Resources / What does a charity trustee do? Duties, responsibilities and who can be one
What does a charity trustee do? Duties, responsibilities and who can be one
A charity trustee is one of the people legally responsible for running a charity. Trustees decide together what the charity does, protect its money and reputation, and answer for it to the Charity Commission. The role is voluntary, shared equally with your fellow trustees, and carries six legal duties set out in the Commission's core guidance, The Essential Trustee (CC3).
What are the six duties of a charity trustee?
- Carry out the charity's purposes for the public benefit. Everything the charity does must further the objects in its governing document.
- Comply with the governing document and the law. Know what your rules say, and follow them.
- Act in the charity's best interests. Not your own, not a member's, not the founder's. Manage conflicts of interest when they arise.
- Manage the charity's resources responsibly. Protect the money and property, avoid exposing them to undue risk, and do not overcommit the charity.
- Act with reasonable care and skill. Give the time the role needs, use your own skills, and take advice when a decision needs it.
- Ensure the charity is accountable. File what the law requires, and be able to show how decisions were made.
Who can be a charity trustee?
You must be at least 18 (16 for a CIO or charitable company), and not disqualified. The law automatically disqualifies people for certain reasons, including unspent convictions for dishonesty, being an undischarged bankrupt, being a disqualified company director, or being on the sex offenders register. There are 13 reasons in all, and a charity should ask every trustee to confirm none apply, once a year. The Commission can grant a waiver.
Are trustees personally liable?
Rarely, if you act honestly and reasonably. Trustees who follow the duties above are well protected, and incorporated charities (CIOs and charitable companies) limit personal liability further. Where trustees do end up personally exposed, it is almost always because the basics stopped: no meetings, no records, unmanaged conflicts, or money nobody could account for. In the Commission's published inquiries, trustees have been made to repay charity money spent without authority.
How much time does being a trustee take?
For most small charities: preparing for and attending four to eight board meetings a year, reading the papers beforehand, and whatever role you take on between meetings. A few hours a month, honestly given, is enough. The failures the regulator sees come from absence, not from lack of brilliance.
What is the difference between a trustee, a director and a committee member?
Often nothing but the word. Whoever has ultimate responsibility for a charity is a trustee in law, whatever the governing document calls them: director, governor, council or committee member. If you sit on the body that decides, the six duties above are yours.
Before you say yes
- Read the governing document, the latest accounts, and the last two sets of minutes.
- Ask what is expected between meetings, and whether trustee terms and an induction exist.
- Check the charity's entry on the public register: are the filings up to date?
- Sign an eligibility declaration, and expect to renew it yearly.
Responsibility shared is the point: trustees are jointly responsible, so a good board makes the role lighter, not heavier, for each person on it.