Reviews

“An enjoyable read: every trustee should have one!” This is an excellent book. A really well written, well researched, comprehensive guide for anyone who either is already a trustee or thinking of becoming one. Whether you are at the beginning of your trustee journey, have been a trustee multiple times or are just in the process of getting volunteered for the role, you will find this book helpful. The author has a huge depth and breadth of experience and could have written a very good book simply from her own experience. But she didn’t. She also did extensive research and talked to lots of other trustees. So their experience and stories and insights can be found here too. She looks at trusteeship from both a practical and a philosophical perspective. This book will be a wise friend to all the trustees who choose to read it. And despite its subject matter and the great deal of technical ‘stuff’ that trustees need to know, the author has also managed to make this a really enjoyable read. Fabulous.

If you are involved with a Christian charity, this is a comprehensive compendium of useful knowledge for you! Charity governance and practice is a changing landscape which needs a fresh map. Heather Wraight has been able to draw on her own experience, as well as on extensive research, to give practical advice and numerous examples, so that charities can be more fruitful and accountable. Theological precedent is also explored using the examples of Nehemiah and Daniel in particular.

The responsibilities and challenges for those who are trustees of churches and charities can seem to be increasingly onerous. Good governance requires attention to dimensions of charity law as diverse as financial probity, safeguarding and the monitoring of five-year plans and strategic aims – these in addition to the spiritual demands of Christian leadership. No wonder many ask, “Who is sufficient to these things?” Well, becoming equal to such a task has just been made easier by Heather Wraight’s overview of the role and work of trustees in a Christian context. Every charity trustee – Baptist deacon, Anglican PCC member and their equivalents, whether new to the task or an “old hand” – will benefit enormously from reading this book and implementing its wisdom.

I can remember Heather Wraight’s frequent observation, as Christian Research published its UK Christian Handbook, that there were so many new but poorly run charities which had poor capacity and weak governance. Heather has answered this thoroughly with a helpful and accessible overview of what it takes to run a charity with integrity and efficiency. The major issues are covered with appropriate biblical input and examples, written in a winsome and non-critical style but compiling the insights from many interviewees who have been at the forefront of running charities. A helpful, non-technical resource for us all.

A very useful tool to reflect not just on being a trustee but on being a Christian trustee’