Trustee Responsibilities

Trustees to:

• Comply with Charity Law and send Annual Income Report to the Charity Commission.
• All Trustees have same level of responsibility and need to run the Charity efficiently with charitable outcomes.
• Follow their Constitution, which, apart from the object and dissolution, can be changed.
• Trustees must act with integrity and avoid conflict of interest.
• There should be a minimum of 3 trustees but there is no maximum. A good number would be 8.
• If other skills are needed trustees can be co-opted.
• Charitable funds can only be used for the furtherance of our charitable objective.
• Trustees accept responsibility not to damage the Charity’s reputation.
• Trustees will be defended by law and the Charity Commission if they have taken good advice but made a wrong decision.
• Ineligible people to be a trustees are:

1.   Anyone disqualified as a company director.
2.  Anyone who is benefiting from the charity

Trustees can be liable for debts of the charity. There is a need to manage risk. The Charity needs to have reasonable reserves and have at least 3 months running costs.

See also Charity Trustee Guidance