A small charity does not have a risk appetite. It has a capacity, and capacity is a financial fact rather than a board preference. Five trustees, one grant covering seventy per cent of income and three months’ reserves is not…
Three answers, and they pull in different directions. Trustees are collectively responsible for making sure measures exist to protect anyone who comes into contact with the charity. The Charity Commission’s safeguarding guidance is non-statutory, so departing from it does not…
On 1 September 2026, the rules change, and the group affected is volunteers. Until then, someone teaching, instructing, caring for or supervising children is outside regulated activity if a person already in regulated activity supervises them properly. From 1 September,…
The Charity Commission’s requirement for what a safeguarding policy says amounts to four things. The policy has to make clear how you protect people from undue harm, how someone raises a concern, how you handle an allegation or incident, and…
There are four sets of rules, not one. A charitable company, a CIO, an unincorporated association and a trust each amend their governing document differently, and the differences are not cosmetic. They change which power you use, how many of…
The Charity Commission published its second annual sector risk assessment on 18 August 2026, and it says plainly what it is for: to help trustees review their own risk registers. It covers ten risk areas. For a charity under £1m,…
Standard financial controls advice assumes a finance team. Separate the person who spends money from the person who approves it, and from the person who reconciles the account. Three roles, three people. A charity with a part-time administrator and five…
Ask a small charity when it last received a fundraising complaint, and the usual answer is never. The Fundraising Regulator defines a complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about something done or not done. However made; so the…
A business you’re uneasy about offers £5,000. A donor’s money looks like it came from somewhere you’d rather not ask about. Someone gives generously, and a family member later rings to say they weren’t themselves. The instinct in each case…