What is a trustee?

Trustees have the overall legal responsibility for a charity. The law describes  charity trustees as ‘the persons having the general control and management of the administration of a charity’ (Charities Act 1993, section 97).

It is very important that a charity can identify its trustees. This is not always as straightforward as it sounds.

Sometimes the charity’s trustees are given other titles, such as governors, councilors, management committee members or directors, because of a title in the charity’s governing document. What matters is the role, not the title.

The trustees are the individuals who take decisions at the governing body of the charity, regardless of their actual title.

This means that the company directors of a charitable company are its charity trustees.

A charity may have a board or management committee which runs the organisation and “trustees” who hold the organisation, property or investments. It is the board or committee who are the “charity trustees”. The “trustees” in this case will be “holding” or “custodian trustees”. People who are holding or custodian trustees might also be on the committee and so also be “charity trustees”

Trustees must act collectively to govern the charity and take decisions. Together, the trustees are described in this guidance as the trustee board. Trustees have no authority to act on their own as a trustee unless this has been authorised by the trustee board as a whole.

Some charities use different terms to describe the trustee board, such as management committee, executive committee or board of directors. Again, what matters is the role, not the title.

Some charities use the term ‘trustee’ to describe individuals who are not actually charity trustees: they might instead be patrons or hold the title to a charity’s property.

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

Some charities invite individuals other than trustees to attend trustee board meetings: for example, staff (where employed) or advisors. It is important to distinguish between the trustees and other individuals who attend to avoid any confusion.