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What policies a charity should have depends on its role and what is required by UK law, Charity Commission guidance or other regulator rules and regulations. These are the most common policies a charity should have, with links to guidance and sample charity policy templates to create your own. You can download any of our 40+ charity policies in Word format by registering then logging in.
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Here are some of the more common policies that a charity should have, as required by UK law. I've included links to either a regulators template or guidance, although some are also available as downloads from the system.
The law says that every organisation must have a policy for managing health and safety. This sets out your general approach to health and safety and explains how you will manage this. It should clearly say who does what, when and how - here's the HSE guidance on how to write a policy
If you have five or more employees, you must write your policy down. If you have fewer you don't have to, but it is useful to do so. You must share the policy, and any changes to it, with your people.
The charity trustee/Management Committee needs to issue any underpinning Health & Safety at Work (H&SW) policies needed and to ensure that any risk assessments and/or training required is carried out, and any safety equipment or clothing needed is provided.
Here’s a useful getting started checklist for H&SW. And, here’s the Heath & Safety Executive guidance for voluntary organisations managing low risk, such as offices, shops and community halls.
You must have an up-to-date data protection policy, which is understood by everyone and consistently applied, to ensure data is safeguarded and managed correctly.
This can get complicated, in some circumstances, but for most of us basically make sure that what you are doing adheres to the 8 data protection principles.
The policy I've created and uploaded into the system does that and has sections on issues, such as PECR, that link to the guidance ypou can use to write your policy. What I've written is probably good enough for most small charities and community groups and focusses on the key issues, which is what matters, but it is not comprehensive. The ICO (Data Protection Regulator) has a small organisations hub.
The ICO (Data Protection Regulator) has some very good, simple advice on writing a privacy notice and a create your own privacy policy toolkit.
Staff/volunteers must be made aware of relevant HR policies, which are comprehensive, up-to-date and are applied fairly and consistently.
A written statement of employment must be given to staff and should either contain or refer to disciplinary rules and procedures. Many employers create a separate disciplinary procedure and a grievance procedure.
I would suggest that an equal opportunities and anti-harassment & bullying policies should be a must, in light of the abuse in the sector. Leave entitlement, travel expenses and pay policies are worth thinking about, as are a flexible working and a working from home policies. Acas has a selection of HR policy and other templates and also has a help line.
Note that volunteers are not staff/employees/workers, so I would suggest a volunteer policy and agreement to ensure our volunteers are managed, supported and recognised for their contribution to our work. There's a bit to this and it applies to most, so I wrote this Charity Excellence guide to managing volunteers. It includes what you need for a volunteer policy and agreement.
The trustees/management team should ensure that HR procedures are applied in a consistent and fair way, and without avoiding addressing issues or unreasonably delaying the process.
The Charity Commission doesn't provide a list of policies required but based on their guidance, these are the most common policies a charity should have.
The key points in the Charity Commission trustee safeguarding guidance, which can be used as a template to create your policy, with links to other safeguarding resources for charities.
This short, practical guide and template enable you to create your volunteer policy and agreement to find, recruit, manage and retain your charity volunteers
The Charity Commission takes conflict of interest very seriously. This is a sample policy template and guidance for charity trustee boards, with links to other related Charity Commission and Charity Excellence resources.
An sample charity reserves policy template, explains why a reserves policy is important, what you should include, the different types of financial reserves, questions to ask yourself and links to resources to help you. It is a simple guide to the Charity Commission CC19 guidance on reserves and is aimed primarily at small charities.
This charity risk management policy guide explains the basics of risk management and assessment. It gives you a simple 3 step process to use and sample templates for your own risk policy and risk register and includes having a charity reserves policy. It can be used for everything from trustee risk planning to assessing and managing charity shop and fundraising event risk.
These are other common charity policies that I've made available on the website; all can be downloaded as Word documents by logging in..
A charity due diligence template to comply with donor rules & regulations, such as gift acceptance & refusal, ethical fundraising policies and 'know your donor'. This article also includes links to Charity Commission due diligence compliance toolkits and checklists for donors and partners.
A simple to use template to create your charity Ethical Fundraising Policy to protect donors and beneficiaries and ensure that your fundraising complies with Charity Commission and other regulator guidance and ethics requirements.
Having a charity grant making policy is not a legal obligation and there’s no ‘right way’ to do it. This simple fundraising policy template for grant making, makes it simpler and, if you are a grant maker applying to the Charity Commission for registration, you should certainly include a grant making policy with your application.
Even running a fairly simple charity event can involve numerous legal obligations, such as managing health and safety and food handling. I created this simple event planning checklist to make this easier.
It's now more important than ever for charities to be environmentally conscious and it can also save and earn you money too. Use this template to create your environmental, or sustainability policy - with 50+ eco friendly ideas to choose from - waste management, recycling, sourcing products, travel and charity environmental regulations.
Advice on Charity Commission complaints - how to complain about them, or to report a concern about a charity, including how to do that well, the procedures and free templates that you can use, including Decision Reviews and the Charity Tribunal.
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I have written charity policies for years, because charities can't often afford lawyers but I'm not an accountant, nor a lawyer and no advice can be applicable to all organisations, in all circumstances, so this resource is no more than a guide to understanding. I've summarised the regulatory guidance and augmented this with my own experience and Internet research, but I am not competent to provide professional advice.
I have included links to the source guidance to enable you to check this yourself and, if you think you might need professional advice, register, then login and use the Help Finder directory to find pro bono support. Everything is free.
Chat GPT was used in a very limited way for some of the charity policy templates, but only for initial drafting.
