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Board pack · Charities

The AI questions for your next board meeting.

Six questions for the boards of charities, with the regulators and duties they answer to. Table it, ask each question, and note which answers your organisation could evidence today.

The six questions.

  1. Do we have an agreed, published AI policy, and does it cover use by staff, volunteers and third-party fundraisers acting in our name?
  2. Where are AI tools touching beneficiary or donor personal data, and can we demonstrate this is lawful under UK GDPR and PECR?
  3. How do we ensure meaningful human oversight before AI affects a beneficiary, a grant or hardship decision, or a fundraising message?
  4. When and how do we tell donors and the public that content or interactions are AI-generated, proportionate to the risk of misleading them?
  5. How would we identify and remedy a biased AI outcome that disadvantages the vulnerable people we serve?
  6. As trustees, do we understand the risk profile of these tools well enough to discharge our duty of reasonable care and skill?

What your board answers to.

  • Charity Commission for England and Wales

    Its trustee-duties guidance (CC3) expects boards to apply existing duties of reasonable care and skill to any AI they deploy.

  • Charity Governance Code

    On an apply-or-explain basis, it now recommends that boards adopt AI and technology policies.

  • Fundraising Regulator and Code of Fundraising Practice

    Its AI guidance holds trustees accountable for AI in fundraising, including by third parties, and calls for an agreed policy.

  • Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)

    Enforces UK GDPR and PECR over donor and beneficiary data, including the soft opt-in available to charities for their own charitable purposes.

  • Charities Act 2011 trustee duties

    The statutory anchor for board accountability: acting in the charity's best interests, with reasonable care and skill, and reporting serious incidents.

Want to know how your board would answer before the meeting? The Board AI Scorecard scores the five areas these questions test, in about two minutes.