Legal and governance
Useful documents covering legal status, charity structures, trustee information, code of conducts and much more.
Trustee Information
Being a trustee
General documents to help you in you role as a trustee
Paying Charity Trustees -what the rules are
Understand the rules for making payments to trustees including trustee expenses
Video: The basics of being a Trustee
A 1 hour long video covering the roles and responsibilities of trustees, charity lexicon and conflicts of interest.
Tips for Trustees
Some tips – 8 ways to correct an imbalance of power on your board of trustees.
Hunts Forum’s Brief Guide for Trustees
A guide to what it means to be a trustee, the main responsibilities and liabilities with further reading links
Incorporating a charity
There are four main legal structures available in England and Wales to individuals or organisations wishing to pursue charitable purposes.
Code of conduct
Two examples of a Trustee Code of Conduct
How to make changes to your charity’s governing document
Changing your charity structure
A PDF form with a checklist that will help choose your charity structure.
Running a meeting
Information and Guidance for Chair of Trustees
Running an effective board awayday top tips
Debra Allcock Tyler, CEO of Directory of Social Change (DSC), has written her top tips for running a successful Board Awayday.
Robert’s Rules of Order Minute Taking
How to take minutes using RoD (Roberts Rules of Order)
A Guide to Chairing Meetings
A ‘Resource Centre’ published guide to chairing meetings.
Charity Commission document Decision Making for Trustees
It’s your decision: charity trustees and decision making – Guidance
Changing structure
Governance and Organisational Structures
PDF guide from Governance Hub and Cooperatives UK covering the different types of structure available, along with 9 key questions to ask when deciding on the best structure for your organisation.
Video: Setting up a charity or social enterprise
A video overview of some of the key considerations when deciding upon the legal structure for setting up a new charity or social enterprise.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Legal Structures
Guide to the different legal structures of main forms of charities, social enterprises and societies, including advantages and disadvantages of each.
Change your structure check list
A checklist from the Charity Commission to help guide you through the process.
Changing Governing document
Writing and amending your governing document
Webinar produced by NCVO about writing and amending your governing document
Changing your charity’s governing document
Charity Commission PDF guide to changing your charity’s governing document.
How to make changes to your charity’s governing document
Guidance on making changes to your charity’s governing documents including changes you can make yourself and which others need Charity Commission permission.
