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NGOs and Social Enterprises · Charitable trusts
HR for Charitable Trusts: Trustee Oversight, Programme Staff and Records
A charitable trust is run by trustees, a few paid staff and project partners. Here is how to set clear roles, written terms and simple records so trustees can answer for the people side of the work.
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Share your requirementsA charitable trust is set up under a deed, held by trustees who give time and answer for the money. It may fund scholarships, run a school, support medical care, give grants or carry out its own projects. A few paid people do the day-to-day work: a manager or secretary, an accountant, programme coordinators, field staff and sometimes a driver or helper. Trustees are often busy professionals or family members who meet a few times a year, so decisions on staff are slow or informal. Funding depends on donors, endowment income and sometimes grants with strict conditions. Staff can be asked to do whatever the project needs, and titles rarely match duties. Trustees may be related to staff, which makes fair treatment harder to show. Records of appointments, pay and leave are kept lightly, yet auditors, donors and officials will ask for them. See also HR for NGOs and social enterprises.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in charitable trusts, you may see
- Trustees decide rarely, staff wait
- Titles do not match work
- Relatives on staff or board
- Grant-linked salaries
- Honorary and paid work mixed
- Records are thin
- No one owns staff matters
- Succession of the key person
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in charitable trusts
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Managers and trust secretaries
- Accountants and finance assistants
- Programme and project coordinators
- Field and outreach workers
- Scholarship and grants officers
- Office assistants and drivers
- Trustees and honorary advisers
Roles we help you hire in charitable trusts
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in charitable trusts. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
Job descriptions for this sector
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
We set up the interview and hiring process for charitable trusts
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
1. Role brief and scorecard
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
2. Stages and sequence
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
3. Question bank and scoring
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
4. Interviewer readiness
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
5. Offer and follow-up
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Where HR strains in charitable trusts
Trustees decide rarely, staff wait
Pay rises, appointments and leave questions sit until the next meeting, and staff learn to work without clarity.
Titles do not match work
A coordinator also does accounts and driving, so nobody is sure who is responsible or what pay is fair.
Relatives on staff or board
When a trustee's family member is employed, other staff doubt how decisions are made and trustees find it hard to be firm.
Grant-linked salaries
A salary is tied to a project grant, so staff do not know what happens when funding ends and the trust is unsure what it owes.
Honorary and paid work mixed
Some people give time freely and others are paid, with no clear line, so expectations and fairness suffer.
Records are thin
Appointment letters, pay records and leave balances are incomplete, which causes trouble at audit or when someone leaves.
No one owns staff matters
Trustees assume the manager handles it, and the manager assumes trustees will decide, so complaints and exits drift.
Succession of the key person
The long-serving secretary holds all the knowledge, and if they retire or fall ill the trust loses its memory.
HR topics for charitable trusts
Start with the topics that matter most here: Policies, Compliance and Governance; Employee Administration; HR Operations and Governance. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for ngos and social enterprises, not in general.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a charitable trusts business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Name one trustee for staff matters
One trustee, with the manager, takes charge of appointments, pay and complaints and reports to the board.
What this coversHide
Name one trustee for staff matters
One trustee, with the manager, takes charge of appointments, pay and complaints and reports to the board.
What this coversHide
One trustee, with the manager, takes charge of appointments, pay and complaints and reports to the board. The HR policy packages show a simple structure.
Give each staff member a written appointment
Title, duties, pay, hours, leave, grant link and notice, read with the person.
What this coversHide
Give each staff member a written appointment
Title, duties, pay, hours, leave, grant link and notice, read with the person.
What this coversHide
Title, duties, pay, hours, leave, grant link and notice, read with the person. The HR documentation process gives the format.
Declare relationships
A short declaration of family or close ties between trustees and staff, with the trustee stepping out of related decisions.
What this coversHide
Declare relationships
A short declaration of family or close ties between trustees and staff, with the trustee stepping out of related decisions.
What this coversHide
A short declaration of family or close ties between trustees and staff, with the trustee stepping out of related decisions.
Keep a staff and decisions register
One file with each person's papers and a dated list of board decisions on staffing.
What this coversHide
Keep a staff and decisions register
One file with each person's papers and a dated list of board decisions on staffing.
What this coversHide
One file with each person's papers and a dated list of board decisions on staffing.
Plan for grant end
For every grant-funded post, note the end date and what the trust has said to the person about what follows.
What this coversHide
Plan for grant end
For every grant-funded post, note the end date and what the trust has said to the person about what follows.
What this coversHide
For every grant-funded post, note the end date and what the trust has said to the person about what follows.
Write down the key person's work
A handover note for the secretary and accountant covering routines, contacts and annual tasks.
What this coversHide
Write down the key person's work
A handover note for the secretary and accountant covering routines, contacts and annual tasks.
What this coversHide
A handover note for the secretary and accountant covering routines, contacts and annual tasks.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirements- List every paid person, with job title, real duties and funding source.
- Ask which trustee is responsible for staff and whether they know it.
- Check that every employee has a written appointment letter.
- Look for relatives of trustees on the payroll and note whether declared.
- Note the end date of each grant-funded post.
- Ask the secretary which three tasks only they know how to do.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the trust, employment, audit and donor-condition rules that apply to you.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- HR documentation
Appointment letters that match real duties and funding.
- HR policy packages
A staffing policy, conflict declaration and decision register for trustees.
- Employee information management
One tidy staff record that stands up to audit and donor questions.
- Exit and offboarding
A fair, written way to end a grant-linked post or hand over from a long-serving person.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in ngos and social enterprises, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
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Questions owners ask
The trustees as a body, though they can delegate day-to-day matters to a manager. Name a trustee who reports back, and confirm the details with a qualified professional.
Sometimes, but declare the tie, keep the trustee out of related decisions and use the same terms as others. A qualified professional can advise on your trust deed.
Say clearly at appointment that the post depends on the grant, review a few months before the end and talk to the person early.
A short one helps. It can cover appointments, leave, conduct, complaints and exits on a few pages.
Keep appointment letters, pay records, leave and decisions in one place, updated monthly, and ask the accountant what auditors usually request.
We would ask who decides on staff matters, how appointments and pay are recorded and where grant links create risk. A sensible first piece of work is appointment letters, a conflict declaration and a decision register. Scope and fees are agreed in writing afterwards.
More on HR for ngos and social enterprises
All 43 business types in ngos and social enterprises · Find another business type
Charitable foundationsGrant-making foundationsCultural trustsChurches and faith-based organisationsCommunity development organisationsHealth and nutrition NGOsPolicies, Compliance and Governance in ngos and social enterprisesEmployee Administration in ngos and social enterprisesHR Operations and Governance in ngos and social enterprises
See all HR topics for ngos and social enterprises, or another industry.