Trustee Ready: A practical guide for volunteer charity trustees

Most trustees aren’t bad trustees. They’re frightened ones. Frightened of the money. Frightened of getting it wrong. So they either do everything themselves, or do nothing and hope somebody else is watching.

Trustee Ready is the guide I wish every new trustee was handed on their first night. It isn’t a legal textbook or a hundred-page policy pack. It’s the things you actually need to know, in the order you’ll need them. It is the first paid guide in my No-Nonsense Nonprofits range.

Every section opens with one bold line, so you can get the short version in five minutes, read the whole guide in about an hour, and come back for the detail when you need it. Every rule in it was checked against the Charity Commission, GOV.UK and the law in November 2026, including the DBS change from 1 September 2026 and the new charity accounting thresholds. The stories in the “From the inside” boxes come from my own experience over 25 years, with the details changed so groups cannot be identified.

Who it is for

Volunteer trustees of charities in England and Wales: registered charities, including charitable companies and CIOs, and charities set up as trusts or associations. It is written for volunteer-run boards, where the trustees do the governing and often the running too. New and existing trustees, chairs inducting someone new, and volunteers thinking about stepping up to the board.

Who it is not for

• Anyone who needs legal advice on a specific problem. This is general information, and the guide tells you when to get advice.
• Groups that aren’t charities, such as CICs, other social enterprises and community groups. The legal rules in this guide are charity rules. If your group isn’t registered with the Charity Commission yet, it’s still best practice to run it this way. If you run a CIC, your duties come from company law and the CIC rules, and a note at the back points you to my CIC guides.
• Charities in Scotland and Northern Ireland that want the full picture. Each has its own appendix on where the rules differ, but the main text is written for England and Wales.

What you will be able to do after reading it

• Explain the six legal duties in plain English, and say what your job is and what it isn’t
• Know what protects you personally, and what to check about your charity’s structure and insurance
• Handle a conflict of interest properly: declare it, answer questions, step out, minute it
• Know when a charity can pay a trustee or someone connected to one, and the order to check it in
• Read the figures well enough to ask the right questions, and tell restricted money from reserves
• Put two-person controls on cash and payments, and spot money trouble early
• Build a short, usable risk register, and check which of your roles fall under the DBS change
• Run meetings that make decisions, and keep a calendar of the key filing dates
• Know who to tell, and what to write down, when something goes wrong, and how to deal with a letter from the Charity Commission

What is inside

• Six chapters: the job and what it isn’t; who does what on the board; the money; plans, risk and keeping people safe; meetings and the trustee year; when it goes wrong
• The six legal duties on one page, ready to pin up
• A story in every chapter, with the details changed
• A “Words in this chapter” box at the end of every chapter, and a full plain-English glossary at the back
• Tools inside the chapters: trustee and volunteer jobs side by side, who counts as a connected person, money red flags, a risk grid, and a trustee year calendar with a column for your own dates
• Appendix A: ten questions to ask at every meeting, with space for three meetings
• Appendix B: glossary
• Appendix C: further reading chapter by chapter, with links to official guidance
• Appendix D: in Scotland
• Appendix E: in Northern Ireland
• Appendix F: common risks crib sheet, to start your own risk register
• Appendix G: a checklist for before a trustee or connected person is paid
• A note for CIC directors, and notes pages at the back

PDF, A4, 60 pages. Prints as an A5 booklet.

About the author

Constance A. Grayson has spent 25 years in the third sector, specialising in charity governance, compliance and funding. She has never failed a Charity Commission registration or a CIC formation. She currently chairs one charity board and sits on two more, and has served on four others over the years, so the advice in this guide is the advice she follows herself. For ten of those years she sat on the funder’s side of the table, assessing applications. She is also an active foster carer.

 

This guide gives general information about charity law and good practice in England and Wales. It is not legal advice. I checked the rules against official sources in November 2026, and rules change, so if you face a specific legal problem, get advice.