Charity Trust in an AI Enabled World - Free Toolkit for Charities

Our charity trust toolkit for charities in an AI enabled world - quick, free, online and supports your fundraising

Charity Trust in an AI Enabled World - Free Toolkit for Charities

In the charity sector, trust has always been critical. We need people to trust us to feel able to use our services and we need the public and donors to trust us to be willing to provide the funding needed for our services. However, AI will bring new and substantial challenges which we must meet. The Charity AI Trust and Ethics Toolkit provides charities with a structure and process to demonstrate their high standards of ethics and to maintain that essential trust. It is free, online and runs as part of our Health Check system. Simply complete all 8 questionnaires (no more than 2 hours), then run AI Ready in the Query system. This will generate a report that assesses your AI, data protection, cyber security and processes that help to create trust in your charity.

AI Risks to Trust in Charities

In an AI enabled world, there will be additional internal and external threats. Externally.

AI will lead to far more and far more effective scam e mails, calls and websites, including those impersonating charities.
There will also be far more and far more compelling misinformation undermining our work and.
Potentially huge volumes of AI created slop, drowning our our communications.

The external threat is to both our charities and their often vulnerable beneficiaries.

Internally, the risk of fraud and major data loses or breaches will be significantly higher, with the potential negative impact on trust if people read about these in the Media.

Why is a Trust and Ethics Toolkit Needed?

There are a number of publications on trust and ethics (some examples below), including regulatory guidance. However, these often look at a particular aspect and none on the what and how trustees should embed this within their charities to deliver these outcomes. The framework is a flexible toolkit with measurable metrics any charity can use to do that. It is part of our Charity AI Ready Programme and is a living document. Constructive criticism is actively sought and any changes will be credited. Send your input to ian@charityexcellence.co.uk.

What Does it Do?

The Trust and Ethics toolkit enables you to create a framework within which to.

Think through the issues relevant to your charity (including AI) and.
Demonstrate to your stakeholders that you work to high ethical standards.
In a way that will engender their trust in you.

How do we Use the Trust and Ethics Toolkit?

We all (more or less) agree on broad range of ethical criteria, such as there should be no place for racism in our society. However, the issue of ethics and trusts is more nuanced than that. What a charity's ethics are and what trust means to its stakeholders depends on the charity's role and there is a whole range of different guidance issued by the many regulators who oversee the sector. There can be no 'one size fits all'. One creative arts charity may choose not to use AI but another may embrace it as a new medium to work with.

To audit your charity, simply complete the CEF health check questionnaires. Select the search options of either Trust or Ethics using the Query system to run a report, which will connect you to resources and help, and can also be exported as an action plan. To access this, register now. Everything is free.

The system builds questionnaires appropriate to each user, so only includes those elements relevant to each. If you wish to use the checklist below instead, simply exclude those that do not apply to your charity.

Charity Trust and Ethics Toolkit - Principles

Ethical behaviour is about what you do, not just what you say and the trust people place in you (or not) depends on how you go about that. Consequently, the toolkit is predicated on 4 principles.

Behaviour not Promises. What we say and commit to is part of maintaining high ethical standards and trust but we are defined by our behaviour not what we say.
Ethics, not Obeying Rules. The way in which we work ensures that we always work to high ethical standards, not just obey the rules.
Trust is Earned, not an Entitlement. We recognise that trust is earned not something we are entitled to and it is not about how we see ourselves but about how others see us.
The Onus is on Us. We also recognise that those who may have concerns may not feel able to tell us and, therefore, the onus is on us to ensure we support them in being able to do so.

Charity Trust and Ethics Toolkit - Assessment

Leadership and Culture.

At all times we act in the best interests of the charity, ensuring that conflicts of interest are managed well and our work is not influenced by personal agendas.
Senior management/trustees not only act with integrity, but are also transparent in their decision making, make themselves accountable to our stakeholders and are seen by them as doing so.
We have and value a positive, open culture, where people feel able to speak up, where speaking truth to power is seen as a good thing and those who do are not targeted for doing so.
The Board reviews our trust and ethics compliance and the delivery of action being taken as part of this annually, for inclusion in our annual report.

Process.

We have a code of conduct for trustees and policies appropriate to our role and needs to ensure people are kept safe, such as whistle blowing, anti-bullying and safeguarding policies.
- Everyone is made aware of these and given any necessary training and.
- We have management oversight processes that enable us to be confident these are effectively and consistently being applied.
Our policies have been updated to reflect the impact of AI and everyone made aware of changes in our working practices.
- - You can download AI ready policies from Charity Excellence.
We have an AI policy that reflects the provision of the AI Ethics and Governance Framework relevant to our charity.

Security & Compliance.

We have robust Data Protection and Cyber Security Policies that are consistently applied to ensure the information we hold on our donors, beneficiaries and others is kept safe.
If procuring, funding or connecting an AI system, we have assessed it and any existing systems it will connect to, to ensure it will be secure, compliant and safe.
- Our AI design and commissioning guide.

Fundraising. We have an ethical fundraising policy that reflects fully the requirements of the Fundraising Code of Practice.

You can download one from within Charity Excellence.

Finance.

We recognise and are transparent about the fact administrative overheads are part of the cost base of any charity and we do not manipulate cost apportionment to make ours appear lower than they really are.
- We allocate costs fairly and proportionately to reflect the true nature of overheads to ensure we do not mislead donors or stakeholders about our administrative costs.
Our financial reporting accounting policies explain how we do this and why we use the percentages, amounts or methods we do.

Audit and Inspection.

Reporting Action. For external and, if applicable, internal audit, inspection and other reports, we always address all points raised, with the action plan overseen by the Board until fully delivered.
Adverse Reports. We do not seek to avoid taking responsibility for any adverse reports and respond constructively to deal with any issues raised and report back to stakeholders not only on the action we take but also the outcome of that action.

Outcomes. Ultimately, all of the above lead to delivering on our promises, so this is the most important metric.

People feel able to raise concerns and.
These are dealt with quickly, sensitively and fairly.
We have community feedback procedures that enable stakeholders to feed back to us anonymously, including the opportunity to raise issues not covered in the survey.
- For example, by including a question, such as what else do you think we should do differently or better?

Reporting.

We carry out voluntary reporting of our Trust and Ethics in a way that demonstrates transparency and a commitment to best practice.
Our key ethics related policies are publicly available and available on request.
- This is the Charity Excellence Ethics Policy.
We report on our compliance with the our Trust and Ethics framework, including any action in hand, as an Trust and Ethics section in our annul report and, in its finance policies.
We set SMART targets for each area of our framework and publicly report against these, including explaining what action is being taken.

- Specific: Simply and clearly define the goal. Answer the who, what, where, and why.
- Measurable: Ensure you can track progress and measure the outcome.
- Achievable: Set a goal that's realistic and attainable.
- Relevant: Make sure the goal is important and aligns with broader objectives.
- Time-bound: Set a deadline to measure progress against.