Today (Monday 25th September), the Commission has launched the next phase of its trustee campaign which aims to increase charity trustees' knowledge and drive a positive change in charities' governance.
The campaign encourages trustees to check what they know about their duties, and aims to increase their awareness of the Commission's 5-minute guides.
Trustees encouraged to test their knowledge and understanding
As part of the latest phase of the campaign, the regulator has released a new Trustee Quiz to enable trustees to test their knowledge of their duties and responsibilities.
The quiz is designed to engage trustees with a variety of questions based on everyday scenarios that they may encounter at their charity. It has been designed to help identify knowledge gaps and is an ideal refresher for trustees at all levels of experience. Research shows that the majority of trustees feel confident in their ability to manage their charities, however there may be areas of knowledge they can improve on. The quiz is intended to encourage trustees to think again about what they know, to inspire upskilling.
The quiz takes around three minutes to complete and gives busy trustees an interactive means to quickly check what they know and help them uncover potential knowledge gaps they may not have been aware of. It prompts participants to test their knowledge on a range of topics, such as conflicts of interest and safeguarding. Feedback is provided for each question, and users are pointed to further guidance from the regulator to strengthen their knowledge.
Each participant also receives a score out of 10, allowing them to benchmark their knowledge.
Promoting guidance to busy trustees
The regulator acknowledges that trustees dedicate time, energy and expertise to volunteer for their role alongside already busy lives. The campaign encourages trustees to reflect on their knowledge and understanding in a quick and engaging way, and to sign-post to user friendly resources, notably the Commission's suite of 5-minute guides. These are bitesize guides designed to support trustees as they manage the demands of running a charity and cover topics such as governance, managing finances, conflicts of interest, decision making, reporting, safeguarding, and political activity and campaigning.
Paul Latham, Director of Communications and Policy at the Charity Commission, said:
The 700,000 trustees in England and Wales provide a vital service, not just to their individual charity, but to society more widely.
As regulator, we have an important role in supporting them to do the best job possible, ensuring they have the resources they need to fulfil their legal duties and responsibilities with confidence. Our trustee campaign aims to do just that, engaging trustees with thought-provoking content, and encouraging them to reflect on their skills and knowledge and whether there are any gaps in their awareness that our guidance can help fill.
We encourage all trustees to take our new quiz - it's quick and designed to be fun, but it will also help you assess your own knowledge, and take action to address any areas in which you might need more support or learning.
The online campaign runs from 25 September until 12 November, culminating in Trustees Week (6 to 10 November) which celebrates and promotes trusteeship, and is run by the Commission alongside partners within the sector.
Notes
- The Charity Commission is the registrar and regulator of charities in England and Wales. Its purpose is to ensure charity can thrive and inspire trust so that people can improve lives and strengthen society. The Commission is an independent, non-ministerial government department.
- The Commission's '5-minute guides' have been designed to support trustees to manage the demands of running a charity and cover the topics needed to increase their knowledge and understanding of their essential trustee duties. The guides can be found at the following link: Support for charity trustees
- The new Trustee Quiz, aimed at helping trustees test their knowledge, can be found at the following link: Take the trustee quiz
- Trustees Week will run from 6 to 10 November 2023: Trustees Week - Showcasing the work of charity trustees
- The Commission's research shows that around 98% of trustees feel 'very' or 'somewhat' confident in managing or governing their charity. When questioned on basic role requirements, on average, trustees answered 7 out of 10 questions correctly. The research can be found at the following link: Charity Trustee Research 2022
