Guidance Note

Thinking about a charity merger?

Guidance Note Charity Header

This guidance note seeks to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of merging with another charity and covers the legislative issues around charities registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales.

Purpose of this guidance

The purpose of this guidance note, and others in this series, is to provide those responsible for the governance of a charity with a framework setting out the issues that should be borne in mind when considering the possibility of merging with one or more other charities. This guidance is written for trustees and those senior members of staff with significant powers delegated to them by the charity’s trustees (such as the charity secretary/governance professional or chief executive). 

This document includes:

  • Introduction to charity mergers        
  • Definitions                   
  • Merger drivers              
  • Charity self-evaluation               
  • Merger motivation                             
  • Monitoring                                   
  • Merger doubts                               
  • Costs                                                                 
  • Considering the implications of a merger        
  • Summary 

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