What are the core duties of a trustee?

Trustees have four main legal duties: to know the charity's purpose and ensure it's being pursued; to act honestly and in good faith; to use charitable funds only for the charity's purposes; and to take care in financial and governance decisions. The Charity Commission publishes detailed guidance on "The Essential Trustee".

Can trustees be held personally liable?

In unincorporated charities, yes. In a CIO or company limited by guarantee, trustees have limited liability unless they personally breach their duty. This is a key reason many charities choose CIO status.

How often should trustees meet?

This is up to the charity, but at least quarterly is standard for charities with any size. Meeting too infrequently means decisions stall; too frequently and operations get bogged down. Document your meeting frequency in the governing document.

Trustee Duties and Board Governance: Complete Guide

What trustees are legally required to do, how to run effective board meetings, conflicts of interest, and accountability to the Charity Commission. Covers startup through managed-scale governance.

Trustees are the legal decision-makers of a charity. They have real duties, real liability (in some structures), and real consequences for failing to meet them. Yet many trustees discover this only after a problem occurs.

This guide walks through what trustees are actually required to do, how to run a board that makes good decisions, and how to stay on the right side of the Charity Commission.

The four core trustee duties

All trustees, regardless of the charity's size or structure, have four legal duties.

1. Know and pursue the charity's purpose

You must understand what the charity exists to do and ensure that every decision furthers that purpose. If the charity's funds are spent on anything other than its stated charitable purpose, that is a breach of trust.

Common mistake: trustees approve spend without checking it against the purpose. Do not do this.

2. Act honestly and in good faith

This means you must not secretly benefit from the charity. You cannot award yourself a massive salary without disclosure. You cannot give contracts to a business you own without declaring it. You must act in the charity's interest, not your own.

3. Use charity funds only for the charity's purposes

Money that comes in has to go out on charitable activities, not into personal pockets. This includes salaries (which must be reasonable) and operational costs (which must be necessary). Personal loans from the charity are generally not permitted.

4. Exercise care in decisions

You must think before you decide. Financial decisions need at least basic checking: Is this spend reasonable? Do we have the money? Is there a better way? You do not need to be an accountant, but you need to ask sensible questions.

Conflicts of interest: the most common breach

Most trustee problems come from unmanaged conflicts of interest. A trustee votes to give a contract to their own business. A trustee approves a salary for a family member. A trustee approves a grant to an organisation they run.

The rule is simple: if you have an interest (financial or personal) in a decision, you must:

Declare it at the meeting.
Leave the room (or at minimum, not vote).
Let the other trustees decide without your input.

This does not mean conflicts are always a problem. But they must be transparent and managed. Document every conflict in a register.

The Charity Commission says the number-one trustee failure is not reporting conflicts of interest. If you do nothing else, manage conflicts.

How to run an effective board meeting

Good governance is not complicated, but it needs discipline. Meetings without structure drift, decisions do not get made, and accountability disappears.

Before the meeting

Send an agenda at least 5 days before so trustees can prepare.
Attach papers (accounts, key decisions) so people know what to decide.
Ask trustees to declare conflicts in advance.

During the meeting

Start on time; it signals that time is respected.
Go through the agenda in order; do not skip items because "we talked about it already".
For each decision, confirm: who is responsible, by when, and what success looks like.
Take minutes that record what was decided and by whom.
Minute conflicts of interest.
End on time (finish when the work is done, not after a fixed time).

After the meeting

Send minutes within a week while memory is fresh.
Make sure actions are assigned and tracked to the next meeting.
Store all papers in one place (shared drive, digital archive).

Financial controls every trustee must insist on

Charity funds are a trust. Your job is to protect them. At minimum, insist on:

Two signatories on all cheques over a set limit (usually £1k).
Monthly accounts that show income, spending by category, and cash balance.
Bank reconciliation: does the bank statement match the accounts?
An annual independent examination or audit (required by law once turnover hits £25k).
Clear spending approval limits: who can spend what, and what needs board approval.
No personal expenses claimed without receipts.

If the charity cannot show you these, that is a red flag. Push for them until they exist.

Trustee recruitment and induction

Most boards get weaker over time because trustees leave and new ones arrive with no context.

When recruiting a new trustee

Be clear about the time commitment: what is a realistic weekly/monthly burden?
Recruit for diversity: experience, background, networks, perspective.
Check they understand the role: it is not just a title or a CV-booster.

When a new trustee joins

Spend an hour explaining the charity: what it does, why, what it is trying to achieve.
Walk them through the accounts for the past two years. What is the trend?
Show them the key policies: financial controls, conflicts-of-interest register, safeguarding policy.
Clarify their role and term: when do they leave? Can they serve again?
Pair them with an existing trustee as a mentor for the first month.

Accountability to the Charity Commission

Charities with turnover over £25k must file an annual return and accounts to the Charity Commission. Do not miss deadlines. If you fail to file, the Commission can remove you as a trustee.

Key deadlines:

Accounts: filed within 10 months of the financial year end (for larger charities).
Annual return: also 10 months.
Late filing: you get a 3-month grace period before penalties.

Common trustee mistakes (and how to avoid them)

Rubber-stamping decisions. Do not approve budgets, reports, or grants without reading them. Ask questions.
No financial records. At least monthly accounts. You cannot govern what you cannot see.
Unclear roles. Who is chair? Who handles finance? Document it.
No succession plan. When the founder leaves, does the whole board leave? Plan a staggered exit so knowledge transfers.
Meetings without decisions. A good meeting ends with clear actions assigned to people. A bad meeting ends with "we should probably talk about that again later".

The closing principle

Trustees have real power and real responsibility. That is the deal. If you take the duty seriously-attend meetings, read papers, ask questions, insist on good records-you protect the charity. If you do not, problems can get very expensive, very quickly.

This guide is part of our Charity Governance hub, where you can explore every practical guide in this area.