Check whether DGR status is realistic for your organisation

It helps to look at the service as a one-off legal assessment rather than a full restructuring project. We review your organisation's setup, including founding documents, governance arrangements, stated purposes and current activities, then prepare a written memo on whether DGR eligibility appears likely, uncertain or unlikely on the information provided. The advice also points out issues that may affect your position, such as document wording, membership or control settings, or the way your activities are described. It does not include regulator representation or broader tax advice.

This service is commonly useful when an organisation wants to attract deductible donations, is planning a fundraising push, has been asked by donors about DGR status, or is unsure whether its current structure supports an application. It can also help where a group has charitable aims but mixed activities, trading elements or governance features that may complicate the analysis. In those cases, getting legal advice early can highlight whether the issue is mainly about eligibility, document wording, or whether broader structural work may be needed first.

We will usually need your constitution, trust deed or rules, plus a practical summary of what the organisation does, how it is governed and how funds are used. If you have existing charity registration material, board papers, fundraising descriptions or previous correspondence about status questions, those can also help. The more closely the documents match what happens in practice, the more useful the advice will be. If your activities have changed over time, it is worth flagging that, because eligibility analysis often turns on the current operating model rather than historic wording alone.

Your memo will explain the main legal factors relevant to DGR eligibility, how those factors appear to apply to your organisation, and where any gaps or uncertainties sit. For example, the advice may comment on whether your purposes are expressed clearly enough, whether governance settings create issues, or whether your activities suggest that amendments may be worth considering before taking further steps. The aim is to give you a practical basis for deciding what to do next. It is an assessment service, not a promise that DGR status will be available or approved.

Sometimes the main issue is not the DGR question itself, but the underlying structure or governing documents. If that comes up, we can outline what further legal work may be appropriate, such as amending rules, updating a trust deed or considering a different operating model. That extra work would be separate from this fixed-fee. This page is intentionally narrower than broader not-for-profit structuring services, so the focus stays on DGR eligibility advice rather than implementing a full governance or restructuring project.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the DGR Eligibility Advice service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.