Page 146 - Demo

As a very simple “rule of thumb” a good trustees’ report of a religious institute charity would typically be somewhere between ten and fteen pages. However, there will be exceptions and it will depend also on whether photographs etc. are used in addition to text (see below).
SHOULD THE REPORT CONTAIN MORE THAN JUST NARRATIVE?
The answer to this question, in the view of the writer is a de nite “yes”. The report needs to attract interest and for that reason it is often helpful to break up the text with photograph’s, quotes and diagrams. It is often said that a photograph “speaks a thousand words” and a carefully chosen quote from a satis ed bene ciary can be very powerful - it is a third party saying “this is a wonderful charity” rather than someone from within the charity saying it.
SHOULD THE STATEMENT OF THE CHARITY’S OBJECTIVES
BE A DIRECT QUOTE FROM THE OBJECTS CLAUSE WITHIN ITS GOVERNING DOCUMENT?
The aim of the trustees’ report is that it should be readable and understandable to stakeholders. Quoting directly from the governing document is not always the best way of achieving this. What is needed within this section of the report is a summary of the purposes of the charity (consistent with the governing document) and a description of the main activities undertaken in relation to those purposes and to further public bene t. In many cases, religious institute charities have very broad objects – to support the members of the institute and allow them to carry out their work and that of the institute (provided it is charitable), and in furtherance of the Roman Catholic /Christian faith. This is all that needs to be stated but many religious institute charities will then go on to explain how the objectives of the charity are consistent with the religious objectives and charism of the wider institute.
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