Being a trustee is tough!  Are you a trustee superstar, or is there a risk that you are a problem trustee? Your hard work, people skills, and level of commitment are likely to be significant factors in how well your charity thrives, and how vigorously it is able to pursue its mission. Are you a can-do, self-starting, on time, team player?  Or does your enthusiasm for your charity's aims sometimes exceed your practical capabilities ? The pitfalls These are well-known …

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With charity governance so much in the news, yellow cards may soon not just be for footballers. On the football field, the yellow card is the sign of an Official Caution. In  upcoming changes to charity law, charity trustees may be at risk of finding themselves booked by the Charity Commission. New Powers It’s all down to the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill currently going through Parliament. The Charity Commission is set to have new powers to issue Official …

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New charity trustees may be about to enjoy a stimulating new involvement or find themselves walking into a minefield!  To make sure yours feels more like the former: 1) Avoid walking unawares into personal financial liability An important first step is to find out the legal structure of the charity.  Whilst there are currently over 165,000 registered charities in England and Wales there are only four main types of charity, see info here. Of these, the Charitable Incorporated Organisation …

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What Lehman Brothers did to the public’s confidence in banks, Kids Company seems to have done for UK charities. A survey in October 2015 revealed public confidence in charities at its lowest point since 2007 - when the surveys started - with charities now less trusted than supermarkets. The failure of Lehman Brothers precipitated the 2008 banking crisis. Is the charity sector heading the same way? Canary or outlier? Both Lehman Brothers and Kids Company  were bellweathers of their particular …

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