Commission campaign to support charity trustees continues with roll out of new videos

New to the campaign this year are a suite of animated videos, which bring the regulator’s 5-minute guides to life. The campaign also includes new materials on safeguarding, the topic of a new 5-minute guide introduced last year.

The regulator says the campaign is aimed at trustees who may have gaps in their knowledge – including because they are new to the role – and longer-standing trustees who wish to refresh their knowledge.

The campaign is designed to drive awareness and uptake of the regulator’s 5-minute guides, which together make up an introduction to the ‘core syllabus’ that all charity trustees should be familiar with. The content and tone of the materials has been developed following user-testing with trustees.

The campaign is part of a wider initiative to make the Commission’s online guidance clearer and easier to access, and to encourage more trustees to make use of it – in support of the objective in its 5-year strategy to ‘give charities the understanding and tools they need to succeed.’

The first phase of the campaign was launched last March and was consciously framed to help trustees respond to the uncertainty created by the pandemic. The Commission says the operating environment for many charities remains uncertain, including in light of the war in Ukraine.

Paul Latham, Director of Communications and Policy at the Charity Commission, said:

We know that trustees want to get it right, and are motivated by a passion for their charity’s cause. Problems often occur, however, because they have misunderstood or overlooked the basics of the law or good governance, or indeed are over-confident about what they know.

Our campaign encourages all trustees to ask themselves whether they would know how to respond to common situations. We hope to inspire trustees to acquire new knowledge, and refresh their existing expertise, in the best interest of their charity and society as a whole.

The new campaign will run for six weeks on digital channels including social media.

Ends

Notes to editors

1. During the campaign the Commission will release 6 new videos, three of which are available from today, and can be requested from the Commission’s press office.
2. The Charity Commission is the independent, non-ministerial government department that registers and regulates charities in England and Wales. Its purpose is to ensure charity can thrive and inspire trust so that people can improve lives and strengthen society.
3. There are 700,000 trustees in England and Wales, who are ultimately responsible for the governance and management of the 168,000 registered charities. Most trustees are volunteers.