Trustees’ Legal Duties: Managing Resources

What would happen if your charity didn’t manage its resources effectively?

The charity would struggle to operate, attract funders and fail to achieve its mission. This makes the legal duty for trustees to manage its resources effectively a very important one.

Charities are organisations that are very good to responding to change and finding innovative solutions to complex challenges in pursuit of their mission – often with limited resources. This makes their ability to manage resources appropriately and effectively key for the success of the charity.

Steps should be taken to protect a charity’s resources and avoid putting the charity at risk of fraud or abuse.

Our recommendations:

• Take steps to identify risks to the charity;
• Have in place internal financial controls;
• Ensure you have clear financial records;
• Apply funds in the furtherance or in support of the charity’s purposes;
• Take appropriate advice when investing funds; and
• Take appropriate advice when selling charity property, borrowing funds and mortgaging land.

Announcement

We are very excited to announce Trustees’ Week also marks the launch of HEY Charity, a new podcast dedicated to spotlighting local charity leaders and providing legal insights for the not-for-profit sector.

In partnership with the HEY Smile Foundation, this podcast will delve into the Voluntary and Community sector, featuring interviews with visionary charity leaders who are making a significant impact in their communities. 

The first episode features an interview with Smile’s Chair, Trish Dalby, discussing the vital role of trustees.

"HEY Charity" will be available on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify, Sound Cloud, Mix Cloud, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.