A small word of warning – I attended an excellent seminar today on Charity Governance and Risk, so have plenty of material to blog about over the next few weeks!! It was chaired by the Director of a local Insurance Brokers who is a former Welsh Rugby international so he had plenty of material to share with us about the big game last Saturday that saw Wales retain their status as Six Nations Champions, stopping a much longed-for (and rare) England Grand Slam – sorry to my English readers!!
All charitable organisations will have a Governing Document. It could be called a Constitution, Trust Deed, Memorandum and Articles (for a charitable company) – or something else. So the first point is that you need to know what your governing document is. If someone asks for your Constitution – don’t go and write one because all you have is a Memorandum and Articles as this is what they need!
Do you know what your governing document says – and is it up to date? How long ago was it written – and is it still appropriate for your modern organisation?
Are your objects appropriate? And what about your activities? Do the activities that you currently undertake match what is allowed for in your Governing Document? You may find that the activities that you do now are completely different to those mentioned. One organisation stated that they were providing services for children – but had expanded this to young people and young adults, which was outside of their Governing Document.
What about the way that you appoint new Trustees? Your Governing Document should set out how new Trustees are put in position – usually by appointment or election – but how old is it? Does the way you make appointments now match? Have you slowly, over time, changed your procedures and methods without referring to the Governing Document? One charity looked at their decisions and found that the appointments of Trustees that they had made for the last 10 years were actually invalid as the procedure used differed to what was set out.
Do you trade? Is this something new that has been set up as the organisation has grown, changed focus, diversified? If so, have you checked that your Governing Document allows for you to trade? There may be restrictions that don’t allow this type of activity.
As Trustees, you need to know your Governing Document. What is it called? What are your objects? What does it allow – and what does it not allow?!
But don’t worry – your Governing Document need not be set in stone. You can make changes to it – and to clauses in it – via the Charity Commission. The important thing is that, as Trustees, you know your document. In that way, you will know if you need to make changes to it before taking certain decisions, and prevent anyone claiming those decisions, appointments or activities are invalid.
Keep your Governing Document up to date – and know what it says!! If you need any help, give me a call.