The six trustee duties, explained like a human
Every trustee in England and Wales has the same six duties. They come from the Charity Commission's guidance The Essential Trustee (known as CC3), and they sound grander than they are. Here's each one translated into what it actually asks of you on an ordinary Tuesday.
1. Carry out your purposes for the public benefit
Your charity exists to do the specific things written in its governing document — its "objects" — and to benefit the public by doing them. This duty asks one question of everything on your agenda: how does this help the people we exist for?
On a Tuesday: a funder offers £15,000 for a project that's only loosely connected to what your charity is for. The duty is the pause: is this our purpose, or just our chance?
2. Comply with your governing document and the law
The governing document (constitution, trust deed or articles) is the rulebook: what the charity can do, how many trustees it needs, how meetings work, what a quorum is. This duty means knowing the rules before acting, not discovering them after.
On a Tuesday: before co-opting an enthusiastic new trustee, someone checks whether the constitution allows co-option and how many trustees it permits. Thirty seconds of checking beats an invalid appointment.
3. Act in your charity's best interests
When you're at the board table you wear one hat: the charity's. Not your employer's, your family's, or your own. This is where conflicts of interest live — and the duty isn't to have no conflicts (everyone has some), it's to declare and manage them.
On a Tuesday: the board is choosing a builder and one quote is from a trustee's brother. The trustee says so, leaves the room for that item, and the minutes record both. Done properly it's ten seconds of mild awkwardness.
4. Manage your charity's resources responsibly
The Commission calls this the duty of prudence: protect the money, property and reputation; don't overcommit; know what you'd do if a major funder disappeared. It's stewardship, not timidity — charities are allowed to take risks, but knowingly.
On a Tuesday: the budget-versus-actual sheet is at every meeting; two signatories on payments; a reserves policy that names a real number and why. When the boiler dies in January, it's an inconvenience, not a crisis.
5. Act with reasonable care and skill
Do the homework a reasonable person would do: read the papers, turn up, ask when you don't understand, take advice when the board is out of its depth. If you have relevant professional skills, the bar for you is a little higher — the accountant on the board is expected to actually look at the accounts.
On a Tuesday: someone asks the "naive" question — "sorry, what does restricted funding actually mean here?" — and it turns out half the board was wondering too. Asking is the duty working, not failing.
6. Ensure your charity is accountable
Charities answer to the public for what they do with the public's trust and money. Practically: file what must be filed on time, keep the register up to date, answer members honestly, and be able to show how decisions were made.
On a Tuesday: the annual return is filed months before the deadline because it's a row on the compliance calendar, not a memory. The public register shows green. A grant assessor looks you up and finds a charity that has its act together.
The thread that ties all six together
Notice how often the answer to "how would we prove we did this?" is the same: it's in the minutes. Purposes considered, rules checked, conflicts declared, budgets reviewed, questions asked, filings noted — the minutes are where six abstract duties become one concrete habit. A board with good minutes is usually a board doing its duties; it's remarkably hard to be one without the other.
Frequently asked questions
Can I be personally sued or made to repay money?
It's rare. Trustees who act honestly, reasonably and within their powers are well protected — and courts and the Commission look at conduct, not outcomes. The realistic risks cluster around the things this guide flags: acting outside the objects, unmanaged conflicts, and recklessness with money. Trustee indemnity insurance exists for extra comfort and many boards carry it.
Do the duties apply to me if I'm called something else — committee member, governor, director?
Yes. If you're on the body that ultimately runs the charity, you're a trustee in law whatever your title says.
We're all volunteers with day jobs. What's the honest minimum?
Read the papers before meetings, turn up to most of them, ask about what you don't understand, and make sure the filings and finances are genuinely looked at by someone. A conscientious few hours a month meets the standard. The duties ask for care, not heroics.
What if the rest of the board is doing something I think is wrong?
Say so at the meeting and ask for your disagreement to be minuted. If it's serious — money, safeguarding, the law — push for advice, and know that the Commission accepts reports from individual trustees. Resigning quietly protects you least of all the options.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Source: Charity Commission guidance CC3 (The Essential Trustee) — worth reading in full once; it's shorter than you'd think.
The duty nobody warns you about: writing it all down
Minutes are how a board proves it did its duties. The Committee Room drafts yours from a meeting recording — decisions numbered, actions logged, reviewed by a person. £19 per meeting, pay only when you approve.
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