Trustees appointed by outside organisations

Trustees are elected or appointed in many different ways, depending on the charity’s governing document. Some trustees are appointed by an outside body such as a local authority or church.

Trustees who are appointed by outside organisations have exactly the same duties and responsibilities as other trustees. They are not appointed to ‘represent’ the outside body. They must act in the best interests of the charity as a whole and avoid conflicts between the charity’s interests and their other interests.

There might be situations where the appointed trustee has a conflict between the charity’s interests and the appointing body’s interests. 

In these cases they must follow an agreed conflicts of interest procedure and, generally withdraw from decisions taken by the charity.

If conflicts of interest become very frequent or affect the trustee’s ability to carry out their duties, the trustees might want to review whether the arrangement best meets the charity’s needs. For example, it might be better to involve the appointing organisation in an advisory capacity. Conflicts arising from other issues, for example, where the trustee is a beneficiary or parent of a beneficiary or works for a funder or competing charity, should be dealt with in the same way.