The Regulator for Charities in England and Wales

Trustee payments – summary research

The Charity Commission opens around 1,300 cases a year relating to trustee payments.1 This equates to approximately 2.5% of all cases dealt with by the Commission each year.2

The following extracts summarise the findings of research carried out by the Charity Commission relating to payments for being a trustee. The findings draw on the analysis of some of the Commission’s casework, in-depth analysis of the accounts and governing documents of the top 100 charities, with the results of follow-up telephone interviews.

The findings divide into two parts. The first part summarises the findings of research into the top 100 charities by income. The second part presents an overview of the data we collect as part of our work with larger charities.3

Trustee payments in the top 100 charities

In the last financial year 23 out of the top 100 charities by annual income made payments to their trustees, either as executive or non-executive trustees.4

Executive trustees include board members who hold another role within the organisation (for example, a chief executive who is also a board member), whereas non-executive trustees are those who have no other role within the organisation i.e. are paid solely for their role as a trustee of the charity.

Payments to non-executive trustees

Ten of the 23 charities in the top 100 paid trustees as non-executive trustees. Of these ten charities:

  • two charities paid every board member;  and
  • the remaining eight boards consisted of a mixture of executive, non-executive, and voluntary (unpaid) board members.5
  • with one exception, payments to non-executive trustees taking the role of chair averaged £23,371;6  and
  • payments to all other non-executive board members in the top 100 charities varied between £5,000 and £18,000.

Payments to executive trustees

Thirteen charities in the top 100 paid executive trustees. These included cases where:

  • the chief executive of a housing association was also a board member; 7 or 
  • the minister or person of an equivalent position sat on the board of a religious charity.

Information on trustee payments applications from larger charities

Between 1 October 2005 and 7 December 2007 the Commission’s Large Charities’ Division (LCD) dealt with 41 trustee payments cases.8

The cases included the payment of trustees, as well as other related payments; for example the provision of services and expenses.

Of these 41 cases:

  • 28 were cases (involving 17 charities) where the charity was given consent to pay at least one trustee;
  • nearly all payments (with only one exception) were less than £25,000, of which three quarters were under £10,000.

Footnotes

1. This includes all aspects of trustee payment eg payment of expenses, payment for services, as well as payments for being a trustee (for which a charity would need authority from the Charity Commission).

2. This relates to data taken from last 5 years.

3. This includes all charities with incomes over £5 million. There are currently 1,442 large charities on the Register for Charities in England and Wales.

4. This excludes payment for services, or payment of expenses.

5. The numbers of board members that fell into each of these categories varied for each individual charity.

6. Payments to vice chairs were more difficult to analyse, as they were not always presented as clearly as payments to the Chair. We suspect the average of £10,890 might be less than the majority of amounts paid to vice chairs.

7. The Housing Corporation gave discretion to allow Registered Social Landlords (RSLS) to pay their board in July 2003. 

8. The number of cases may be more than the number of charities involved eg there were a number of cases in which one charity had applied to pay each of their nine regional chairs and each request was dealt with as an individual case.