A common misconception among many trustee boards is that smaller charities are subject to a ‘lite’ version of regulatory oversight. However, when it comes to charity regulation, the legal duties and responsibilities of its trustees fundamentally remain the same, whether a charity manages a bank balance of £5,000 or £50 million.
One of the most frequent requests we receive from Charity Community members is for ‘small charity’ approaches to topics we already cover. However, the Charity Commission does not scale down the fundamental expectations of stewardship based on an organisation’s size. Trustees of small charities must be careful to not fall into the trap of using their size as justification for poor record-keeping or informal governance.
At ICAEW, we understand that, while the policies and processes need to be adapted to the charity’s size and resources, the regulatory burden may at times feel disproportionate to smaller charities, and we welcomed the increases to certain financial thresholds in England and Wales, which were recently confirmed to take effect from 30 September 2026.
Support for small charities
During this Small Charity Week 2026, we want to remind you of how we can support you and help you stay informed about everything you need to know to keep your charity compliant.
- Trustee CPD training: for a quick and free canter through your legal responsibilities, and a reminder of filing deadlines and accounting and scrutiny requirements, our annually updated CPD course for charity trustees is a great place to start. It’s designed for finance professionals who are taking on the ‘finance trustee’ role on a charity’s board
- Accounts preparation and scrutiny:
- For an overview of the changes to financial thresholds in England and Wales (which give smaller charities more flexibility), please read our article ‘New financial thresholds: effective 30 September 2026.’
- Charities SORP 2026: for Tier 1 charities (income up to £500k) preparing accruals accounts, please see our free SORP hub, which includes a webinar specifically tailored to small charities.
- Receipts & payments (R&P) accounts: for smaller charities preparing cash-based accounts, our SORP hub also includes a webinar on how to prepare best practice R&P accounts.
- For ICAEW members, our helpsheets can be filtered by the topic ‘Charities’ and include guidance on financial reporting in all UK jurisdictions.
- Skilled volunteers: if your charity is seeking volunteers with finance skills, we offer a free portal where you can advertise your volunteer vacancy free of charge. Visit ICAEW Volunteers to find out more.
- Training the board: if you are the charity’s treasurer, you may need help to engage the rest of the board and help them understand their financial responsibilities. That’s why we created our online Trustee Training Modules. They are free and open to all, and a great addition for a charity’s board training programme.
- Tailored events: each year we hold a free, half-day event (online) that’s tailored to smaller charities. The 2025 and 2024 events are still available to watch in our ‘webinar library.’ I’m currently planning our 2026 event for smaller charities (pencilled in for 8 October) and would love to hear your suggestions for what we should cover.
At our Big Trustee Breakfast in spring, we discussed how to approach board effectiveness reviews for small charities and why strategy matters regardless of charity size.
Small Charity Week (22-29 June 2026)
Initiatives like Small Charity Week aim to celebrate the significant impact of small not-for-profits while understanding their unique challenges. The campaign highlights funding opportunities and raises visibility of the vital contributions of small charities.
Charity Excellence also run a series of fringe events during Small Charity Week, covering a wide array of topics, including risk management, charity registrations, banking, tech, financial management and much more, all tailored to small charities.
