The Legal Framework of Charitable Foundation Formation in Georgia
No separate foundation statute exists in Georgia — a Georgian charitable foundation is a non-commercial legal person defined by the Civil Code, to which a distinct charitable status under tax legislation may be added. The formation plan therefore rests on four norms: the choice of form (Article 24), the content of the founding documentation (Article 29), the purpose test for disposing of property (Article 36), and the exit rules (Article 38). Expectations imported from trust or foundation-law models have no place here: there is no trustee office, no separate regulator and no statutory fee schedule outside these Civil Code norms.
The Choice of Form — Article 24
Article 24 defines the concept and kinds of legal persons: a legal person is an organized formation created to achieve a defined purpose, owning its own property, answering independently with that property, acquiring rights and obligations in its own name and capable of appearing in court. A legal person may be based on membership or independent of the members' status — and this distinction is the core of the foundation choice: the foundation type does not presuppose membership; it is governed by the purpose written down by the founders and by property working in the service of that purpose. The Code regulates directly: a legal person whose purpose is non-commercial activity must be registered under the procedure established by this Code — and that is the route for a charitable foundation as well.
The Content of the Charter — Article 29
The foundation's charter must contain more than the data any registration requires: it must indicate the purpose of the organization's activity — for a foundation, a precise list of charitable or other public-benefit purposes; the membership rules, where the form is membership-based; the organ empowered to decide on reorganization or liquidation, with the decision-making procedure; and the manner of creating the governing organ and the term of its authority. One practical rule governs foundation formation: the purposes and the principles of property management should be written so that every future transaction and every project fits within these formulations — the charter is the first reference material for both the foundation's governance and the courts. Together with registration the registering organ creates the foundation's electronic address on the unified portal, and a notice sent to a registered telephone or e-mail is deemed delivered — a detail touching the foundation's everyday administration, the neglect of which surfaces later in procedural disputes.