Not-for-Profits programme: Eligibility criteria

Where LawWorks can help

The LawWorks Not-for-Profits Programme helps small and medium-sized not-for-profit organisations that have a public or community benefit in England and Wales. LawWorks does not give legal advice itself, but instead we try to source a suitable volunteer from the law firms and in-house legal teams that are LawWorks’ members.

Improving equality, diversity and inclusion is fundamental to assisting vulnerable or disadvantaged people and ending all forms of discrimination and prejudice, including institutional racism and other barriers to inclusion. When we assess applicants eligibility for the Not-for-Profit Programme we take into account the applicants stated commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, or to improving its practice in this area.

Before applying to LawWorks, please review our eligibility criteria by clicking into the boxes below:

arrow Which types of organisation can LawWorks assist?

We only provide assistance to not-for-profit organisations, including but not limited to:

Charitable companies limited by guarantee
Community interest companies (CICs)
Charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs)
Unincorporated associations.

arrow Is your organisation financially eligible?

The not-for-profit organisation must be unable to afford legal advice, which we assess as follows:

If the organisation’s annual income is less than £1,000,000 LawWorks will presume an inability to pay for legal advice, but will still require documentary evidence of the organisation’s annual income, such as a copy of its latest accounts or a spreadsheet detailing the organisation’s income and expenditure for the most recent full financial year.
If the organisation’s income is over this £1,000,000 threshold, LawWorks will consider the application if it includes information as to why the organisation is unable to afford legal advice.

LawWorks is unlikely to approve the application if the income is in excess of £1,500,000.

arrow Does your organisation primarily have a public or community benefit?

LawWorks assesses an organisation’s eligibility for the programme by looking at the public or community benefit that it provides in England & Wales, with a particular focus on the individuals it helps and the way it helps them. We may also look at the ultimate beneficiaries of the not-for-profit organisation, particularly the extent to which they support vulnerable or disadvantaged individuals.

Organisations will generally be eligible for help if they provide activities in England & Wales like the following illustrative examples:

Working with the homeless
Helping children or young people at risk
Improving the employability of current and/or ex-offenders
Supporting people with physical or mental disabilities or health conditions
Working with refugees or asylum seekers
Responding to the discrimination of people of a specific group
Providing educational services or community support on environmental issues
Working with people affected by poverty and/or living in deprived neighbourhoods
Providing community support to isolated older people
Advising or providing educational services to people at risk of exploitation Improving access to justice

Your application should include examples and as much information as possible to show how the organisation meets the criteria.

arrow Which areas of law can our volunteers advise on?

Our volunteers can advise eligible organisations on:

Intellectual property
Employment
Property
Tax
Commercial/contract
Insurance
Insolvency
Data protection
Litigations and dispute resolution (initial advice only)
Corporate/company law

arrow Which areas of law are we unable to assist with?

Unfortunately our volunteers are not experts in, and therefore cannot assist with, any legal issues that fall under the following categories:

Criminal law
Family law
Immigration law
Safeguarding
Internal disputes e.g. between a charity and its trustees
Ongoing advice throughout a dispute
Complaints about a charity
Specialist charity law matters*

* "Specialist charity law matters" include (but are not limited to): charity asset transfers, choosing a not-for-profit structure, setting it up, or registering with the Charity Commission. You may want to try another resource for such help.

Where LawWorks cannot help

For policy reasons we are unfortunately unable to accept applications from:

Animal welfare organisations
Organisations predominantly focussed on benefitting communities outside England and Wales
Professional/trade associations
Housing/residents' associations
Organisations whose primary purpose or activity is campaigning or lobbying

If your organisation is one of the above, we recommend browsing our alternate resources.

Examples of accepted and rejected applications

See below a (non-exhaustive, anonymised) list of the types of organisation that apply to the Not-for-Profits Programme. For each category, we have given a worked example of applications that were accepted and those that were rejected. We set out the rationale behind either accepting or rejecting the applications, in line with the Programme's eligibility criteria.

Contacting us

For capacity reasons we are unable to respond to email queries regarding eligibility. If you are not certain if your organisation qualifies for free legal assistance please apply and we will work with you to determine your eligibility.

If you have any other questions, please contact us at: nfp@lawworks.org.uk