What records a charity must keep, what good minutes capture, and how long to hold them
Every charity has to keep proper records of its money, its decisions, and the people who run it. Some of it is a legal requirement, and some is the practical evidence that the charity is being run well. Meeting minutes are the part trustees ask about most, since they are the written legal record of what the board decided and why, but they sit inside a wider set of records that the Commission, funders and auditors can all ask to see.
This guide covers what records a charity must keep, why they matter, what good minutes capture, and how long to hold them. Keeping these records well is part of the trustees’ job of running the charity properly.
What records must a charity keep?
A charity’s records fall into a few groups. The governing document comes first – the constitution, articles, or trust deed that sets the rules – kept safely and produced when asked. Alongside it sit the governance records: a register of the charity’s trustees, and, for a charity with a wider membership, a register of members. Then there are the minutes of trustee meetings, and of members’ meetings where the charity holds them. And there are the accounting records – the money that came in and went out, and what the charity owns and owes – which underpin the annual accounts and the annual return. The money side has rules of its own, and our charity accounting guide covers it; the focus here is on the governance records and the minutes.
Why does keeping good records matter?
Records are how a charity shows it is run properly, and the need for them tends to arrive at an awkward moment. A funder asks how a decision was reached. An auditor asks for the reasoning behind a payment. The Commission asks how a conflict of interest was handled. Thin records turn each of those into a problem, while good ones do the opposite – they protect the trustees by showing decisions were made properly, they give new trustees and the next chair a clear account of how the charity has been run, and they stand as the evidence that the board acted within its powers.
What should meeting minutes capture?
Minutes are the legal record of a meeting, and the Commission’s guidance, CC48, is clear that they need not be a word-for-word account. What they do need to hold is the substance: who was there and in what role, so the meeting’s quorum is on record; any conflicts of interest declared and the steps taken to manage them; the decisions made, with the exact wording of any resolution voted on; the reasons behind each decision and the information the board relied on; and the actions agreed, with who is doing what. The level of detail should match the weight of the decision; fuller for something complex or high-risk, lighter for the routine.
What minutes leave out matter just as much. They are a record, not a transcript, so who said what, opinions aired without consequence, and off-topic discussion have no place in them. The test is practical: someone reading the minutes in five years should be able to see what was decided and why.
How long must you keep minutes and records?
Retention depends on the charity’s legal form. A charitable company keeps its meeting minutes for at least ten years from the date of the meeting. A CIO, a trust or an unincorporated association keeps them for at least six years, and a CIO has to be able to produce a hard copy on request. Accounting records run to at least six years under charity law. Electronic storage is fine for all of it, as long as you can produce a hard copy when someone needs one, and the signed minutes should sit somewhere durable rather than on one person’s computer.
How do you keep good minutes in practice?
The rhythm is straightforward. Circulate the draft minutes to trustees soon after the meeting, while it is fresh, so they can be read properly. Approve them at the start of the next meeting, once the board agrees they are accurate. The chair then signs the approved version, and it becomes the legal record. Your governing document may set out how minutes should be signed and stored, in hard copy or electronically, so it is worth checking before you settle on a method.
Doing this well, meeting after meeting, is easier with a structure to work from than a blank page. OurTrustees Meeting Minutes Template sets out each part – attendance and quorum, conflicts, decisions and reasoning, actions and the chair’s sign-off – with guidance notes built around CC48, so the record holds up when someone asks to see it.
Building the habit early
Records are quiet work that rarely feels pressing, right up to the moment someone asks to see them. Getting into the habit from the start – proper minutes, a current register of trustees, accounts that reconcile – takes far less effort than reconstructing it all later. If you’d like help setting your charity’s governance up so this runs smoothly from day one, our charity setup and registration support works through it with you.
