Model governing documents

A governing document is the legal rulebook for how your charity operates. It should explain:

• what your charity is set up to do
• how it will achieve its purposes
• who is responsible for running it
• how changes can be made to the charity’s rules or purposes
• what happens if the charity closes

It should also cover practical rules, such as:

• how the charity is governed
• how meetings, voting and finances are managed
• membership rules (if relevant)
• how trustees are appointed or removed
• whether trustees can receive any benefits

There are different types of governing documents, for example, a constitution, trust deed, will, articles of association or rules for an Industrial and Provident Society.

If you are creating a new charity or updating an existing governing document, you may find it helpful to use one of our model governing documents (available below).  These templates can be adapted to suit your organisation by adding your own purposes and adjusting certain clauses.

The Commission provides five model governing documents, available to download in Word format. Each one includes guidance on how to use it, which template suits which type of organisation and which parts you may need to tailor.

A charity’s governing document contains the organisation’s purposes. To be charitable, your organisation must have exclusively charitable purposes.  This means that each purpose must fall within one or more of the 12 descriptions of purpose in the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 and be for the public benefit.

When you are writing, or revising, the purposes of your organisation we recommend that you refer to The public benefit requirement statutory guidance and the relevant public benefit supporting documents.  Links to are available in the sidebar.