• Keep your documents up-to-date. Make sure all of your trustees have a copy of the governing documents (and that they have actually read them!)
• Review your policies regularly. Whether this is on conflicts of interest, risks or grant making. The Charity Commission has good guidance on all of these areas and it will be helpful to any new trustees and refresh the memories of the longer serving ones.
• Diversify your board. Look to recruit trustees that can fill in the gaps in your skills set and rotate trustees regularly so that you get fresh new ideas.
• Grow with caution. It’s great that your charity is growing but remember that if you take on employees, you should seek expert legal advice as the employment regulations apply to charities.
• Making a move? If you need to move premises or sell your current one, special provisions apply to how charitable organisations can own property and how they can use the proceeds of sale so take care to seek advice on how this might affect you.
• Minute your meetings. Keep good records of all of the matters discuss by the board and of any resolutions made. This sounds simple but the lack of good records is frequently a problem for the Charity Commission.
• Take responsibility! You as the Trustees are collectively responsible for the decisions of the charity. You should therefore have a good knowledge of the accounting requirements and of the issues facing your charity.
If these issues will affect you or your charity, get in touch with our Not For Profit Team who will have happy to advise further. Find our more at https://www.morrlaw.com/not-for-profit/