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What does running a charity involve day to day?

Running a charity day to day brings duties that sit outside the accounts. They cover data protection and the ICO, cyber security and AI, the tools you run on, premises and land, health and safety, insurance, the risk register, partnerships and sanctions, beneficiary images and campaigning. The steps take trustees and managers through them in that order, for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with the differences set out.

23 steps, in the order you meet them.

This is the part nobody plans for: the lease, the insurance renewal, the data breach, the subject access request that arrives with a one-month clock already running.

Small charities are not exempt from data protection law. Being a charity caps what you pay the ICO; it does not excuse the fee. The exemption that does excuse it is open to any organisation, is all or nothing, and a single CCTV camera loses it for everything you do.

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Glossary

Tools

  • Is this a serious incident? — Tool: planned

Templates

  • Sanctions screening procedure — Template: planned

Do

Common questions

Yes, unless all their processing is exempt. Charity status only caps the ICO data protection fee at the lowest tier, and the exemption is all or nothing: one CCTV camera ends it. The charity must also tell the ICO it is a charity when it registers. Pay the ICO fee or confirm your exemption explains.

Yes, in defined circumstances. A charity now has its own soft opt-in under PECR, with three conditions that must all be met, and it covers texts and social media messages as well as email, but not phone calls. Set up consent and preference management for marketing sets out the conditions.

Only employers' liability, if it employs anyone, and motor, if it runs a vehicle on the road. Public liability insurance is not a legal requirement, though landlords and venues often make it a term, and an employers' liability policy almost certainly does not cover volunteers. Buy the insurance you actually need explains.

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