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To ensure public bene t is provided
To ensure income is not accumulated by the charity unnecessarily To safeguard the charity’s assets
The key responsibility of the trustees is to ensure that the charity’s assets are applied for charitable purposes as de ned by civil law here in the UK.
The principal obligation of the charity’s trustees is to the institute’s own members here in the UK – all of whom have dedicated their lives to the institute and its work. The assets of the charity have to be used to ensure that the members in this country are cared for and that their individual ministry and that of the institute in this country continues. The members of the institute here in the UK are bona de bene ciaries of the charity and that has long been established in case law.
However, as the age pro le of the members increases and, inevitably, numbers decline there is a need to consider the nature and reality of the future ministry of individual members and that of the institute more generally.
One of the most fundamental questions for all religious institutes to be asking at the current time is “where do we want to be in ve or ten years’ time?”. In other words, what is the medium to long term ambition for the institute here
in the UK? Other than caring for members of the institute, what will the long term ministry of the charity be and how will it apply its assets to demonstrate charitable purpose and public bene t? It is the task of the charity’s trustees and the institute’s leaders and bursars today to give serious thought to this and to de ne the future strategy of the religious institute charity.
In doing this, there is a need to strike a balance which is not easy – it is the balance between ensuring that the charity has suf cient funds to care for the members of the religious institute in the UK, many of whom may need expensive nursing care, and between ensuring that the charity’s trustees are able to demonstrate that the charity’s assets are being used and not
simply accumulated.
It is a ne balance between being prudent and safeguarding the charity’s assets and between ensuring that they are used for charitable purposes and not hoarded unnecessarily.
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