Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Disputes can be very costly to charities. They may lose staff, income and their reputation. Further, any cases that end up in court can undermine the legitimacy of the sector as a whole, especially in the light of public concerns over charities’ administration costs. This research investigates disputes in the charitable sector in England and Wales. In particular, it seeks to identify the commonest types of dispute, their scale and character and the ways with which they are dealt.

Based on the analysis of the experiences of interviewees, all of whom had first hand experience of dealing with charitable disputes, this work seeks to shed light upon the frequency of disputes occurring in the charitable sector, and the nature of third party involvement .

One element in the recent reforms to civil justice is the rise of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Included under this heading, are professional mediators who broker and negotiate between disputing parties in order to come to a mutually acceptable resolution and those who provide adjudication services, whether on points of law or questions of fact. These may or may not be legally qualified personnel. The aim of ADR techniques is to avoid what are seen as the disadvantages of litigation. Disputes settled by means of ADR are often much less costly to resolve than those that result in litigation. This research helps to identify which specific forms of ADR are used and to raise the profile of ADR services for charities.

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The data consist of transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted with organisations or individuals who had first hand experience of dealing with charitable disputes. Given the sensitive nature of the information, and charities' concerns for the reputation of the sector generally, charity workers were not approached as interviewees.