The Charity Commission is changing the way charity trustees and contacts access the online services on their website, with the introduction of a new My Charity Commission Account.
The current online services portal enables charities to update their details, submit annual returns and accounts, update details regarding their governing document and change their name or financial year end amongst other things.
Currently, each charity has one unique log in to make any changes or submissions online. In practice, this has meant that either one trustee is given responsibility to complete any changes and submissions, or the charity log in is shared amongst multiple individuals. This can lead to unnecessary pressure being put on one contact/ trustee, or can increase the potential for log in details to fall into the wrong hands.
However, this will change, starting from Spring 2023.
What is changing?
The new system enables each trustee, contact and professional advisor (e.g., accountants and lawyers) to have their own personal Charity Commission account where they will be able to access and change charity details online. The level of access each person is given will be determined by their role in the charity.
Where an individual has multiple roles within different charities, they will have one account which will link to all of the charities they are involved in (provided the same email address is used at each charity). This will reduce the number of credentials that one individual will need to have for the Charity Commission website.
To manage online access, each charity will have an initial administrator account, which will be designated to the person who is registered at the Charity Commission as the main contact. This account will have full access to all services and will be able to set up third-party and trustee accounts and deal with access rights and granting permissions to others.
How is this change going to be rolled out?
The Charity Commission have been contacting charity contacts asking them to ensure their details are up to date on the current online services account to enable them to set up their new account. Invites to set up the accounts will be rolled out from Spring 2023.
What do you need to do?
If you are a charity contact or trustee you should make sure that the Charity Commission has:
- the correct contact listed for your charity,
- your correct full name and date of birth – this will be used to verify your identity when you set up your account,
- an email address that only you have access to – i.e., charities are advised to avoid using a generic email such as info@charityname.org.uk for all trustees.
These details can be checked and updated under ‘Update Charity Details’ on the current online services account.
You must set up your account when requested:
- If you are the charity contact – look out for an email from the Commission with details of how to set up your account. When this account is set up, you will be able to set up other users and manage access and administrative rights.
- If you are a charity trustee – the charity contact will send you a link to enable you to set up an account once the system goes live. Where you are involved in multiple charities, consider whether it would be possible to use the same contact email address for all of them to ensure you can link all of your roles under one account.
The rollout of the new My Charity Commission Accounts will commence from Spring 2023, with the administrator account being set up first to ensure all charities have one person who can access the new online services when they launch.
This is a positive change in how trustees and other contacts access the Charity Commission services and should make the process of updating details and submitting information to the Charity Commission more manageable and secure going forwards.
For more guidance see the following links:
Your new charity commission account
Setting up my charity commission account
For further information, please contact Michelle Gaze at michelle.gaze@bhp.co.uk or get in touch with your usual BHP Charities Team contact.
