By Sarah Furness, Partner at Hay & Kilner
“The passion, skill and experience people bring to charity trusteeship determines not just the success of individual charities, but contributes in great part to the health of our communities and the cohesion of society.
“The words of Charity Commission chief executive Helen Stephenson reflect the key role that trustees play in ensuring that charities’ operations are always carried out as they should be.
Trustees have ultimate responsibility for the affairs of their charity, with the professional and leadership expertise they offer on a voluntary basis often being crucial to a charity’s success.
Anyone can become a charity trustee, subject to certain limited exclusions, and people do so for a wide variety of reasons, from personal interest in/experience of a particular issue through to helping with their personal/professional development or simply wanting to make a positive difference to their community.
It’s estimated there are around one million trustees in the UK, with a further 100,000 trustee vacancies available, so there’s plenty of opportunity to take on such a role if you want to.
However, it is not something to be taken on without proper consideration, as it comes with a range of practical and legal responsibilities of which you need to be fully aware in advance.
Trustees must ensure a charity is solvent, well run and delivering its charitable outcomes for the benefit of the public. They can incur personal liabilities from their role, particularly if they allow their charity to ‘mission drift,’ so that it is not being run to achieve its intended charitable purposes.
Trustees must also ensure they and their charities comply with their charities’ governing documents and their legal duties, and for anyone taking on such a role, familiarising themselves with the often-onerous obligations of the Charity Commission is advisable.
Trustees must always act in a charity’s best interests, deciding what will best enable the organisation to carry out its charitable purposes, and they must act responsibly, reasonably and honestly in managing the charity’s resources.
This is done by ensuring inappropriate risks aren’t taken with its assets or reputation, that it doesn’t overstretch itself financially and that particular care is taken when investing or borrowing. Avoiding conflicts of interest is absolutely essential!
An additional consideration comes with the recent publication of guidance by the Charity Commission on accepting donations, as there are circumstances in which they must be refused or returned.
These include where they are from illegal sources or come with illegal conditions, where a donor did not have the mental capacity to decide to donate, or where the donation cannot legally be given, such as when someone is gifting property that is not theirs to give.
At a time when many charities are struggling to fully fund their operations, turning down donations may be a difficult thing to do, but with the responsibility of complying with the charity’s legal duties and best interests, it’s a decision that trustees must be ready to make and stand by.
The personal commitment required to carry out the role also needs to be considered, in terms of preparing for, attending and actively participating in trustees’ meetings, as well as fulfilling whatever other responsibilities you’re asked to take on.
Trustees are regularly asked to sit on subcommittees and it is important that they don’t consider their roles to be box-ticking exercises – hands on involvement is very much required.
Becoming a charity trustee can be an immensely rewarding experience, but there is a great deal of personal accountability that goes with it and it’s essential that anyone taking on this role does so with all of the required information and facts at hand.
Hay & Kilner offers a comprehensive training package which provides detailed guidance on charity trustees’ legal responsibilities and liabilities, as well as practical ideas and strategies to support them in their role.
For further information, please contact Sarah Furness at sarah.furness@haykilner.co.uk or call 0191 232 8345.