Charities Governance Code

Charities Governance Code

The Charities Regulator recently launched the Charities Governance Code, which sets the minimum standards, which everyone on the board of a registered charity, should ensure their charity meets in order to effectively manage and control their organisations. 

The Charities Governance Code is:

• six principles of governance which all charities should apply;
• core standards that we expect all charities to meet when putting the principles into action; and
• additional standards that reflect best practice for charities with high levels of income and/or complex organisational and funding structures and/or significant numbers of employees.

The code was written with volunteer-only charities and charities with a small number of paid staff in mind, as this reflects the reality of the charity sector in Ireland where these two groups make up the majority of registered charities.

Additional governance standards have been included which more complex charities are expected to meet.

For these reasons, the Code is relevant for every charity operating in Ireland.

This document is for charity trustees.  The term ‘charity trustee’ can include: committee members; council members; board members; or directors of a charity By law, charity trustees have individual and joint responsibility for what happens within their charity.  This means that if their charity does not meet its legal duties, they are responsible both as individuals and together as a board, committee, council or other core group (referred to in this Code as the ‘board’). You can download the charities governance code here The editable Compliance Record form is attached If you have any queries regarding the code please email them togovernancecode@charitiesregulator.ie Or Ph: 01- 6331500