The Wheel Summit 2025

Lydia Bentley and Claire Colfer, Senior Associates on our Charity Law and Not-for-Profit team, were delighted to attend and speak at The Wheel Summit which took place on 28 May in Croke Park. The theme of this year’s event was “Thriving through Change”.

Lydia and Claire facilitated a parallel session for delegates attending the Summit, which focused on collaborations between charities and how charities can prosper through collaboration. The aim of the session was to highlight the full spectrum of collaboration available to charities, ranging from a loose ad-hoc alliance to a formal merger. Claire also spoke about why charities might collaborate, key considerations for charities when collaborating and common pitfalls in collaborative relationships. Lydia outlined the different ways in which a charity can pursue a formal merger and the various stages involved in merging two charities. The session concluded with some final thoughts on how to determine which form of collaboration is best and a recap on why a charity might consider collaborating or partnering with another charity at all.

The Charities Regulator CEO, Madeleine Delaney also spoke at the Summit. She focused on the Charities Regulator 2025-2027 Statement of Strategy, which aims to increase charities' annual reporting and annual return filings. Around 80% of charities submitted their annual reports on time. The Charities Regulator will review current resources to support good governance and identify gaps by the second quarter of 2025. They also intend to publish their regulatory strategy by mid-2025. The Charities Regulator also want to increase the awareness of the charity register. They intend to develop a targeted programme of engagement with inactive charities, with all inactive charities removed from the register by end of 2027.

It was great to meet representatives from so many wonderful charities on the day and thanks to The Wheel for the opportunity to be involved in such a fantastic event.

If you have any questions regarding collaboration between charities, please get in touch with any member of the Charity Law and Not-for-Profit team.