Navigating the Legal Frontier: Risk, Compliance, and Governance for International Charities and Foundations

January 1970

Abstract

Charities, philanthropic foundations, and other non-profits are increasingly asked to deliver impact in a heightened-risk environment, and the legal and compliance landscape governing international charitable activity has never been more complex. This article examines the legal and risk management challenges facing in-house counsel at charities and foundations delivering high-risk, high-impact programmes: the intersection of sanctions compliance, counter-terrorism financing obligations, and humanitarian exemptions, a tension generating significant operational and reputational exposure. It explores due diligence frameworks for third-party partners, evolving regulatory guidance including from the Charity Commission, and governance structures enabling responsible decision-making under uncertainty. Teams must move beyond reactive compliance and build a practical framework for running international programmes so action can be taken before problems arise.

Authors

Aarti Thakor

Partner, Mishcon, UK

Aarti is a leading civil law barrister & accredited Mediator with 22 years of extensive charity, regulatory & international experience gained primarily within the Charity Commission's legal services directorate. As a specialist charity Partner at Mishcon de Reya, she specialises in providing technical consulting on financial crime and terrorist financing risk, advising major international NGOs, international institutions, charities and philanthropic foundations. She has also advised a vast number of governments in the Far East, Middle East, Europe and Caribbean, including regulators, other institutions and agencies globally on how to develop or improve regulatory systems or policies for NGOs and civil society, and has been responsible for leading the Commission's engagement on the last decade of charity legislation in England and Wales.

Dawda Jawara

Deputy General Counsel, The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (UK), UK

Dawda is Deputy General Counsel at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), the world’s largest philanthropic funder focused on improving outcomes for children. Dawda’s role covers both programmatic and operational legal risk, compliance, and governance, with a particular focus on CIFF’s global health innovation portfolio. Before joining CIFF, Dawda was a partner at a pan-African credit fund investing across multiple sectors, including healthcare. Dawda began a legal career in leading law firms in the City of London.

Companies

Mishcon

Mishcon de Reya is recognised as having a leading private client legal team guiding and advising family clients as they navigate an ever-more complex international environment. We have law offices in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. Working side by side with MDR Mayfair - a wholly-owned subsidiary with offices in London, Singapore and Dubai - we are able to provide a broader range of family advisory, management and fiduciary services.

The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (UK)

The Children's Investment Fund Foundation is the world's second largest private funder of reproductive health and environmental protection globally and the largest philanthropy that focuses specifically on improving children's lives.

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