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Free UK charity policy templates to create your own safeguarding, internal financial control, health and safety at work, data protection (GDPR) and other policies for charities required for compliance with Charity Commission guidance. Follow the instructions below to login and download any of our 60+ downloadable free charity policy templates, including those less easy to find, such as anti money laundering, and privacy.
The most recently added are in italics.
To download a charity policy template, register, then login. Click the AI bunny icon, then his Policies button, then typing in the one you want and he'll hop off and get it for you - watch the 2 min demo video on how to download policies. He can only download one at a time.
As you score the health check questionnaires, the system will make available (in the statement download area - bottom left of screen) the policies you might need as and when these are relevant to any given statement.
To download multiple policies, score the Governance ort People questionnaires until you come to a statement with POLICY DOWNLOADS in the text. You can down load all policies from here.
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The Charity Commission lists a series of policies that you complete as part of your annual return. Not all may apply but, to be honest, it's a bit naff. It looks like a policy list designed by a committee of Civil Servants, which is probably what it is. You can download any of these by logging in the Charity Excellence.
Here's the list: risk management, investment, safeguarding, conflicting interests, volunteer management, complaints handling, paying staff, social media, financial reserves, external speakers, bullying, serious incident reporting, trustee expenses and campaigns and political activity.
You will always wish to think about any health and safety policies you might need and if you have staff a health and safety policy statement is a good idea may be a regulatory requirement. Equally, with staff, you'll need to think about policies such as grievance, disciplinary and capability. The Acas website has lost of guidance, downloadable policy templates and a free help line.
If you are a grant maker, you should have a grant making policy. Grant makers don't often specify policies they expect potential grantees to hold. The most common one required is safeguarding. If you work with children or vulnerable adults this is a must have anyway. You can download both by logging in.
The banks can be a real pain and may ask a whole series of detailed questions, when opening an account or a spart of tehri know your customer processes. Particularly, if you work overseas in areas such as Pakistan, Somalia or Afghanistan. I've written a guide with links to people to help you, templates etc. I've also created charity policies for anti money laundering, anti bribery and due diligence (for sanctions) that you can download by logging in.
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Plus, 60+ policies, 8 online health checks, Quality Mark and the huge resource base. Our AI Ready programme and Charity Excellence Learning free online AI training courses, give non profits everything they need to make effective use of AI and stay safe.
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I am 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.
The Charity Commission doesn’t publish a list of policies required but does publish guidance on specific issues such as safeguarding, reserves, conflict of interest and risk management.
There is no definitive list of charity finance policies, but internal financial controls and reserves are probably the most common. Others include cash handling, schemes of delegation, investment, money laundering.
Trustees need to set aside sufficient funding to protect against reductions in income or to take advantage of an opportunity. A reserves policy is a useful way to do that and is usually a standard policy in all but the smallest charities.
The H&SW Act requires organisations with 5 or more staff to have a written H&SW policy. However, charities with fewer should think about having one and should have any specific H&SW policies needed to keep everyone safe.
Your charity must have a safeguarding policy if you work with children or vulnerable adults and trustees should consider other safety policies, such as H&SW, Bullying & Harassment and Whistleblowing.
The Data Protection Act applies to all organisations that process personal data, including volunteers and donors. A data protection policy helps you to comply with the Law.
There is no legal requirement to have a money laundering policy, but it can be useful for charities working overseas and banks are increasingly asking for one.
It is not a legal requirement to have an anti bribery policy but the UK anti bribery act applies globally and, if you work overseas, it's best practice to have one, particularly if you work in high risk countries. The banks are increasingly asking some charities for these.
There should be a regular programme of reviewing all policies with key policies reviewed by trustees annually.
Policies should be updated when the charity changes how it works, starts new activities or there is a change in the Law or regulator’s guidance.
