← All ten parts of the guide
Governance and trustees
What trustees must do, how decisions are made and recorded, and the policies you actually need.
1 step.
Most writing about charity governance describes best practice as though it were law. This part keeps the two apart: what you must do, what you will be judged on if something goes wrong, and what is simply a good idea someone published once.
Some of the received wisdom turns out to be wrong. A risk register is not required by statute. An AGM is not required either, unless your own governing document says so. Minutes, on the other hand, are a more serious matter than most trustees realise.
Understand
Explainers for this part are not published yet.
Look up
Glossary
- Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
- Grant
- Board of trustees
- Outcomes
- Volunteer
- Restricted funds
- Governing document
- Minutes
- Regulated activity
- Safeguarding
- Worker
- ICO
- Regulated alteration
- Public benefit
- Designated funds
Tools
- Connected person checker — Tool: planned
- Governance code self-assessment — Tool: planned
- Trustee liability checker — Tool: planned
Templates
- Statutory registers — Template: planned