Understanding the Charities Regulator’s Governance Code

Does this apply to us?

If your group is a registered charity (has a Registered Charity Number / RCN), the Governance Code applies to you directly — registered charities are required to report annually on their compliance with it as part of the Annual Report to the Charities Regulator.

If you’re not a registered charity, the Code has no legal force over you, but it’s still a genuinely useful, free checklist for running the group well. Nothing in this guide requires charity status to be worth doing — funders increasingly expect similar standards from any group applying for public money, registered or not.

The six core standards

The Code is organised around six areas. Each has specific actions a charity is expected to take, but the underlying idea in each case is straightforward:

• Advancing Charitable Purpose — staying focused on why the group exists, and being able to show your activities actually deliver on your stated purpose
• Behaving with Integrity — honesty in dealings with members, funders and the public, and properly managing conflicts of interest when they arise
• Leading Our Organisation — an active, engaged committee that meets regularly, understands its role, and doesn’t leave everything to one or two people
• Exercising Control — proper financial oversight: budgets, authorisation of spending, and accurate records
• Working Effectively — clear roles and responsibilities, well-run meetings, and decisions and actions actually recorded
• Being Accountable and Transparent — reporting honestly to members, funders and (where relevant) the public about what the group did and how it spent money

“Comply or explain” — it scales to your size

The Charities Regulator does not expect a small, all-volunteer group with an income of a few thousand euro a year to have the same formal policies as a national charity with paid staff. The approach built into the Code is "comply or explain": if a particular requirement genuinely doesn’t fit your size or activities, you document briefly why, and what you do instead to manage the same underlying risk.

What matters in practice is that the committee has actually turned its mind to each area — even a short, honest note ("we do not have a written risk management policy; the committee reviews the main risks to the group informally at each quarterly meeting") is a legitimate response for a very small group. What the Regulator is checking for is genuine engagement, not a filing cabinet of unread policy documents.

Practical first steps for a small group

These four habits, kept up consistently, cover most of what a small group realistically needs and map directly onto the six standards above:

• Put "Governance Code review" as a standing item on your AGM agenda once a year, and record in the minutes what was discussed
• Keep a short, written conflict-of-interest process — committee members declare any personal or financial interest in a matter being discussed, this is noted in the minutes, and they step out of the vote (or the room, for anything significant)
• Keep minutes of every committee meeting, even brief ones — who attended, what was decided, and any actions agreed
• Present clear accounts to members at least annually, and keep the underlying records (receipts, bank statements) that back them up

Building toward full compliance over time

If your group is registered and growing, the following are the next things larger or more established charities are typically expected to have in place. Treat this as a roadmap rather than a day-one requirement:

• A written risk management approach — a simple list of the main risks to the group (financial, reputational, safeguarding, operational) and how each is managed
• A documented induction process for new committee members, so governance knowledge doesn’t live only in one or two long-serving heads
• Formal, written policies where relevant to your activities — e.g. a child safeguarding statement if you work with children, a data protection/privacy policy, a financial procedures document
• A clear, written statement of the charity’s purpose and activities, reviewed periodically to ensure the group is still doing what it says it does

Where to check the detail

This guide is a starting point for a small volunteer-run group, not the full Code. Registered charities should read the current Governance Code and any charity-specific guidance directly at charitiesregulator.ie before relying on this guide for compliance decisions — the Regulator also publishes sector-specific guidance and a self-assessment checklist that’s worth working through directly with your committee.