Legal clinics as providers of legal aid for volunteers and charities who make public charity fundraising

Abstract

The culture of volunteering and charity in Ukraine has long existed and is actively developing. With the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014 and the full-scale invasion in 2022, the concept of a volunteer has come to mean not only charitable civic activity, but also the main activity of many people. Charity as a tool of civil society solves many pressing problems: supplying Ukrainian military units, helping internally displaced persons and people with disabilities, restoring destroyed or damaged buildings etc, dealing with ecological issues ect. The concepts of volunteer and benefactor have become interchangeable in the modern context. The spread of these phenomenons raises many questions regarding legal regulation of charitable activities and the relevance of the legislative provisions regulating those issues. These problems became a widely discussed topic and subject of research for a Center for Democracy and Rule of Law that made a survey among volunteers in 2023. Overcoming these challenges would greatly simplify volunteer and charitable activities and increase their effectiveness.
The article focuses on the challenges faced by benefactors that conduct public fundraising and volunteers, in particular: the legal status of a volunteer and a benefactor; legal forms of such activities; peculiarities of taxation; legal responsibility of volunteers and benefactors. The paper provides brief summaries of the legislative provisions that are commented on or criticized, and formulates the main approaches to providing legal assistance and awareness spread by legal clinics in the fields of volunteering and charity. Legal clinics, perceived as a form of socially oriented practice for law students, can carry out various activities and advise members of the public on these issues. It is advised legal clinics to focus on two key steps: providing administrative support with contracts, constituent documents, application for inclusion in the Register of volunteers, tax reporting etc. and incorporation of online-format of consulting and educating, making legal help more accessible for anyone in need.