Advisory Committees

Working together: Establishing an Advisory Committee

When establishing a management account within the overall trust of the Foundation, it is helpful to the Trustee if you are able to form an Advisory Committee.

Whilst all legal responsibilities and decision-making authority lies with the Trustee for the Foundation, the Advisory Committee plays a critical role in ensuring the Trustee is kept abreast of relevant projects and potential beneficiaries in your community.

Role of the Advisory Committee

The Advisory Committee:

• represents the community
• communicates with the community or interest groups and potential beneficiaries
  informs the Trustee of relevant projects
• when called upon by the Trustee, reviews applications for support that relate to the community
• with the support of the Foundation, promotes and attracts more Donors
  

The Advisory Committee is not required to:

• be incorporated
• have a trust deed
• act as a formal board.

Composition of the Advisory Committee

It is important that the Advisory Committee be representative of the community.

For example, if there is a management account for a particular region, a diverse group of people that represent the business and community activities of that community should form the Advisory Committee.

Where the management account relates to a cause or interest, the Advisory Committee should be comprised of key stakeholders that actively participate or benefit from activities of that cause/interest group.

In establishing your Advisory Committee, you might like to think about how you:

• inform your community of its existence and publicly invite participation
• manage the time spent on the activities by its members.

Once you have established your Advisory Committee, the Trustee will review its membership. The Trustee is also in place to help deal with any problems that may arise within an Advisory Committee.

Once you have formed your Advisory Committee, you will need to nominate a person who can act as the coordinator and liaise with the Foundation.

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