Memorandum of Understanding

About this template

When to use it

A one-page memorandum for the moment when two organizations have agreed to work together but the money and the schedule are not settled. An MOU is supposed to be short. The longer it runs, the more it reads like a contract, and the more it reads like a contract, the more likely someone argues about whether it binds them.

This form keeps three blocks only: what you will do together, what each side puts in, and — the point of an MOU — what this document alone does not create. The third block is the one that matters.

What is in the file

• The label “Memorandum of understanding between organizations” above the title, then one gray line: “Complete it in order, from Purpose and scope of the agreement through Confidentiality and ownership of results.”
• A four-cell header table — Party A (organization) · Party B (organization) · Date of execution · Agreement No. — pre-filled with ○○○○ Co., Ltd., “◇◇◇◇ Foundation”, 2026-04-15 and MOU-2026-004.
• Three numbered items: 1. Purpose and scope of the agreement / 2. Roles of each organization / 3. Legal effect and follow-on contracts.
• A Key metrics table: Term of agreement 2 years · Areas of cooperation 3 · Steering committee Quarterly · Copies executed 2 copies.
• A Confirmation and approval table with “Representative, Party A (seal)” and “Representative, Party B (seal)”.

Filling order

1. Use each organization’s full legal name and put the short form in brackets. With three or more parties, do not widen the header table — rename the parties Party A, Party B and Party C in the body.
2. 1. Purpose and scope of the agreement — the sample bullet says “Hold the areas of cooperation to three or fewer”, and it means it. An MOU listing five or more areas usually delivers none of them. One line naming what the agreement leaves out saves a scope argument later.
3. 2. Roles of each organization — split staff, facilities and materials between the parties. A cell that says only that the parties will cooperate says nothing. Where costs are shared, write the split as well.
4. 3. Legal effect and follow-on contracts — the sample bullet “State that it is, in principle, not legally binding” is an instruction, not the clause. Write it out as a real sentence, and add that any project moving budget takes a separate contract.
5. Replace the Key metrics values. Copies executed equals the number of parties.
6. The approval table at the foot is where the organizational seals go.

About binding force

• Writing “not legally binding” does not settle the question. Where the content is specific enough and clearly written to be performed, a court may still read it as a contract. If you do not want to be bound, leaving out amounts, deadlines and penalties is more reliable than any disclaimer.
• The reverse holds too. Anything you genuinely need performed should move into the follow-on contract rather than being pushed into the MOU. Expecting an MOU to be honored is the most common misreading of one.
• Settle in advance whether each side may use the other’s name and logo in publicity.
• Public bodies should check their own approval route first. In many of them a representative’s signature is not the end of the process.

After signing

• Name one contact point on each side. Two or more and requests leak away between them.
• Fix the first steering committee date on the day you sign. The Key metrics table says Quarterly, and the count starts that day.
• Review renewal two months before expiry. If you included an automatic extension, put the notice deadline in the calendar now.

Common mistakes

• Leaving the term blank. An agreement that never ends is neither renewed nor closed.
• Naming a person but not a department. When the person moves, the agreement stops.
• Leaving ownership of joint results empty. Where data and copyrighted work change hands, put at least one line into item 3.
• Holding the ceremony and never convening the steering committee once.
• Taking this page as legal advice. It is not. Where an MOU precedes a substantial transaction, have a qualified professional read it under Korean law before it is signed.