Commission approvals of trustee payments rise this year 4

Governance | Tania Mason | 24 Nov 2010

The Charity Commission has already granted more requests from charities to pay their trustees in the first seven months of this financial year, as it did in either of the last two entire years.

So far this year, the Commission has approved ten charities' requests for trustee payments. In 2009, it approved nine such requests and in 2008, just four. In 2007, ten were approved; eight in 2006.

A spokeswoman said that most requests for trustee payments come from large charities - those with incomes over £5m and the Commission only formally collates requests from these types of charities. So the numbers released only relate to large charities.

However, the Commission could not say whether the numbers of charities applying to pay their trustees was growing. The spokeswoman said: “The process by which charities seek the Commission's permission to pay trustees is not a straightforward interaction or form-based exercise.

“It usually involves detailed conversations and exchanges between the charity and the Commission during which applicants might amend or change their original request.

“Sometimes, during the course of such conversations, charities find that they no longer wish to seek permission to pay a trustee. Sometimes we request information from the charity but then don’t hear back. For this reason, we can’t provide figures of applications versus approvals which would allow you assess how many applications we ‘reject’.”

Directory: Charity Commission

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Carl Allen
7 Dec 2010

The Commission will charge such charities a commercial rate for the new compulsory charity assurance report.

[Reply]

Umesh Raichada
Fundraiser & Development Officer
Community Link Up
29 Nov 2010

Trustee's should be reimbursed for travel, training and subsistence expenses only. I agree with the other 2 comments Trustees should be volunteers - i.e. give their time, skills and experience for free! I am also a School Governor and a Business Adviser for the Young Enterprise project and all this is on a Voluntary basis.

[Reply]

Jane
Founder & Chairman
The Butterfly Tree
25 Nov 2010

Trustees should be all volunteers and only expect to claim essential expenses.

Among other committments I work several days a week as a volunteer to make the charity a success and to ensure that donor funds go directly into grassroot projects.

The larger charities have plenty of paid employees without expecting to pay their trustees.

I chose to do charity work and certainly do not expect to get paid for my services!

[Reply]

John Marshall
CEO
Centrepoint Outreach
25 Nov 2010

Are we talking about reimbursement of reasonable travel expenses or payment of allowances for meeting attendances?

Trustees should be volunteers - i.e. give their time, skills and experience for free!

Outside of my 'day job' I am a charity volunteer. I neither expect or want payment for the time I put in with a registered charity. I claim actual travel expenses when I attend meetings outside my area - as I sit on a national committee.

Charity donors and fundraisers will be dismayed if trustees are paid for their services!

[Reply]

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