# Trustees still making too many basic mistakes, says Charity Commission

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2010/09/22/trustees-still-making-too-many-basic-mistakes-says-charity-commission/
- Published: 2010-09-22T19:51:07+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Releasing its annual report on its compliance work, the Charity Commission reports
that charities continue to be put at risk of abuse or harm because of weak governance
and poor management by some charity trustees.

According to its report ‘Charities Back on Track – Themes and Lessons from the Charity
Commission’s Compliance Work’, some charity trustees are still making too many basic
mistakes in managing their charities.

The report, which covers the financial year 2009-10, reveals that failures by trustees
properly to govern charities, poor financial management and no – or inadequate- 
accounting and reporting continue to be among the most common areas of concern in
the Commission’s investigatory and compliance work. Issues around the safeguarding
of vulnerable beneficiaries also continue to make up a significant proportion of
these cases.

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The report does acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of charities are well
governed and well managed. Of the 2,434 serious concerns and incidents taken up 
by the Commission in its Assessment Unit, only 180 (0.1% of the 180,000 registered
charities in England and Wales) were escalated to a formal investigation. This was
up slightly from the 168 investigations carried out in 2008-09.

Through its regulatory compliance work the Commission monitored a total of £521 
million of charity income and directly protected £29 million of charity assets at
risk through its action during investigations into charities.

Although this is the third edition of ‘Charities Back on Track’, it is the first
to analyse the whole range of the Commission’s compliance activity.

Dame Suzi Leather, Chair of the Charity Commission, said: “As this report demonstrates,
the public can have confidence in the charity sector and be assured that the vast
majority of charities are well run and effectively managed. Relatively few charities
experience problems serious enough to warrant an investigation and use of the Commission’s
legal compliance powers. That is good news for the public who donate so much time
and money to charity and for the hundreds of thousands of trustees who volunteer
to carry out such an important role.

“But our work reveals that problems arise where trustees fail in their basic duty
to protect their charities from harm and that is a cause of concern to us.”

www.charitycommission.gov.uk

 * **[Charity trustees asked for views on Charity Commission's future](https://fundraising.co.uk/2010/11/03/charity-trustees-asked-views-charity-commission039s-future/)**(
   3 November 2010)
 * **[The Trust List](https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/09/27/trust-list/)** (27 September
   2011)
 * **[Charity Commission website](https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/12/09/charity-commission-website/)**(
   9 December 2011)