Conflicts of Interest

Walking 4 Hope –
Conflicts of Interest Policy

Charity Reg No: 1202602

The Board will make decisions based only on what’s best for the Charity. We do not allow personal interests, or the interests of people or organisations connected to board members, to influence these decisions.

There are 2 common types of conflict of interest:

• financial conflicts - when a trustee, or person or organisation connected to them, could get money or something else of value from a trustee decision. This does not include the payment of expenses;

• loyalty conflicts - other reasons, a board member might not be able to make decisions that are best for the charity.

Generally, a potential conflict of interest will occur when a board member has a connection to another organisation or person that we have a financial, or other working arrangement with, either as:

• family – his or her partner, child etc;

• organisation – as a trustee, board member, member of staff or similar.

Meetings

Conflicts of Interest is a standing item on all board and committee agendas; the chairman will remind directors at the start of each meeting that any interests must be declared.

A record of any professional or personal interest that may make it difficult for a director to fulfil their duties impartially, or may create an appearance of impropriety, with any item on the agenda for that day’s meeting is to be noted in the minutes of the meeting. Specifically:

• if a director is in any way, directly or indirectly, interested in a proposed transaction or arrangement with the organisation, s/he must declare the nature and extent of that interest to the other directors;

• if a declaration of interest proves to be or becomes inaccurate or incomplete, a further declaration must be made;

• any required declaration of interest must be made before the organisation enters into the transaction or arrangement;

• a declaration is not required in relation to an interest of which the director is not aware or where the director is not aware of the transaction or arrangement in question. For this purpose a director is treated as being aware of matters of which s/he ought reasonably to be aware.

If a director states a conflict of interest s/he will normally be requested to leave the meeting while the relevant agenda item is discussed.

Potential Conflicts of Interest

A charity may pay and offer other material benefits, to one or more of its trustees to provide services to the charity, where the trustee board reasonably believes it to be in the charity’s best interests to do so. The services in question must be ones which the charity trustee provides in addition to carrying out normal trustee duties. Any such proposal would be treated on a case for case basis and would only be approved subject to compliance with the governing document and Charity Commission guidance.

Where an individual is not part of the decision making process, there is no direct conflict of interest. However, where he/she has a relationship with the organisation, or individual trustee/director, the perception could arise that the trustees haven’t acted in the organisation’s best interests, because of this.

Managing Conflicts of Interest

To manage these issues, the Board will ask themselves the following questions:

• is this the best use we might make of our limited resources?

• if so, might anyone else be able to provide this service?

• if there are others, in terms of cost, quality, availability etc, who would be the best provider?

Recording Decisions

Conflicts of interest will be recorded in the minutes, together with the key points and decision(s) made, in sufficient detail to enable a reader to understand the issue and the basis on which the decision was made.