Trustee boards

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.