Pro Bono legal considerations in Mexico: Essential characteristics of Private Assistance Institutions

A Private Assistance Institution (Institución de Asistencia Privada) is an entity with legal personality and its own non-profit assets that, with private property, carry out acts of social assistance without individually designating the beneficiaries.

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The Private Assistance Board (Junta de Asistencia Privada) is the entity that provides services and support in assistance, financial and legal matters to this type of organizations. In almost all the States of the Mexican Republic there is a Private Assistance Board or counterpart body.

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The administration of the Private Assistance Institution is carried out by the Board of Trustees (Patronato), who must contribute to the fulfillment of the will of the founder.

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The Board of Trustees carries out the control and monitoring of the activities of the Private Assistance Institution and is empowered to review its budgets, authorize extraordinary expenses and ensure that Private Assistance Institutions comply with the provisions of the law and its bylaws and the which must be paid a fee of six per thousand on your gross income.

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The main obligations of the Private Assistance Institution are:

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• Be incorporated ?in accordance with the provisions of the applicable laws.
• Enroll in the National Directory of Social Assistance Institutions (Directorio Nacional de Instituciones de Asistencia Social).
• Comply with the provisions of the Official Mexican Standards (Normas Oficiales Mexicanas) that are issued for the regulation of social assistance services and collaborate with the supervisory tasks performed by the agency.
• Ensure at all times respect for the dignity and human rights of people, families or communities that receive their social assistance services.

They may only be extinguished by resolution issued by the Board of Trustees. Extinction proceeds when any of the following assumptions arises:

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a)?? Due to the material impossibility of carrying out the activities or because of its consummate purpose;

b)?? When it is proven that they were constituted in violation of the provisions of the applicable laws;

c)?? When, due to the activities they carry out, they move away from the purposes of social assistance, and

d)?? In the case of the transitory institutions, when the indicated period has ended or the cause that motivated its creation has ceased.

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Because they are considered of public utility, they enjoy various exemptions, incentives, subsidies and administrative facilities conferred by the laws.