Skip to content

Education & Charities Finance

Alongside our market-leading Charities team, we advise charities and not-for-profit organisations on borrowing, including the granting of security and the relevant provisions of the Charities Act. We also advise lenders of all kinds on the nuances of lending to charities and the additional protections that may be required. Our combination of commercial expertise and deep experience in the not-for-profit sector is relatively rare, enabling us to provide the highest quality advice on all types of financings to any charity or not-for-profit organisation.

Our clients include nationally and internationally recognised charities, schools, universities and religious institutions, as well as banks, other for-profit lenders and charitable or social impact lenders. We often advise on the financing elements of mergers and reorganisations of charities or schools. Additionally, we provide bespoke advice to charities setting up trading subsidiaries and seeking to finance them with debt, either from the charity or from third-party lenders.

Recent work highlights

  • Independent school finance: advised a leading independent school in connection with the issue of $100 million of unsecured, fixed interest rate private placement notes. The funds raised were used primarily to finance the school’s capital expenditure programme. Advice was also provided in connection with a separate secured £4.65 million revolving credit facility from a major retail bank.
  • University finance: advised a college at a leading Russell Group University in connection with the issue of £35 million of unsecured, fixed interest rate private placement notes. The funds from the private placement were used to facilitate the construction of additional student accommodation.
  • Charitable trust finance: advising the trustees of a charitable trust established to care for the elderly in connection with the issue of £30 million of unsecured, fixed rate private placement notes.
  • Unincorporated association finance: advised an unincorporated association administering educational activities in connection with the issue of £20 million of unsecured, fixed interest rate private placement notes. The funds raised through the private placement issuance were used to develop and refurbish a central London property owned by the association.
  • Social investment and social impact finance: advised a charitable institution, established by an Act of Parliament, on a series of small social impact loans, both secured and unsecured, to charities in London totalling over £5 million. Where other lenders or grant providers were also providing financing to the same borrower, we also advised this client on priority and subordination arrangements.
  • Religious institution finance: advised a Catholic archdiocese on its secured £3.5 million loan to a charity and specialist school for children with learning disabilities, epilepsy and other complex medical conditions, established by a historic Catholic order of religious sisters.
  • Specialist school finance: advised an ethical bank lender on its loan of up to £7.5 million across three tranches to a charity which operates specialist schools for children with autism.
  • Charity finance: advised the trustees of a charitable trust established to care for the elderly in connection with the issue of £30 million of unsecured, fixed rate private placement notes.

Useful Links

Read our guides

Contact our team

Back to top