A charity AGM agenda template is the running order for the members' meeting, not for a trustee meeting. Copy the agenda below: register the members, check the quorum (the minimum number who must be present), take the last AGM minutes, present the accounts and trustees' annual report, then any election, or auditor or examiner appointment, that your governing document or the Companies Act gives the members. Send it with the notice, not on the night. Whether you must hold the meeting, and how many days' notice you need, is in charity AGM requirements.
What the agenda has to cover
No statute sets the headings of a charity AGM agenda. CC48 says you should share an agenda before the meeting, and check the governing document for items you must include. That "should" is Commission guidance. The "must" is whatever your constitution or articles name.
Trustee Meetings is a governance tool, not a law firm. This is information, not legal advice.
CC48 describes the meeting as the moment you update the members on the year, present the annual accounts and the trustees' annual report, and deal with other business such as appointing trustees. The Commission's association-model CIO constitution goes further, where you have adopted it: the AGM must receive the accounts (audited or examined where that applies) and the trustees' annual report, and must elect trustees as that constitution requires. The notice for that AGM has to include those accounts, the report, and details of people standing for election.
Build the agenda around that. Then add only the extra lines your own document demands. A trustee-meeting agenda, with a finance update and a pile of operational decisions, is the wrong document. That one lives in the trustee meeting agenda template.
Charity AGM agenda template
Copy this into the email or the paper you send with the notice. The timings are this guide's own, for a one-hour meeting. They are not a Commission rule.
Delete a line if your document does not give that decision to the members. Do not add a line the document does not allow you to decide on the night.
[Charity name]
[Charity number]
[Date, time and venue]
[Notice sent on]
1. Welcome, register and quorum (5 min)
2. Apologies (2)
3. Declarations of interest (2)
4. Minutes of the last AGM (5)
5. Report on the year (10)
6. Accounts and trustees' annual report (15)
7. Election of trustees (10)
8. Appointment of auditor or independent examiner (5)
9. Members' resolutions (10)
10. Questions (5)
11. Close and date of next AGM (3)
Notes on each item
1. Welcome, register, and quorum. 5 minutes Why it is here: CC48 says you should record which members attend, on a signed register or, for a virtual meeting (everyone on a screen) or a hybrid meeting (some in the room, some online), a record of who joined electronically. Say the quorum out loud and write the number in the minutes. "12 members present, quorum of 3 met" is the sentence you want later. How long: 5 minutes. If you are short, adjourn. Do not start the elections while you wait for a fourth person who is "on their way".
2. Apologies. 2 minutes Why it is here: So the register distinguishes "told us they could not come" from "we never heard". Apologies are not a substitute for proxies. A proxy (a person a member has appointed to attend and vote for them) counts only if your document or, for a company, the Companies Act allows it, and only if the appointment reached you in the form the rules require. How long: 2 minutes. Read the names. Do not discuss why people are away.
3. Declarations of interest. 2 minutes Why it is here: CC48 says an agenda should include a standing item on conflicts of interest. Trustees declare, and members too if your document asks them to. How long: 2 minutes.
4. Minutes of the previous AGM. 5 minutes Why it is here: The members are confirming the record of the last members' meeting, not the last trustee meeting. Send the draft with this agenda so the time is for corrections, not for reading it aloud. How long: 5 minutes. Note the exact correction. Then move on.
5. Report on the year. 10 minutes Why it is here: CC48 says the AGM is where you update the members on performance and achievements. One trustee speaks to a short report. The members ask questions. This is not a second board discussion of operational detail. How long: 10 minutes, including questions. If a question needs a decision, park it under item 9 or on a future agenda. Do not decide it inside the report.
6. Accounts and trustees' annual report. 15 minutes Why it is here: CC48 says you present the annual accounts and the trustees' annual report. The association model says the AGM must receive them, and that they go out with the notice. Word the minute to match the document: "received" unless your clause says the members approve or adopt them. You and the other trustees remain responsible for the accounts either way. How long: 15 minutes. The treasurer talks to the figures the members have already been sent. Do not table a pack nobody has seen.
7. Election or retirement of trustees. 10 minutes Why it is here: Only if the document puts elections, or retirement by rotation, at the AGM. The association model has an option under which one third of the trustees retire at each AGM and the members fill the vacancies. Name each person who is retiring, each person standing, and the vote on each vacancy. If your document has no election clause, delete this item. Do not run an election the constitution does not provide for. How long: 10 minutes. If a vote is tied, use only the casting vote the document actually gives the chair. Do not assume one.
8. Appointment of the auditor or independent examiner. 5 minutes Why it is here: Include it where the document says the members make this appointment, or where the charity is a company that must be audited under the Companies Act, where section 485 gives it to the members unless the auditor is deemed reappointed. Otherwise this is a decision for you and the other trustees, taken at a trustee meeting and reported here if you want the members to know. Do not ask the room to appoint someone the law and the constitution do not let them appoint. How long: 5 minutes. Name the person, say whether they are the auditor or the independent examiner, and record the vote.
9. Members' resolutions notified in advance. 10 minutes Why it is here: CC48 says the notice should include the resolutions being considered, and that you should explain how members can raise issues and propose resolutions. For a company, the notice must include the full wording of any proposed special resolution (a members' decision CC48 says must be written out in full in the notice). Read the wording as it was circulated. Then vote. How long: 10 minutes for one resolution. A second resolution needs its own slot, or a longer meeting booked from the start.
10. Questions and any other business. 5 minutes Why it is here: Members who came to ask something deserve a moment. They do not get a new decision that needed notice. Thank them, write the question down, and say when the board will answer. How long: 5 minutes. Stop at the hour.
11. Close, and the likely date of the next AGM. 3 minutes Why it is here: If your document says AGMs must fall within a set gap (the association model says not more than 15 months apart, where you have adopted that clause), say the latest date you can go to, even if the exact evening is not fixed. People should leave knowing this meeting is closed. How long: 3 minutes.
That is about 72 minutes if every item runs its limit, and about 47 minutes if items 7 to 9 are short or absent. Tell people an hour, start on time, and cut the report before you cut the quorum check.
What to send with the agenda
Send one pack. CC48's list of what people should have before a general meeting is the agenda, the previous minutes, the accounts or other financial information, any reports, and the resolutions. The association model adds, for the AGM notice, the accounts, the trustees' annual report, and details of people standing.
Count the days before you hit send. The rules are in charity AGM requirements. Follow the governing document. A private company must give at least 14 days (section 307), unless the members agree a shorter period. Clear days leave out the day notice is given and the meeting day, and posted or emailed notice to a company or CIO's members counts as given 48 hours after sending.
For a company, section 311 says the notice must state the time, the date, the place, and the general nature of the business. A virtual meeting needs the link in that same notice. On the night, keep the trustee agenda on the trustee meeting agenda template. The members do not get the trustee-only items.
Do this once, then let it run itself. Trustee Meetings is a simple board-meetings tool built for small UK charities. It keeps this agenda with the accounts and the minutes, so the board works from one set of papers. Send the members' notice the way your governing document requires. 30-day trial, then £15 a month or £180 a year. Cancel any time in the trial. £120 a year if your charity's income is under £25,000. Every trustee included. Try it with your board
Mistakes when the agenda is treated as a board meeting
Skipping declarations, or copying the trustee version. CC48 says an agenda should include a standing item for declaring conflicts of interest, so keep a short one near the start. Trustees declare, and members too if your document asks them to. A member who is not a trustee does not declare anything just to sit in the room. If a trustee is standing for re-election, follow the conflict rule in your document.
Tabling the accounts on the night. The association model says the accounts go with the notice. CC48 says the papers should go out beforehand. A treasurer walking the room through unseen figures is how a receive-the-accounts item becomes an argument. Send them with the agenda.
Any other business as a second meeting. Five minutes, questions only. A proposal to change the constitution, sell a building, or remove a trustee needs the notice the document and, for a company, the Act require. Write it down for next time.
One minute that covers both meetings. Name the meeting in the first line, as what charity minutes should include sets out, and use a members' register. The charity meeting minutes template already has a line for the meeting type. Fill in "AGM", not "trustee meeting / AGM" as if they were the same event.
Timings with no owner. Put a name next to items 5, 6 and 7 before you send the agenda: who presents the year, who presents the accounts, who runs the election. A heading with no owner becomes a silence at 7.40pm.
Frequently asked questions
Who should receive the agenda, the members or only the trustees? The members who are entitled to attend, and the trustees. CC48 says notice of a general meeting goes to the people entitled to be there, with the agenda and the accounts in the same pack. For a company, that means every member and every trustee with an address in the UK. A trustee-only email is not notice to the members.
Should the agenda ask the members to approve the accounts? Only if your governing document says the members approve them. The Commission's association-model CIO constitution says the AGM must receive the accounts and the trustees' annual report, and that those documents go out with the notice. Put 'receive' on the agenda unless your own clause says 'approve' or 'adopt'. You and the other trustees remain responsible for the accounts either way.
A member wants a new item after the notice has gone. Do you add it? Not as a decision on the night. CC48 says the notice should include the resolutions being considered, and for a company it must include the full wording of any proposed special resolution. Note the request, tell the room you will bring it back with proper notice, and leave it off the vote. Our steer, not a Commission rule: a five-minute slot at the end is for questions, not for a new resolution.
Can you bolt the AGM onto the end of a trustee meeting? You can hold them on the same evening. You should not minute them as one meeting. Close the trustee meeting, open the AGM, and take a members' register. People who were in the first meeting only count towards the AGM quorum if they are members, proxies, or (for a company) another qualifying person under section 318.
Is this the same agenda as a normal trustee meeting? No. A trustee agenda is for the board, often with about a week's notice and a trustee quorum. An AGM agenda is for the members, on the notice period in your governing document, and CC48 treats the two meetings as different. Keep the trustee running order for trustee meetings, and use this one when the room is the membership.
This guide covers England and Wales. CC48 states that it applies to England and Wales. Scottish charities are regulated by OSCR, and charities in Northern Ireland by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. Use their rules rather than assuming this page applies in full.
The rules behind each heading sit in charity AGM requirements. For the board's own evenings, use the trustee meeting agenda template and the charity meeting minutes template. Browse the full guides library.