All registered charities must, by law, be governed by a board of trustees.
The trustee board is tasked with setting the strategy for the charity which the executive is then tasked with delivering. The board is accountable in law to the charity’s donors through the Attorney General and the courts, and is ultimately responsible for everything the charity does.
There is normally a chair of trustees, and in bigger charities smaller groups of trustees often form committees to examine particular topics, such as audit or risk management.
For many years most trustees tended to be appointed because they knew someone who was already a board member, but more recently lots of charities have attempted to be more professional about the way they recruit board members, conducting skills audits to identify gaps and then advertising publicly for suitable candidates.
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Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, a former minister of state for security, has urged charity trustees to become well-informed about data security, as IT breaches involving donors or beneficiaries’ details could lead to loss of trust and legal implications.
The charity sector is “massively behind” the private sector in terms of having IT representation at board level, according to Andrew Brenson, head of IT at Save the Children.
Jenny Searle on representing IT on the Leonard Cheshire board
Leonard Cheshire Disability vice-chair and IT specialist Jenny Searle talks to Gareth Jones about the charity’s IT plans and her role as an IT expert on the board
Leonard Cheshire Disability has appointed an IT specialist as its vice chair as it seeks to expand its IT access programmes for disabled people and increase the online services it offers to disabled entrepreneurs.
Winning over the board
Kate Sayer offers advice on how to convince your board to stump up for investment in IT.
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