Good Governance and Your Trustee Board

There are a number of checklists (please find below) that can be used to improve the governance arrangements of your Trustee board.

You might also like to undertake a survey of your board used as a paper handout which you collate by hand or you can put it onto a Survey Monkey type questionnaire which people complete online and you get the results collated for you (usually for free).

Useful Documents

Board Review Checklist - can be completed by all Trustees and then discussed at a Committee meeting (you will need to amend the questions to suit your organisation).

Trustee Health Check - another useful checklist which looks at how you go about recruiting and supporting your trustees.

Charity Trustees and Agreement - to be signed by new trustees when they join your organisation.

Charity Trustees and Company Director's Agreement - to be signed by new trustees when they join your organisation. This should be used if you are also a Company Limited by Guarantee.

The A-Z of Good Governance - this is a fun way of looking at Governance for Trustees.

The Good Governance Code - give a whole range of ideas to improve your organisation's governance.

The Good Governance Summary - gives an overview of the main document.

Chief Executive and Chair Role Analysis - it can also be helpful to establish the roles of your board, your Chair of Trustees and of your Chief Executive (where you have paid staff). The role Analysis checklist helps you to do this.

Committee Structure - this can be helpful for new Trustees outlining the different committees and frequency of meetings.

Board of Trustees Terms of Reference - outlines the responsibilities of your main committee.

Executive Committee Terms of Reference - for those organisations that also have smaller Executives Committee. If you only have one group then you can amalgamate the two terms of reference.

Charities Act 2006 - you will need to conform to this if you are a registered charity.