Giving faith charities a hassle-free start in life

Our support for Stewardship’s charity services helps them focus on good work rather than paperwork.

When you’re a charity, every penny you save counts towards helping those you serve. Resources are often stretched managing administrative work. The very act of registering as a charity can be an expensive business.

Stewardship supports Christian charities with their finances, funding and administration. They’re effectively a back office for their partners and help them prioritise funding where it’s needed most.

A wide range of support

Anthony Collins Solicitors (ACS) have partnered with Stewardship to help them offer a range of support including webinar training for trustees, free legal advice for members of Stewardship’s consultancy helpline and a cost-effective route to registration.

“Charity registration is a particularly complex legal process. The work we do with ACS gives our clients peace of mind as they know they’ve had professional help every step of the way. They know when their charity is formed that it’s the right type and the constitution allows them to do everything they want to do.”

Jackie Fletcher, head of treasurer services at Stewardship

The registration package, which includes a governing document that reflects their Christian foundation, helps start-up charities get going and more traditional charities to modernise. What, for non-lawyers in small charities, is a daunting, resource-draining task, we’ve turned into a highly professional service that represents incredibly good value. Stewardship help by liaising with clients in the initial stages and collating the paperwork and we apply the legal oversight.

Creating over 40 charities each year

Each year, together we enable around 40 – 50 new charities to register with the Charity Commission (who’ve told us that our volume of registrations makes us one of the top organisations in the country for new registrations!). Since we started working with Stewardship in 2011, we’ve helped register over 500 new charities.

As part of the registration package, we draft a constitution that is relevant to Christian charities. One of the issues with the constitution offered by the Charity Commission is that it doesn’t reference spiritual leadership. For faith charities this is an enormously important aspect of their existence. Without the right constitution, they are left with a structure that does not accurately reflect how they operate and can expose their trustees to risks and potential liability.

A modern, effective structure

Edwina Turner specialises in governance and structure advice for charities at ACS. She helps charities develop a modern, effective structure which allows them to grow and offers greater protection from liability – making it easier to recruit new trustees in the future.

She says;

“My job is to create a skeleton no one notices: a structure that empowers them to operate and reflects their terminology and way of operating rather than getting in the way. Because it’s bespoke and reflects their needs and spiritual leadership, the right structure means they’re protected and can get on with the work they do.”

Edwina Turner, legal director at ACS

In addition to the registration package, we provide a monthly trustee training webinar. One of the more positive stories from the recent year has been moving this online as this has boosted numbers and we now have 50 attendees every month!

“When we went into lockdown, the charity sector stepped up and tried to meet the needs they saw. As a result of the charities being well-formed, with a good constitution drafted by Anthony Collins Solicitors, they could broaden the scope of what they do. They’ve been able to set up hardship funds, combat loneliness and contribute to foodbanks.”

Jackie Fletcher, head of treasurer services at Stewardship

To be a charity, the organisation must exist for the public benefit. In other words, it must improve the lives of individuals, communities or society. Each charity we help come into being, fulfils our mission as an organisation and so in helping to establish these organisations with good foundations we are extending our own social impact.