Ghamdan Al-Areeky

Founder & Charity Mentor I'm Ghamdan Al-Areeky, founder of Evolve Catalyst and a charity mentor. I work with small UK charities to build organisations that work, so they can focus on the people and causes they exist to serve. I spent more than 15 years working inside UK charities - close to the day-to-day, across operations, systems, fundraising and strategy. What I saw again and again is that the problems a charity struggles with on the surface usually trace back to something underneath: the foundations that were never quite put right. Governance that doesn't hold. A strategy that stopped guiding decisions. Systems the team can't rely on. Income resting on a single funder. That's the work. I help charities at every stage - people turning an idea into a charity, registered charities that never quite got going, and established organisations pulled in too many directions - get those four foundations right, in the order that matters for them. I don't hand over a report and leave. I work alongside trustees, chief executives and their teams: helping them reach the decision, then helping them act on it, so what changes stays changed. No cause should be held back by the organisation built to serve it.

What Trustees Are on the Hook for in Safeguarding

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…

Who in Your Charity Needs a DBS Check

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,…

What a Charity Safeguarding Policy Must Cover

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…

Change Your Charity Governing Document-Evolve Catalyst

How to Change Your Charity’s Governing Document

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…

What the Charity Commission Wants on Your Risk Register

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,…

Financial Controls for Small Charities-Evolve Catalyst

Financial Controls for Small Charities When You Don’t Have Enough People

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…