Charities Governance Code – Compliance for 2020

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In 2018, the Charities Regulator 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.

Good governance involves putting in place systems and processes to ensure that your charity achieves its charitable objectives with integrity and is managed in an effective, efficient, accountable and transparent way.
2019 was the year for learning and preparation for charities. The Charities Governance Code Toolkit provided guidance notes and templates to assist charities and charity trustees to meet all of the core standards outlined in the Code. 2020 is the first year that registered charities are expected to comply with the Code.          

2021 will be the first year that registered charities are expected to report on their compliance with the Code.

The Charities Governance Code is:

  • six principles of governance which all charities should apply;
  • core standards that the Charities Regulator 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.

For any of our members who are registered charities, we would like to remind you that the Charities Regulator does have a Charities Governance Code Toolkit which is available online from the Charities Regulator website. The toolkit contains many guidance notes and templates to help charities to become compliant with the Code including templates for Code of Conducts and Risk Registers and guidance documents on minute taking and recruitment.

You can download the Charities Governance Code and the Charities Governance Code Toolkit from charitiesregulator.ie.