Charities work under rules that change, and the duty to keep pace sits with the trustees. This is where we cover what the Charity Commission and other regulators expect, how to run a board that works, and the compliance obligations that come with being registered – set out plainly, so you know where you stand and can deal with problems before they grow. Setting a charity up sits here too: registration, HMRC recognition, charitable objects and governing documents.
The treasurer left in March and took the working knowledge with him. The accounts were nearly ready, then they were not, and the deadline went past while the board was dealing with something else. Nobody has the login. It has…
A trustee stopped coming to meetings eighteen months ago. They answer emails occasionally, have not resigned, and will not say whether they intend to continue. The board wants them off the register and has assumed it can vote them off.…
Your founder has run the charity unpaid for three years. The work has outgrown what anyone can reasonably volunteer; the board agrees she should be paid as coordinator, and everyone is comfortable with the decision because it is obviously right.…
One of your trustees is a builder. The roof needs doing; he quotes below what anyone else would charge, and the board says yes because it obviously saves the charity money. Nobody minutes much. There is no contract, because he…
There is a trustee on your board who drives forty minutes each way to every meeting and has never claimed a penny. She has not been told she can. Nobody has been unkind about it; the subject has never come…
Something needed answering on a Tuesday. The next board meeting was six weeks away, the funder wanted a response by Friday, and the chair dealt with it. Nobody objected. Nobody minuted it either. That happens in small charities constantly, and…
Small charities rarely delegate too little. They delegate constantly and write almost none of it down. The chief executive has been approving spend up to around eight thousand pounds for three years because that is roughly what feels right. No…
Legal responsibility starts the day someone is appointed, not the day they feel ready. A new trustee who has read nothing, seen no accounts and met none of the staff is still jointly responsible for every decision the board takes…
An empty trustee seat costs you nothing until it takes the board below quorum. At that point, you cannot make a valid decision, and everything waiting on one stops. That deadline is usually closer than the vacancy makes it look,…