Gifts to unincorporated associations: the significance of members being free to divide their assets

This article suggests that when a donor gives a gift to an unincorporated association, the real significance of whether the association’s rules allow its assets to be divided between its members is in relation to whether the gift is charitable. Whereas the widely-cited – supposed – rule in Re Grant’s Will Trusts [1980] 1 W.L.R. 360 (Ch.), that a gift to a non-charitable unincorporated association is invalid unless the members are, under the association’s rules, able divide its assets between themselves, is a misstatement of the law, in conflict with stronger authority