Delegation to staff and volunteers

Many charities delegate work to staff or volunteers. Practice varies from charity to charity:

• Larger charities often delegate the day to day management of their charity, along with many decision-making powers, to staff and volunteers through a chief executive
• Smaller charities often delegate specific tasks or activities to individual staff or volunteers but leave decision making and many areas of work to the board
• Boards of very small charities often take all decisions but might delegate specific tasks to individual trustees or volunteers.

Delegation to staff often takes the form of job descriptions combined with specific policies setting out rules, for example, on the degree to which they can depart from agreed budget.

Remember that the board remains ultimately responsible for the activities and decisions taken by staff or volunteers so it is important, as with other areas of delegation, that the role and authority of staff and volunteers are laid down in writing.