planned changes to UK data protection laws might not sound like welcome news for charities. Mo...
Charities Act 2022: what you need to know about the new provisions
The Charities Act 2022 is coming into force in stages. The latest set of provisions came into force on 14 June...
Charity law bulletin - July 2023
Our latest charity law bulletin, edited by Chris Rowse and Alison Sadler, provides a round-up o...
Charities legal and regulatory preview
Charity legal and regulatory preview: Skating to where the puck is going to be Before people packed up th...
Charities Act 2022 - New provisions June 2023
Following implementation of the first tranche of provisions of the Charities Act 2022 on 31 October 2022, the ...
Top ten tips when dealing with property
For charities, owning or occupying property can be a key asset. However, making a bad decision with property, ...
Charities: don’t forget the ‘G’ for ‘Governance’
Good governance counts because without it a charity’s impact can be much diminished, but it is also important ...
Charities Law Brief June23
Update on the Implementation of the Charities Act 2022 The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has announ...
Russell-Cooke sponsors Getting On Board’s new Trustee Learning Programme
Russell-Cooke’s charity and social business team has entered into a sponsorship agreement with Getti...
Charity land disposals: new law is coming into force
The Charities Act 2022 is being introduced in phases. From June 2023 trustees will have greater flexibility ov...
Why does ESG matter to charities?
Why is ESG of importance to charities when they already make such a positive difference to society?Because the...
Stone King’s Julian Blake joins influential advisory panel
Julian, a Partner in Stone King’s Charity team, is delighted to have been invited to join the VCSE Crown Rep...
Ramadan - What Are Some of the Key Considerations for Charities and Employers?
This year Ramadan started on the 23 March 2023 and is observed by over 1 billion Muslims across the world as a...
Whistleblowing in charities: legislative change may be on the horizon - but get the basics right now
Facilitating whistleblowing and supporting those who do raise concerns is a very important health check for ch...
Where legal meets moral - considering the status of ex gratia payments
We consider the current charity law position in relation to ex gratia payments and proposed changes under the ...
Charity law bulletin - March 2023
Our charity law bulletin, edited by Chris Rowse and Alison Sadler, provides a round-up of recen...
Incorporating a sports club
Amateur sports clubs come in all shapes and sizes. Your club might be a community amateur sports club (CASC), ...
What are the steps for closing down a charity?
When making the decision to close down a charity, trustees should understand the formal process involved, incl...
Whistleblowing in charities: why it is so important – right now
Blowing a whistle remains the most effective means of being heard above the crowd and drawing attention to an ...
Social Media: Guidance for Charities
If we needed any demonstration of the difficulties inherent in regulating or managing online content, then we ...
Tax issues hit cross-border charity legacies post Brexit
While the UK was in the EU, charities enjoyed the same tax concessions as charities in the jurisdiction in whi...
Charities and Fundraising: An Update
Charity law experts Stone King LLP were delighted to host a webinar on 26 January 2023, bringing together...
Charities Law Brief December 2022
Charities, Trade Marks and the Metaverse Paula Williams discusses what opportunities and potential threats the...
Directors’ duties prior to insolvency: the creditor duty
The general rule of thumb is that directors owe their duties to act in the interests of the company and its m...
What will happen to charities that had Queen Elizabeth II as their patron
The Queen inherited and took on hundreds of patronages of charitable organisations during her long reign. Ther...
Stone King 2022 Advent Series
National law firm Stone King is delighted to offer a 2022 Advent Series of webinars aimed specifically at fai...
Crypto philanthropy: are charities missing a crypto trick?
Many thought cryptocurrencies would be a flash in the pan.However, over 10 years on, crypto is still dominatin...
Legacy Income - 10 Top Tips
Maximising your charity’s legacy income: 10 top tips Does your charity receive legacy income from gifts in wil...
Are your line managers confident in dealing with employment issues?
Managers are often expected to deal with HR and employment issues without any training. Support and up-skill t...
What do charities need to know about conservation covenants?
The Environment Act 2021 set out to provide a governance framework to support the delivery of national environ...
Better information for all charity trustees in order to drive better decision-making
With great power comes great responsibility."This advice given to a young Peter Parker by his uncle is a pithy...
Hours of training for charity trustees
Since March 2020 Stone King has delivered online training for thousands of charity trustees. The firm’s Charit...
Charity Essentials - November 2022
Read Stone King's latest Charity Essentials Newsletter HERE. Stone King is a leading law firm in the...
Royal patronage – how and why should charities apply?
The Queen was patron of 433 charitable organisations at her passing a reflection of the duty and commitment th...
Charities Act 2022 – the first set of changes comes into force
The first of three tranches of refinements to the Charities Act 2011 has come into force today, 31 October 202...
Charities and ESG
ESG is about doing good. So surely all charities are on top of ESG matters?By definition charities are institu...
Charities managing the risk of cybercrime
Last week was Charity Fraud Awareness Week 2022, an annual event seeking to tackle fraud and cybercrime by rai...
CV fraud: Supreme Court rules you must pay back some wages
In the recent case of R v Andrewes [2022] UKSC 24, the Supreme Court considered whether stripping the Defendan...
The future of work: managing absence in a hybrid working world
It is generally accepted that hybrid working is here to stay, along with all the challenges that managing a re...
Investing in tomorrow: Shoosmiths' ESG reports
In this series of reports, we share some of our own thinking, as well as that of our clients and other experts...
Charities and ESG: What does it mean for the charity sector? Why are not all charities naturally good at it?
ESG is about doing good. So surely all charities are on top of ESG matters?By definition charities are institu...
Supreme Court confirms creditor duty in BTI v Sequana
The Supreme Court has handed down an important ruling (BTI -v- Sequana) on whether company directors owe a dut...
Charity Collaboration: some legal issues
The passing of Her Late Majesty marks the end of an era, the sudden absence of a reassuring figure who has bee...
How to manage a sexual incident at a charity
Sexual incidents occur in charities, as they do in any other organisations. Knowing how to manage these is oft...
Majestic charity
The word 'charity' derives from the Latin word 'caritas' which originally meant 'Christian love of your fellow...
Podcast series: Journey through a contract, Episode 10 - Data security
Episode 10 of our Journey Through a Contract sees Anushree Som and William Moore look at Data Security and dat...
Pensions dashboards – are they on your agenda?
Pensions dashboards have been a long time in the making, but we can be certain now that they are coming, and s...
Is a requirement to be vaccinated still an option for the care sector?
With regulations imposing mandatory vaccination for certain workers in the care sector being implemented to th...
Charities dealing with the new normal
William Hague has written in The Times to argue that once in a lifetime events are the new normal and that it’...
The Case of the Benin Bronzes: charities and ex gratia applications
On 14 July the Horniman Museum and Gardens, a registered charity, was announced as Art Fund Museum of the Year...
CHARITY TRUSTEES’ POWERS OF INVESTMENT: DOES THE BUTLER-SLOSS DECISION CHANGE THE LAW?
Does the recent High Court decision in Butler-Sloss and Others -v- The Charity Commission and the Attorney Gen...
How can charities retain their best staff?
Retention of talented staff is important at any time but this year even more so. According to the Office for N...
Podcast series: Journey through a contract, Episode 9 - Modern Slavery
Modern SlaveryEpisode 9 of our Journey Through a Contract sees Priti Bansel-Branch and Rida Sheikh look at Mod...
Charities facing an uncertain financial future: what do closing charities need to know?
No charity wants to make the decision to close and there are usually options to explore before it comes to clo...
Trade Marks and Brand Protection for Charities: A Guide
This guide covers key aspects of Trade Marks and Brand Protection, such as what a trade mark is, why you need ...
Podcast series: Journey through a contract, Episode 8 - Anti bribery
Anti BriberyEpisode 8 of our Journey Through a Contract features Maeve Honey and Emma Lusty from our commercia...
Charities, trade marks and the Metaverse
Paula Williams of VWV discusses what opportunities and potential threats the Metaverse could offer charities: ...
The Private Parking Code of Practice
The new Private Parking Code of Practice will be of interest to any landowning charities that own property w...
The top three immigration issues affecting charities
Many charities are now registered sponsors for immigration purposes. This means that a charity is able to empl...
Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022: restrictions that charities should be aware of
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, in 2020 the Government passed legislation to protect commercial tenants from ...
ESG reporting – is your charity missing out?
ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. It’s a wide-ranging term, which covers the targets your ...