Good governance is essential for the success of any charity and is now more important than ever. Members of boards and trustees play a vital role in serving their causes and communities by ensuring the proper procedures and policies are in place to manage their charity’s resources effectively. They provide long-term vision and protect their charity’s reputation and values.

Maintaining good charity governance means keeping up to date with the Commission's guidance. The Commission's powers will increase as further sections of the Charities Act (NI) 2008 are commenced and more pieces of specific guidance will be published.

To date we have produced the following pieces of specific guidance for charities and charity trustees:

Councillors' Guide - a guide to a councillor's role as charity trustee

Guidance on Campaigning and Political Activities

Guidance on how and when to report a concern to us - trustees, employees and volunteers

Concerns received about charity fundraising

Guidance on doorstep charity collections

100 lessons to be learned - themes and trends from our first 100 concerns about charities

The Commission also supports the good governance initiatives of other organisations. For example, the Developing Good Governance Group has produced a Code of Good Governance which is a useful resource for charities.

 The Code of Good Governance is available here www.diycommitteeguide.org (External link).

Furthermore, the Charity Commission of England and Wales (CCEW) has produced a body of guidance across a range of issues. While this guidance does not directly apply in Northern Ireland, is still forms a basic good governance framework.

Please contact us if you have a further query.