The chief executive and the board

The board takes overall responsibility for the charity. Where staff are employed to carry out its day to day work, the board are responsible for setting the boundaries within which staff operate. 

Trustees of many larger charities employ a chief executive to manage the day to day running of the charity. The chief executive, in turn, manages the staff and volunteer team.

In charities that employ a chief executive, a direct and very important responsibility of the board is to recruit, remunerate, support, appraise, hold to account (and, if necessary, dismiss) the chief executive.

Many boards delegate day to day liason with the chief executive - formal line management as well as less formal regular communication - to an individual trustee. This individual is often the chair of trustees, but not always.

The relationship between the board and chief executive will have a strong bearing on the ability of both parties to carry out their work and ultimately on the effectiveness of the charity. Poor relationships can lead to conflict and be damaging to the whole charity.

A healthy relationship between the board and chief executive should be one where:

• good working relationships are maintained in general between the board and chief executive and in particular between the chair (or other individual) and chief executive
• clear boundaries exist – trustees do not interfere in work that has been properly delegated to the chief executive and staff team
• the board is engaged in holding the chief executive to account for their day to day management of the charity.

Many guides exist to help trustees understand the relationship and to carry out specific duties to recruit, support and remunerate the chief executive.