It is not uncommon for small charities, especially those that have been set up from scratch to be built upon a nest of policies, procedures, and ways of doing things; with bits and pieces gathered together from a variety of sources and assembled into a something resembling a structure – but not always as safe and secure as it could or should be.
Thankfully help and advice was at hand from the smart people over at Addleshaw Goddard who stepped in to help us with a bit of future proofing.
Having established National Park City Foundation as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2017 (originally the Greater London National Park City Foundation), ahead of London becoming the first National Park City in 2019, and us hiring our first staff in 2020 we had put in place all of the necessary policies we needed to legally and safely operate as a charity, and to take protect and support our staff, but over the first few years of our existence these had become a little out of date and hard to follow.
Finding pro-bono legal support
At the end of 2024 we worked with our Governance group to take stock of where things sat, and quickly recognised that we needed to conduct a proper spring clean, and root and branch review of all of our policies.
First of all we contacted Trustlaw, a service provided by the Thomson Reuters Foundation who match requests for legal and governance help from charities with pro-bono support from legal firms and other experts. If you are running a charity, a journalist, or not for profit and haven’t already signed up for this service we highly recommend that you do so – as if you don’t need it now, you certainly will at some point in the future.
How the Trustlaw process works
The team at Trustlaw were incredibly helpful and in fairly short order we received a handful of offers of support from legal firms, including our friends at Addleshaw Goddard who were willing to help us get our house in order.
After an initial introduction meeting we provided the team at Addleshaw Goddard led by Partner Adrian Mansbridge, and Managing Associate India Barlow, with what can safely be described as a bumper dossier of 35 policies and procedures, and over the next few weeks they tore through these with contributions from the internal experts to leave us with a completely updated, fully compliant, neat and tidy, and now actually useful and consistent set of policies we could rely on; including Pensions, Health and Safety, Financial Crime, and Employment along with forward-looking advice to help futureproof our policies.
We’re now in a much better position as we expand our work, attract and support more volunteers, and help more cities to become National Park Cities in the coming years.
The team was incredibly patient with us, especially when we went back multiple times with additional checks, the odd extra policy to consider, and the advice they provided on how to best interpret and implement the work for which we are incredibly grateful.
From what they’ve told us their experience in working with National Park City has been very positive for them as well, with Junior fee earners able to deliver direct client advice, gain hands-on experience, and contribute meaningfully to a cause that benefits the wider community.
Benefits across the organisation
The proposed Flourish in the City Garden designed by Joe and Laura Carey
Addleshaw have also taken things further through their planned Flourish in the City Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which is inspired by London’s status as the first National Park City, championing the importance of nature and thriving communities and promoting wellbeing – inspired by the London National Park City story.
This type of in-kind support is invaluable for us as a small charity. And the co-benefits that come from collaborating together ensure that it can be an incredibly valuable experience for both parties, for the staff teams involved, and the wider reputation and inspiration for the organisations who take part.
If you’d like to find out more about collaborating as a business with National Park City you can visit us at nationalparkcity.london/ingoodcompany or get in touch at hello@nationalparkcity.org to help make our cities greener, healthier, and wilder.
Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash
