A conflict of interests can occur when an individual’s personal interests (family, friendships, financial) could compromise his or her judgement or decisions when acting for the charity.
Clause 9 of the YACWAG Constitution states “No member of the Executive Committee shall acquire any interest in property belonging to the Charity (otherwise than as a Trustee for the Charity) or receive remuneration or be interested (otherwise than as a member of the Executive Committee) in any contract entered into by the Executive Committee.”
An example of where a conflict of interest might arise is where a Trustee makes or influences a decision for personal gain that may be unfair, unethical or illegal. For example, this could relate to the choice of a contractor to do work for the charity who might be less qualified or more expensive than someone else but is related to the Trustee. It is the responsibility of every Trustee to recognise situations in which conflicts of interest on their part might reasonably be raised, and to disclose such situations to the Chairperson as outlined below.
To guard against this type of risk YACWAG will:
- At the beginning of all Executive Committee Meetings the Chairperson will ask all Trustees present to declare whether they may have a conflict of interest with any items on the Agenda.
- Any Trustees declaring a conflict of interest in an Executive Committee Meeting will be barred from voting on the relevant topic.
- The Chairperson will ask all Trustees to declare to himself and the Secretary if they become aware of any potential conflicts of interest that could affect their decision making in the future.
- All notifications of conflicts of interest will be recorded in the relevant section of Conflicts of Interest Register by the Secretary.
- The Conflicts of Interest Register will be available for inspection by any member of YACWAG.
- Any declared conflicts of interest may be recorded in the Annual Accounts as required under the Accounting Rules.
Date Approved: January 2026
Next Review: January 2028