Ready to use and adapt for your charity. For charities in England and Wales, with sources cited and review dates shown.
The six legal duties every trustee has, who can and cannot serve, what you are personally responsible for, and how much time it takes.
The difference between governing a charity and running it, why the line matters, and what to do in a small charity where trustees do both.
How a charity board and its chief executive share power: what the CEO can decide alone, what stays with trustees, and how to support and hold to account at the same time.
A 30/60/90 plan for a new trustee: the formalities to complete in week one, what to read and who to meet in the first month, how to go deeper, and when to start contributing.
The general rule that trustees serve unpaid, the expenses any trustee can claim, when the Charities Act lets you pay a trustee for goods or services, and the record the Commission expects.
What the Charity Commission actually does when things go wrong, from advice to statutory inquiry, when trustees are personally liable, and the failure patterns that appear in published inquiries.
The right way to step down, the paperwork that follows, and the narrow legal routes for removing a trustee who will not go.
Where the minimum number of trustees is set, what a quorum is, what happens to decisions taken without one, and how to recruit before you run short.
What counts as a conflict of interest for a charity trustee, who a connected person is, the five steps in CC29, when to leave the room, and what to record.
The two tests every charity has to meet, the four legal forms, and what changes when you register.
The tax reliefs, funding access and public trust that come with charitable status, and the duties and limits that come with them.
Primary purpose trading, ancillary trading and non-primary purpose trading, the small trading exemption limits, and when you need a trading subsidiary.
The regulator's job, the powers it holds, how it decides when to act, and the moments in a charity's year when you have to contact it.
The monthly, quarterly and annual jobs of a well-run charity board, and the duties each one meets.
A trustee meeting agenda with timings and the standing items every board needs.
How much detail trustee minutes need, a minutes template, and a decision log and action log to go with them.
A conflicts of interest policy to adapt, a register of interests template, and the wording for declaring a conflict at a meeting.
A risk register for a small charity, with straightforward scoring and six example risks to start from.
What a new charity trustee should receive, read and confirm in their first month, as a checklist.
What the Charity Commission annual return asks for, what to gather first, and the common late-filing traps.
A twelve-month planner of filings, reviews, declarations and meetings, arranged around your financial year end.
These resources are general guidance for charities in England and Wales, not legal advice. For anything specialist, safeguarding casework, employment or tax, speak to a suitably qualified adviser.
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