Professional Bodies and Membership Organisations
At Crowe Clark Whitehill we recognise that professional bodies and other membership organisations face interesting challenges and have special needs. Many have to operate as large businesses and some have the additional requirements imposed by charity and tax law. Success measures strategy has to be balanced to meet the mission and also the need to be financially successful.
Not all membership organisations that we serve are charities but those that are have additional sensitivities that require an understanding of charity law and practice. There are also often special governance issues and the need to balance membership representation with effective structures that allow the organisation to be nimble. There are also more demanding stakeholders who want to be sure that the organisation is meeting their effectiveness criteria.
Public benefit issues and balancing the requirements of members to ensure the rules of individual benefit are met can sometimes be challenging New legislation and regulations will mean more change and the coming years will be challenging, exciting ones for membership organisations as they to respond to the changing external and internal environment.
We have much experience of this environment and understand the need to balance commercial imperatives with the service remit of the organisation.
In addition, to the broader services we provide to Not for Profits generally we assist membership organisations with:
- effective governance structures, committee structures and schemes of delegation
- balancing the public benefit requirement with the benefits to members
- tax implications of membership subscriptions
- the tax treatment of publications, journals, online information, educational courses and conferences
- tax exemptions on mutual trading
- tax treatment of conference, room hire and letting income
- advising on charitable status
- advising on status of payments made to officeholders, Council and Committee members, panellists, markers, invigilators, examiners and other ‘consultants’.