Grant Funding & Fundraising
Funding is essential for many charities, but trustees face significant responsibilities when applying for and managing grants.
Our expert, pragmatic support helps you navigate legal and regulatory requirements, mitigate risks, and maximise funding opportunities - ensuring your charity can focus on making a difference.
Charitable fundraising is under increasing scrutiny from regulators and the media, making it essential to get it right.
A well-structured approach not only protects your charity’s reputation but also ensures continued access to vital grant funding. Careful administration and compliance with grant terms help secure long-term financial sustainability, allowing you to focus on delivering impact.
Our nationally recognised charities team provides expert, sector-specific support to organisations of all sizes. Whether you're a service-providing charity with large-scale fundraising operations, a local organisation engaging with donors, or a grant-making body distributing funds, we help you navigate the complexities of fundraising law with confidence.
We offer legal guidance across all aspects of fundraising, from ensuring compliance with regulatory regimes to advising on policies, procedures, and data protection when handling donor information. Our expertise also includes legacy protection, helping charities safeguard future income streams.
For grant-makers, including endowed charities, community foundations, and family trusts, we provide tailored advice to ensure philanthropic giving is structured effectively. Our support extends internationally, advising on cross-border donations and overseas fundraising, helping charities and donors make a lasting impact beyond borders.
With our pragmatic, expert guidance, your charity can fundraise and distribute grants with clarity and confidence.
Our expertise
Understanding the complex regulatory landscape is key to protecting your charity’s funding and reputation. We help you navigate the expectations of the Charity Commission, Fundraising Regulator, and ICO - ensuring compliance, minimising risk, and giving you the confidence to focus on your charitable mission.
When fundraising appeals don’t go as planned, careful planning can ensure funds are used effectively. Our forward-thinking approach helps you put the right structures in place so your charity remains in control, even in uncertain circumstances.
With experience advising both grant funders and recipient charities, we provide clear, pragmatic guidance that supports trustees in meeting their duties while ensuring funding arrangements work in practice.
Our team advises on the following areas:
Ensuring your fundraising activities meet legal and regulatory requirements is key to protecting your charity’s reputation. We help you develop robust policies covering donation acceptance and refusal, donor due diligence, risk management, social media use, and data protection - giving you confidence that your charity remains compliant while building trust with supporters.
Maximising high-value donations requires careful structuring. We provide tailored, cost-effective support for philanthropic fundraising, offering expert guidance on complex gifts, Gift Aid, donor recognition, and benefits in line with HMRC guidance. Our suite of precedent gift agreements and policy templates ensures a smooth and compliant approach to major giving.
From professional fundraiser contracts to charity lotteries, raffles, and online crowdfunding, we help you navigate the legal complexities of fundraising arrangements. Our expertise ensures that your charity remains compliant with the Gambling Commission’s regulations and fundraising laws, allowing you to focus on securing support with confidence.
Securing and managing grant funding can be complex, especially when dealing with major bodies like Arts Council England and UK Research & Innovation. We provide expert advice on high-value grant agreements, helping you meet funding conditions, mitigate risks, and maximise the impact of your grants.
Corporate partnerships offer valuable funding opportunities, but they also require careful structuring. We help charities negotiate sponsorship deals, protect intellectual property, and manage tax and VAT implications - ensuring mutually beneficial agreements that support long-term growth.
Efficient grant administration allows you to focus on impact rather than paperwork. We offer a full suite of templates, policies, and supporting documents to streamline processes, maximise resources, and help trusts and foundations distribute funding effectively.
Legacy donations are vital, but balancing income generation with reputational management can be challenging. Our nationally recognised legacy protection team ensures your charity maximises legacy income while handling sensitive situations with care, maintaining positive relationships with donors and beneficiaries.
Managing endowments and restricted funds effectively can enhance fundraising efforts and maximise impact. We help charities restructure and steward these funds, ensuring they are used efficiently, remain compliant, and support long-term sustainability.
The VWV team is knowledgeable and approachable. They are clear in their advice and understand the client's perspective, and are able to offer pragmatic solutions as well as the purely legal view.
Our work highlights
International major giving protocol
We supported a top 100 service-providing charity operating internationally by establishing a major giving protocol and developing a suite of template gift agreements for high-value donations.
Corporate partnership & complex gift advice
We advised a top 100 conservation charity on charity law and tax considerations relating to corporate partnerships, commercial participation arrangements, and a complex philanthropic gift involving property.
Supporting the Association of Charitable Foundations
We assisted the Association of Charitable Foundations in developing their Origins of Wealth toolkit, providing vital resources to support transparent and ethical grant-making.
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