Responsibilities of the Chairperson Defining Church Board Responsibilities - Anthony Hilder When you become a trustee, you usually volunteer your services and receive no payment for your work. Honoring Commitments and Responsibilities - Ohio Attorney General How to Correctly Prepare a Written Acknowledgment of a Contribution by a Donor to a Church or Other Charity, The Designation and Taxability of Housing Allowances for Pastors, The Effect of AB506 on Churches: Background Checks and Training Requirements for Church Staff and Volunteers in Youth Service Organizations, Two Federal District Courts Rule that 501(c)(3) Status Subjects Private High Schools to Title IX. The board's utmost duty is to protect the organization's best interests through decisions made on its behalf. For example, you must follow the instructions in the trust document: You cannot mix trust assets with your own. Use one of the Commissions model governing documents or an approved governing document, to ensure that your governing document has all the provisions and powers you need. Christian Truth. 3 0 obj Who can be a trustee and how trustees are appointed, Ensure your charity is carrying out its purposes for the public benefit, Comply with your charitys governing document and the law, Manage your charitys resources responsibly, Your charitys legal structure and what it means, Charity officers - the chair and treasurer, Find out about the Energy Bills Support Scheme, nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3, automatic disqualification guidance for charities, legal powers to remove and appoint trustees, whether your charity needs to register or is exempt or excepted, accounting and reporting requirements for charities, collaborating or merging with another charity, Find out whether you need permission, and how to apply, buying, selling, leasing or mortgaging charity property, Tackling abuse and mismanagement in charities, The Official Custodian for Charities land holding service, Apply to transfer land or property to the Official Custodian, A Chairs Compass - A guide for chairs of charities and non-profit organisations, Take appropriate advice when you need to, for example when buying or selling land, or investing (in some cases this is a legal requirement), Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act, a charity that is not required by law to register, a charity that is required to register, but has not yet done so, must means something is a legal or regulatory requirement or duty that trustees must comply with, should means something is good practice that the Commission expects trustees to follow and apply to their charity, being bankrupt (undischarged) or having an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA), having an unspent conviction for certain offences (including any that involve dishonesty or deception), ensure you understand the charitys purposes as set out in its governing document, plan what your charity will do, and what you want it to achieve, be able to explain how all of the charitys activities are intended to further or support its purposes, understand how the charity benefits the public by carrying out its purposes, make sure that the charity complies with its governing document, comply with charity law requirements and other laws that apply to your charity, do what you and your co-trustees (and no one else) decide will best enable the charity to carry out its purposes, with your co-trustees, make balanced and adequately informed decisions, thinking about the long term as well as the short term, avoid putting yourself in a position where your duty to your charity conflicts with your personal interests or loyalty to any other person or body, not receive any benefit from the charity unless it is properly authorised and is clearly in the charitys interests; this also includes anyone who is financially connected to you, such as a partner, dependent child or business partner, make sure the charitys assets are only used to support or carry out its purposes, avoid exposing the charitys assets, beneficiaries or reputation to undue risk, take special care when investing or borrowing, comply with any restrictions on spending funds or selling land, must use reasonable care and skill, making use of your skills and experience and taking appropriate advice when necessary, should give enough time, thought and energy to your role, for example by preparing for, attending and actively participating in all trustees meetings, be able to demonstrate that your charity is complying with the law, well run and effective, ensure appropriate accountability to members, if your charity has a membership separate from the trustees, ensure accountability within the charity, particularly where you delegate responsibility for particular tasks or decisions to staff or volunteers, there are some restrictions on who can be a trustee there are minimum age limits and some factors that automatically disqualify people from being trustees, you must be properly appointed, and should know how long your appointment lasts, if you are not properly appointed, the trustees decisions or actions may be invalid, potentially creating disputes or putting charity assets at risk, if you are a trustee of a charity that provides regulated activities for children or adults, be prepared for your charity to request a DBS check on you, have an unspent conviction for an offence involving dishonesty or deception (such as fraud), are an undischarged bankrupt (or subject to sequestration in Scotland), or have a current composition or arrangement including an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) with your creditors, have been removed as a trustee of any charity by the Commission (or the court) because of misconduct or mismanagement, when, and how, new trustees are appointed, who can be a trustee - the governing document may impose conditions, how long appointments last and whether a trustee can be re-appointed, companies must comply with company law provisions for appointing and removing directors, unincorporated charities must comply with Trustee Act 1925 provisions, the skills and experience the current trustees have, and whether there are any gaps, ensuring new trustees are eligible to act, how to help new trustees to understand their responsibilities and the charitys work, some or all of the trustees to be elected by the members (this is usual practice for charities with voting members other than the trustees), the trustee body to include beneficiaries, other groups or organisations, such as local authorities, to appoint trustees, what the charity is set up to achieve (its purposes), who the charity is there to benefit (its beneficiaries), how they will benefit (what the charity will do for or with them), any order of priority to the services and benefits the charity provides, any restrictions on what the charity can do or who it can help (geographical or other boundaries; or specific criteria that beneficiaries must meet), charitable status - to be a charity an organisation must have only charitable purposes for the public benefit, a charitys operation - its activities must all be focussed on carrying out the charitys purposes for the public benefit, a charitys accountability - trustees must be able to explain how their charitys activities are or have been for the public benefit, what the charity is set up to achieve - its purpose, why the charitys purpose is beneficial - this is the benefit aspect of public benefit, how the charitys purpose benefits the public or a sufficient section of the public - this is the public aspect of public benefit, how the charity will carry out (or further) its purpose for the public benefit, the charitys beneficiary group still exists, and is still a , the geographical area of benefit in which the charity can operate is still relevant, the need that the charity was set up to meet still exists, and meeting it is still for the public benefit, there may be better ways of meeting the need for which the charity was set up, what the charity exists to do (its purposes, as explained in its objects clause), what powers it has to further its objects, who the trustees are, how many trustees there should be and how they are appointed and removed, whether the charity has members and, if so, who can be a member, rules about trustees (and members) meetings; how they are arranged and conducted; how decisions must be made and recorded, and so on, very small (below the annual income threshold for compulsory registration, currently 5,000) and not a CIO (all CIOs must register), must inform the Commission of any changes to the information on the register of charities, including trustee details and changes to the governing document, must send an annual return (or annual update) and other information to the Commission, must comply with any additional accounting and reporting requirements such as filing annual accounts and reports with the Commission, depending on the size of the charity, should report to the Commission any serious incident in their charity, as soon as possible after it occurs (see, is a company, CIO or community benefit society, legal, financial or other regulated advice, undertakes activities that are subject to regulations, such as fundraising, wants to benefit from Gift Aid or other tax reliefs, works in Scotland, Northern Ireland or outside the UK, the personal interests of members or beneficiaries, the personal interests of supporters, funders or donors, the charity as an institution in itself, or preserving it for its own sake, act in good faith, and only in the interests of your charity, make sure you are sufficiently informed, taking any advice you need, take account of all relevant factors you are aware of, deal with conflicts of interest and loyalty, make decisions that are within the range of decisions that a reasonable trustee body could make in the circumstances, receive payment from the charity for goods or services, or as an employee, make a loan to or receive a loan from the charity, own a business that enters into a contract with the charity, enter into some other financial transaction with the charity, should identify, and must declare conflicts of interest (or loyalty), must prevent the conflict of interest (or loyalty) from affecting the decision, should record the conflict of interest (or loyalty) and how it was dealt with, supplying goods or services to the charity eg building work or specialist services, even if the trustee offers better value or expertise than other suppliers, being employed by the charity or by a trading subsidiary owned by the charity, receiving material benefits as a beneficiary of the charity, being paid to act as a trustee; this is very unusual and only permitted in exceptional circumstances, entering into a property transaction (or any other financial transaction such as a loan) with the charity - this is called self-dealing, the benefit is specifically authorised by the governing document, the Charities Act (or other relevant legislation), the Commission or the courts; any specified procedures must be strictly followed, even if the benefit is authorised, the non-conflicted trustees are satisfied that allowing it is in the charitys best interests, the conflict of interest is managed; so in most cases the conflicted trustee(s) cant be involved in the decision and only a minority of trustees can benefit.