[ValentineC]

> This isn't true in the UK. There's a structure called a Company Limited by Guarantee, which has no shareholders so it can't be sold. It's an association.

There's one more structure that's (so far) exclusive to the UK: the Charitable Incorporated Organisation [1].

It can be founded as either a foundation (trustees and voting members are the same) or association (usually a larger group of voting members).

The key advantage of a CIO versus a CLG are the less onerous compliance requirements, which go a long way towards keeping smaller charities cheaper to run.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charitable_incorporated_organi...

[russss]

A CIO is more onerous than a CLG because a CIO is a charity, and comes with the charitable reporting requirements (and also the tax benefits).

A pure CLG doesn't have the charitable tax benefits but it's still a non-profit governance structure, and you only have to file with Companies House and HMRC. The CLG is the lowest-hassle non-profit structure.

(Confusingly, CLGs can also be charities - because charitable status can act as a "wrapper" around other corporate structures - and indeed a lot of charities are CLGs because the CIO is a more recent invention.)

I wrote about this, ages ago, I think it's mostly still correct:

https://russ.garrett.co.uk/2009/10/25/starting-a-non-profit-...