Public interest in remuneration in the sector tends to focus on two main topics – the salaries paid to chief executives and senior staff, and whether or not a charity pays its trustees.
Senior staff salaries are generally lower than equivalent salaries in the private and public sectors, and some commentators argue that charities should be able to pay much more in order to attract the best talent. But public opinion still tends to err on the side of caution and there is outcry if a charity is deemed to be spending too much on its chief executive’s salary.
The issue of trustee remuneration is just as emotive – there are strong lobbies within the sector both for keeping trusteeship voluntary and for paying trustees for their efforts. Those who support the latter say payment would help to increase diversity among trustees; those who support the former say it would contravene the very concept of charity. Charities are allowed to pay their board members in certain circumstances but must obtain permission from the Charity Commission.
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Interims working in civil society organisations have seen a pay rise of 4 per cent during the last six months, new research by Russam GMS has revealed.
Governance expert Dorothy Dalton has stormed into the debate over whether trustees should sit on unitary boards alongside the executive and be paid for their work.
Is the time right for paid trustees and unitary boards? Money is short. Charities labour to make ends meet. Trustees struggle with the dilemma of cutting core costs or axing frontline services.
The existing model of charity governance that gives non-executive trustee boards authority over executive staff is bust and cannot be sustained, the chair of RNIB told an audience of charity chief executives last week.
This is the full text of RNIB chair Kevin Carey's speech to the Acevo annual conference on Thursday 5 November 2009.
Stephen Bubb has hit out at claims by the trade union Unite that an “excessive City pay culture” exists in the charity sector. The union had said it was concerned that some charity chief executives are earning more than the Prime Minister’s annual salary of £197,000, citing John Belcher, who stepped down from his £391,000 a year role at the Anchor Trust last week.
This article considers the impact of the Charities Act 2006 (the Act) and recently updated Charity Commission guidance on various aspects of trustee remuneration. It also touches briefly on the position in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The underlying legal principlesThree underlying legal principles should inform any discussion of trustee remuneration.
The Affinity Trust, formerly TACT UK, is appointing an independent pay committee to determine how much its board members should be paid, while at the same time applying for charitable status. The Trust, which supports people with learning disabilities in care homes and in the community, used to be an industrial and provident society (IPS), meaning it was exempt from registering with the Charity Commission.
NCVO chief executive Stuart Etherington is planning to recommend to his organisation's audit committee that the expenses of all senior management and trustees be published online. In a response to a blog on Charity Finance this morning by IT consultant John Tate, Etherington said that his average annual expenses totalled £11,000 including all hospitality and overseas travel.
The Charities Act 2006 brought in changes which allow charity trustees to be paid for providing their charities with goods and services, and guidance published in June 2008 by the Charity Commission clarifies how boards should handle both these types of payments and general trustee expenses. The principle of voluntary trusteeship remains central to trusteeship. The Commission’s updated guidance, Trustee expenses and payments (CC11), confirms this but also provides answers to the most common questions involved when trustee payment becomes an issue, including :
With the Charity Commission currently reviewing its guidance on the payment of trustees, Directory of Social Change has taken the opportunity to reiterate its longstanding position that the role of charity trustees should remain voluntary and that they should not be paid. In November DSC surveyed the readers of its monthly e-news to find out if they agreed.
A summary of recent changes in employment-related legislation
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