Delegating decisions

Trustees must make all decisions affecting the organisation together.

However, many boards will authorise individual trustees, committees, or staff and volunteers to act on their behalf in specific areas.

Some decisions must be made by the board and can’t be delegated to staff or committees. The charity’s governing document usually explains what powers the board has and what it can delegate.

The board is legally responsible for the charity’s activities, even when it delegates tasks to individual trustees, sub-committees, staff or volunteers.

The board must have enough information to be confident that delegated activities meet the charity’s standards and legal duties. Regular reporting and risk assessments can help with this.

If a task isn’t delegated, it remains the board’s responsibility.

The board can take back any powers and responsibilities it has delegated if it’s concerned that:

• decisions are not in the best interests of the charity’s purposes or its beneficiaries
• they are damaging the charity’s interests or reputation
• activity goes against the charity’s agreed policies or procedures.

The chief executive can delegate tasks to staff or volunteers, unless stated otherwise, but remains accountable to the board for powers assigned to them.

If your governing document gives you permission to do so, you can delegate authority to:

• a sub-committee of the board for a specific area of activity
• a task group or committee that may include people who aren’t trustees.

The board remains responsible for any decisions these groups make.

The terms of reference and reporting arrangements of any committees, sub-committees or task groups should be written down and agreed by the trustees.

Meeting frequency and working groups

Most trustee boards meet monthly, bimonthly or quarterly to carry out their work.

Smaller charities with limited resources, or larger ones with more staff and activities, may need to set up sub-committees or working groups. This helps focus time on key issues and involve people from outside the board.

If your charity is large enough, and your governing document allows it, you can delegate day-to-day management (and its operations) to staff or volunteers.

Any delegation should be set out in writing. Important decisions made by staff or volunteers must be reported to the board as soon as possible.