FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE

As a registered charity and company limited by guarantee our Trustees are keen to ensure that we place good governance at the heart of our work.  We are committed to developing governance alongside the principles laid out in the Charity Governance Code and in the Charity Commission’s guidance for Charity Trustees.

The Charity Governance Code covers 7 aspects of organisational excellence and good practice for charities.  They are:

1. Organisational Purpose
   The board is clear about the charity’s aims and ensures that these are being delivered effectively and sustainably.
2. Leadership
   Every charity is headed by an effective board that provides strategic leadership in line with the charity’s aims and values.
3. Integrity
   The board acts with integrity. It adopts values, applies ethical principles to decisions and creates a welcoming and supportive culture which helps achieve the charity’s purposes. The board is aware of the significance of the public’s confidence and trust in charities. It reflects the charity’s ethics and values in everything it does. Trustees undertake their duties with this in mind.
4. Decision-Making and Control
   The board makes sure that its decision-making processes are informed, rigorous and timely, and that effective delegation, control and risk-assessment, and management systems are set up and monitored.
5. Board Effectiveness
   The board works as an effective team, using the appropriate balance of skills, experience, backgrounds and knowledge to make informed decisions.
6. Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
   The board has a clear, agreed and effective approach to supporting equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the organisation and in its own practice. This approach supports good governance and the delivery of the organisation’s charitable purposes.
7. Openness and Accountability
   The board leads the organisation in being transparent and accountable. The charity is open in its work, unless there is good reason for it not to be.

We are committed to building our governance around these key themes and using them as a framework for strategic management.

C3 Trust UK is the name of the overarching registered charity and legal entity which provides the governance and oversight of a family of churches across the UK.  This means when you give to any of our local churches your donations will be made to C3 Trust UK as the registered charity. Each of our churches has its own identity in order to express both local vision and our overall affiliation with C3 Global which is the worldwide movement of churches that we are collectively a part of.

Our Churches are locally led by Lead Pastors and their teams who are responsible for translating the overall objectives of C3 Trust UK at a local or regional level.   Each church operates with a high degree of autonomy and responsibility for the local church in terms of:

1. Spiritual Leadership
2. Local Strategy & Growth
3. Local Outreach & Community Action
4. Local Financial Integrity & Fundraising

Each Lead Pastor is also part of our Executive Board along with our Executive Officer who together work to ensure that the principles of good governance and collective risk and responsibility are upheld and that collectively we are growing healthy local churches which are furthering the objects of the charity.

The Board of Trustees is the custodian of good governance, ensuring that financial management is effective and transparent, that risk is managed and monitored and that the correct corporate policy is in place and our local strategies are aligned to the overall purpose and mission of C3 Trust UK.

The Executive Officer works as part of the Executive Board and with each Lead Pastor to support, monitor and report on local church performance, governance and compliance.  This work is enabled and supported by the Church Resourcing and Support (CRS) Team who administer central functions of the charity such as financial oversight, reporting and audit preparation, human resources management and development, risk management and policy development.

As a family of churches, C3 Trust UK is also committed to engaging with and taking full advantage of Spiritual Governance.

As part of the C3 Global movement of Christian Churches we value the wisdom and relationship with our European Directors, Steve and Lizby Warren of C3 Imagine, with whom we work closely at church and trustee levels. The trustees and our local church leaders see tremendous value in connecting with a bigger movement which provides spiritual accountability, foresight and learning to help us safeguard and develop our churches, their leaders and the charity as a whole.