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Thank you for your invaluable ‘pathways’ work on the Charity Commission guidance.
Theresa Beattie OBE
Whether you have been exploring becoming a trustee, need to have an awareness of governance as a member of charity staff, are considering a move into governance as a career or are simply trying to make sense of what good charity governance looks like in practice – you are in the right place. Everything here is written from my practice of governance, as a trustee, governance manager and consultant across over five charities.
This page is a curated starting point. I have put together three suggested pathways depending on where you are coming from: Trustee | Staff | Governance Professional. Work through the steps in order, or dip in and out as your questions arise to get a introductory understanding of charity governance, how it applies to you and how to navigate governance effectively.
I appreciate you have limited time and resource so you can use each step as a topical spot-check on each subject. Each article takes up to 5 minutes to read with each pathway taking about 20-30 minutes to read.
Everything here is free.
Once you have worked through these pathways, the Guidance on Governance series covers specific governance topics in depth as you encounter them in practice.
Before you begin
If you want one document that gives you the complete picture of how governance works in a non-profit context, start here, the 10 P’s framework. The one-pager takes about 10 minutes to read and will give you a framework – the 10P model – that makes everything else on this site easier to navigate and translates charity governance to impact. An additional article on politics covers common failure modes in governance.
If you are considering engaging with a charity in another capacity – as a volunteer, advisor, or supporter – I recommend starting with the health-check guide, which will help you assess the charity before committing your time in just 20 minutes.
Pathway 1 – I am new to trusteeship or considering becoming a trustee (25 minutes total read time)
These resources take you from understanding what trusteeship involves, through to how to assess a charity before joining, and how to be effective once you are on the board.
Step 1: Understand what you are taking on
Insights on Trusteeship – an interview on preparing for and navigating trustee life An honest first-person account of what trusteeship actually involves – preparing for your first role, what to expect in your early months, and how to make the most of the experience. Particularly useful if you are considering your first trustee position and want a realistic picture before committing.
Step 2: Assess a charity before you join
Guidance On Governance: How to Health-Check a Charity Before you commit to a trustee role, it is worth understanding what you are joining. This post walks through the practical steps for assessing a charity’s governance health – from reading its Trustee Annual Reports to asking the right questions at interview. It is the most useful pre-joining resource on the blog.
Step 3: Understand the regulatory landscape
Guidance On Governance: Navigating the Charity Commission Guidance The Charity Commission publishes 178 pieces of guidance. This post tells you how to navigate that landscape efficiently – which codes matter most, where to start depending on your question, and which resources are most useful for new trustees. Read this before you attempt to read the Commission’s guidance directly. A critical piece of guidance to start with is then CC3 the Essential Trustee.
Step 4: Be an effective trustee in practice
Guidance On Governance: An Eight-Step Guide to Being an Effective Trustee in a Small or Medium Charity Drawing on direct experience as a trustee at two growing charities, this guide covers the practical realities of trustee life in smaller organisations – the dual role of strategist and doer, when to lean in and when to step back, and how to add genuine value from your first meeting onwards.
Step 5: Navigate a common governance challenge
Guidance On Governance: Navigating Conflicts of Interest – a Real-World Case Study Conflicts of interest are one of the most common and most mishandled governance situations new trustees encounter. This post walks through a real scenario – a chair proposing both a new CEO role and their own candidacy for it – and draws out the practical steps taken to protect the charity’s best interests.
Pathway 2 – I work for a charity and need to understand governance as part of my role (25 minutes total read time)
These resources are for charity staff who work alongside a board without sitting on it – CEOs, senior managers, fundraising leads, finance staff, operations managers, and anyone whose work is shaped by board decisions or who supports the board in any capacity. Understanding governance is not just for trustees and governance professionals. If you prepare board papers, implement board decisions, manage the relationship between staff and trustees, or are simply trying to understand why your organisation works the way it does, this pathway is for you.
Step 1: Understand what governance is and how it shapes your organisation
An Introduction to Non-Profit Governance – the 10P Framework Start here if you have not already read it. Understanding how the ten elements of governance connect – and how the board oversees all of them – will give you a clear picture of where your own role sits within the wider governance structure and why decisions are made the way they are.
Step 2: Understand how the board thinks and operates
Guidance On Governance: How to Unlock the Impact of Effective Teamwork on Your Board The board is not just a decision-making body – it is a team with its own dynamics, relationships, and culture. This post examines how effective boards operate, what gets in the way, and how the relationship between board culture and organisational effectiveness plays out in practice. Understanding this will make you significantly more effective in any role that involves working with or presenting to a board.
Step 3: Understand how Boards, Senior Leadership Teams and Staff work well together
Read how to work well together across Boards, SLT and Staff from someone who has seen it work in practice across multiple charities. This will provide you with insight into tailoring your approach to the Board and how to work with them effectively.
Step 4: Understand governance as a strategic driver, not a compliance burden
Beyond Compliance: Embedding Governance as a Strategic Enabler One of the most common sources of friction between staff and boards is a mismatch in how each sees governance – staff often experience it as slow, bureaucratic, or obstructive, while boards see it as essential oversight. This piece reframes governance as a strategic enabler and gives both perspectives a common language. It is particularly useful if you are preparing to present to your board or are trying to make the case for a governance-related change in your organisation.
Step 5: Understand what trustee oversight looks like in practice
Guidance On Governance: Navigating Conflicts of Interest – a Real-World Case Study Even if you are not a trustee, you will encounter governance challenges in your work – conflicts of interest, questions about decision-making authority, situations where the line between staff and board responsibilities becomes unclear. This post uses a real scenario to illustrate how those situations should be handled and what good governance looks like when it is being tested.
Pathway 3 – I am a governance professional or work in a governance support role (30 minutes total read time)
These resources are for people working in or moving into dedicated governance roles – governance assistants, governance officers, governance managers, company secretaries, board secretaries and those supporting a board in a professional or advisory capacity.
Step 1: Understand what governance looks like from the inside
A Week in Governance – a practitioner diary Most governance job descriptions describe the role. This post describes the reality – the competing priorities, the judgment calls, the relationship management, and the parts that only become clear once you are doing it.
Step 2: Understand what governance technically is
An Introduction to Non-Profit Governance – the 10P Framework Develop a conceptual framework for approaching governance, using the 10P’s will help you better orientate yourself to charity governance. This provides structure as you develop your understanding of governance and allows you to consider each aspect of an organisation in different buckets.
Step 3: Understand the strategic case for governance
Beyond Compliance: Embedding Governance as a Strategic Enabler The most important conceptual shift for anyone working in governance professionally: moving from “ensuring we don’t break the rules” to “governance as a driver of strategic impact.” This Charity Times piece sets out a five-step framework for approaching governance in a way that unlocks its value rather than treating it as a compliance exercise.
Step 4: Understand how boards work as teams
Guidance On Governance: How to Unlock the Impact of Effective Teamwork on Your Board Governance professionals spend much of their time supporting board effectiveness. This post examines the dynamics that make boards work well – and those that derail them – with practical tools for diagnosing and improving board culture.
Step 5: Navigate the regulatory landscape professionally
Guidance On Governance: Navigating the Charity Commission Guidance Essential reading for anyone whose role involves interpreting or applying Charity Commission guidance. The explanation of the CC/OG/RS code system is particularly useful if you are new to working with the Commission’s materials in a professional capacity.
Free templates and resources
Alongside these posts, the blog’s Templates & Resources section includes a number of free, downloadable tools designed to be immediately usable in a charity context – including a conflicts of interest register, a risk management policy and register template, a SORP 2026 Trustee Annual Report checklist, and an introduction to governance guide. All are free to download and adapt for your own use.
Browse the Templates & Resources section
A note on this site
Everything on Sharma on Governance is written from direct practitioner experience – not from the sidelines. I write as someone who is actively working in governance management and consultancy with experience of trusteeship, not as someone who studies it from a distance.
If you have a question or a topic you would like to see covered, I welcome comments and enquiries, the contact page is always open.
All content is for information and commentary only and does not constitute legal advice. Where regulatory or legal questions arise in your governance work, please seek professional advice as appropriate.
