Guidance

Identifying and managing conflicts of interest in a charity (CC29)

Guidance for charity trustees explaining what conflicts of interest are, and how to deal with them.

• From: The Charity Commission
• Published: 1 May 2014
• Last updated: 22 April 2026 — See all updates

Applies to England and Wales

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland

Documents

Identifying and managing conflicts of interest in a charity

Ref: CC29

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Details

Trustees must make decisions based only on what is in their charity’s best interests. This is one of their legal duties. A conflict of interest is when what is in the charity’s best interests conflicts with, or may conflict with:

• your personal interests, or
• the interests of people or organisations connected to you

This guidance explains in more detail what conflicts of interest are and sets out a step by step process to manage them.

This guidance applies to all trustees of charities in England and Wales. This includes corporate trustees.

Published 1 May 2014

Last updated 22 April 2026 + show all updates

1. 22 April 2026

   This guidance has been updated to make it more accessible and easier to use.

2. 31 October 2022

   Guidance updated to reflect changes (introduced by the Charities Act 2022) that enable trustees to be paid in certain circumstances for providing goods to their charity using the statutory power.

3. 1 May 2014

   First published.