Charity Trustees

Understanding your duties as a charity trustee is essential for effective governance and confident decision-making

As a charity trustee in Scotland, you are responsible for how your charity is run and what it does. That doesn’t mean you must play a hands-on role in running it day-to-day but you do need to understand your legal and governance responsibilities.

This can be daunting, and we appreciate it may deter people from becoming trustees. In turn, this hampers charities from adding different generations, perspectives, and skills to their boards.

Upskilling for trustees

To address this issue, we regularly provide trustee training for charities. This can take as little as half a day, covering topics such as:

Trustees’ responsibilities and personal liability
The essentials of being an effective trustee and board
Best practice on decision-making and minute-taking
Handing conflicts of interests, disputes or whistleblowing
When to notify OSCR about a serious incident
Recent and upcoming regulation
Other legal areas such as employment law or commercial property

If you already have challenges relating to these areas or other board matters, we can advise you on how to handle them.

Benefits and best practice

Once you understand your trustee responsibilities, you can better protect yourself and your charity from reputational or financial risks. You may also be able to use this knowledge, and the skills and experience you gain as a trustee, in your wider career.

You can find out more about our flexible trustee training packages here or get in touch. In addition, our governance healthchecks can identify risks or improvement opportunities in how your charity is run.

Meet the team

We help charities and not-for-profits stay well run and well protected. From governance and constitutional changes to funding, collaborations and restructures, we give practical advice that supports your purpose.