When applying to the Charity Commission to become a Registered Charity, it is necessary to give a clear and detailed account as to how the purpose or purposes of the trust further the ‘public benefit’. In what ways would the purposes which Pete and Carol wish to pursue create a ‘public benefit’?
Case Study – ‘Nikki’
Carol is the mother and Pete is the husband of Nikki. Nikki died recently from cervical cancer after spending a number of months receiving specialist pain relief in a hospice. After learning that the specialist care she received was not widely available and only one in ten cancer patients could receive the specialist Care she received, Nikki began a social media campaign to raise money to fund access to this kind of specialist care. The care included highly advanced forms of pain relief, such as administering epidural analgesia via a specialist driver which was both expensive and so advanced that very few doctors had the expertise to use it. The care also included using alternative therapies and the use of ‘moving beds’ which could be positioned by remote control in such ways as to avoid bed-ridden patients developing bed sores.
At the time of her death Nikki had raised £50,000, which she held in one of her banc accounts (Account A). By her will Nikki left all of her property, both real and personal, to Pete.
Carol and Pete are inspired by Nikki and want to help others in a similar position to Nikki by funding specialist pain relief for cancer patients. They have also discovered that many forms of cervical cancer are avoidable through administering a vaccine to young females (the HPV Vaccine). However, they also discover that take-up of the vaccine is low and once girls leave school they are no longer entitled to a free vaccine but must pay for it. There is evidence this reduces uptake of the vaccine due to cost. It is also evident that many teenagers and their parents are unaware of the causes of cervical cancer and the preventive effects of the HPV vaccine. They would therefore like to increase awareness of the causes and methods of preventing cervical cancer.
Carol and Pete plan to raise money through donations and fund-raising events (they have already received £5,000 from well-wishers via a collection at Nikki’s funeral. They also want to use some of the money they raise to hold an annual memorial event / celebration of Nikki, for attendance by Nikki’s family and close friends.
Consider the following questions
Is Pete entitled to the £50,000 raised by Nikki and kept in Account A? If he is not, how should the money be treated?
What legal form would you advise Carol and Pete to adopt to pursue their stated objectives and why should they adopt this form?
Assume that a trust is adopted as the legal form through which to pursue Carol and Pete’s objectives. How would you define the purposes of the trust?
(Note: the purposes must be defined sufficiently broadly to encompassed the planned uses to which funds are to be put and they must be purposes recognised as charitable in law if the trust is to be ‘charitable’).
When applying to the Charity Commission to become a Registered Charity, it is necessary to give a clear and detailed account as to how the purpose or purposes of the trust further the ‘public benefit’. In what ways would the purposes which Pete and Carol wish to pursue create a ‘public benefit’?
