Scottish Parliament private bill helps modernise Glasgow charity
Howard Lake | 28 September 2009 | News
The first private bill to reach the Scottish Parliament since the full operation of the new charities regulator, The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), will help overhaul a 103-year-old Glasgow charity and enable its trustees greater flexibility in grantmaking.
The Ure Elder Fund for Indigent Widow Ladies was set up by Glasgow philanthropist Isabella Elder, the widow of Govan-based engineering and shipbuilding pioneer. A for the rights of women to access university degree courses, she set up the fund to further her work in science, education and the welfare of impoverished women in Glasgow.
Introduced to Holyrood by commercial law firms Maclay Murray & Spens, on behalf of the trustees, the private bill will dissolve the original fund and create a new trust.
Advertisement
Lead trustee Dr Cynthia McAlpine, explained: “The transfer of the original fund to the new trust will enable us to engage in a more appropriate and substantial manner, which will be of significant advantage to individual beneficiaries.”
Alan Eccles, a charities expert at Maclay Murray & Spens, said: “The Ure Elder Fund was originally constituted by an Act of Parliament and any subsequent changes would, therefore, require the trustees to follow the same path”.
www.oscr.org.uk
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.