VAST Vault – Governance & Trustees
VAST Trustee Guides
What is a Trustee and how do I become one?
A trustee’s role in a charity is to be the ‘guardians of purpose’, making sure that all decisions put the needs of the beneficiaries first as well as ensuring the charity is legally compliant at all times.
This guide provides key information on what being a Trustee involves and your legal and ethical reponsibilities to the charity you represent.
Advertising Trustee roles
Some key information taken from Getting on Board’s “how to recruit trustees for your charity” shows some interesting statistics around trustees.
We highly recommend reading this free guide, but we have summarised the key items to consider within this document.
More information on governance and trusteeship
The Trustees are responsible for ensuring good governance within an organisation which can be daunting.
Governance is a term used to describe the trustees’ role in:
- the long term direction of the charity, including its objectives or purposes
- implementing policies and activities to achieve objectives
- complying with legal requirements
- accountability to those with an interest or ‘stake’ in the charity.
We are here to help you navigate the complexities so that you can best serve your Charity with the confidence that you will be complying with key requirements of the law.
HMRC charity recognition – https://www.gov.uk/charity-recognition-hmrc?step-by-step-nav=3dd66b86-ce29-4f31-bfa2-a5a18b877f11
Trustee welcome pack – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charity-trustee-welcome-pack
Role of trustee – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/charity-trustee-whats-involved
CIC regulator – https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-of-the-regulator-of-community-interest-companies
Automatic disqualification guidance – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/automatic-disqualification-rule-changes-guidance-for-charities
Closing a charity – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-close-a-charity
Finding new trustees – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/finding-new-trustees-cc30