An unincorporated (voluntary) association is an organisation set up through an agreement between a group of people who come together for some common not-for-profit purpose that is likely social, educational, recreational or cultural. It is a simple form of legal structure, but should have a constitution or a written set of rules. Unincorporated associations are not subject to some legislation, such as that covering safeguarding and data protection.
In some communities where a community council has not been formed for whatever reason, an unincorporated association may instead play a representative role, taking on some of the (non-statutory) roles that a community council would.
Like community councils, unincorporated associations do not have a separate legal identity and therefore do not provide members and office bearers with any limitation on liability for the actions of the organisation. This means that individual management committee members (or community councillors) are personally liable for any debts and contractual obligations in relation to the management of the community benefits package, employment of staff, and so on. Appropriate insurance cover of course mitigates this but the underlying risk remains the same.
For this reason, unincorporated associations are generally regarded as a suitable structure for overseeing and distributing community benefit funds only where these are relatively small scale. Similar to community councils, the suitability of an existing association for this purpose will also depend on how active the group is, whether it has the skills and range of perspectives required to carry out the role effectively, and whether it is transparent in its work and well regarded locally.
In addition, if a representative unincorporated association (or your community council) is considering a role in fund distribution, check its constitution to make sure it gives them the powers to receive and distribute large sums of money.
More information on unincorporated (voluntary) associations, their advantages and disadvantages, and a model constitution is available through the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.
