Funding, Investments & Tax

Money underpins all charitable work. Charity funders come in many forms, from the might of funders like Big Lottery, Comic Relief or Scottish Government, through to traditional grant-giving charitable trusts, on-street collections and personal giving.

Funding
All charities need funds to operate and, if you are lucky enough to receive funding from major funders like Big Lottery or the Scottish Government, you’ll find it comes with quite a lot of paperwork. Depending on the size of the grant, grant-giving trusts can also generate complex contracts.

While we can’t help you make applications to funders, we can help you understand the terms and conditions of your contract with them.

When a philanthropic individual is making a substantial donation to your organisation we can help you draw up suitable terms so that both parties clearly understand what has been agreed to.

Investments
Once you have the money, how will you manage it?

Our Wealth Planning team has particular expertise on advising charities on their investments, and investment & reserves policies. Reserves are becoming more important than ever – funders are increasingly asking to see evidence of reserves before they fund – so you’ll need to be putting money aside.

Our advice covers investment of lump sums as well as ongoing advice on managing your charity’s investment portfolio. If your charity wants to adopt an ethical investment policy for its investment portfolio, we advise on setting up and managing such a portfolio.

Tax
Charitable status brings significant tax advantages, and we help you benefit from exemptions and reliefs and make tax reclaims where required, maximising the advantages and avoiding the pitfalls, while complying with the requirements of HMRC.

We also advise donors on the most tax effective ways to contribute to charity and how to maximise the impact of their donations.