External Speakers Policy for Charities

An external speakers policy sets out how your charity invites, approves and hosts people who speak at your events, whether in person, online or on a recorded platform. It gives trustees and staff a clear, consistent process for deciding who speaks under the charity's banner and on what terms.

The policy is not about silencing debate. It is about protecting the charity's reputation and its charitable purposes when someone else takes the platform you provide.

The Charity Commission does not publish a standalone external speakers code, but trustees are responsible for their charity's governance and for managing risks to its reputation. A written speakers policy is one practical way to show you take that responsibility seriously.

The headline point is simple. When you invite a speaker, you are lending them your charity's name and audience, and trustees remain accountable for what happens as a result.

This guide draws on the Charity Commission's wider expectations around campaigning and political activity (CC9) and the Charity Governance Code, which sets the sector standard for good practice.

Why a Charity Adopts an External Speakers Policy

Charities run conferences, training sessions, fundraising dinners, webinars and community talks. Many of these involve speakers who are not trustees, staff or volunteers, and who the charity does not directly control.

A speaker can say something that conflicts with the charity's purposes, offends beneficiaries, or implies the charity supports a political party. Without a policy, decisions about who speaks tend to be made informally, which makes them harder to defend if something goes wrong.

A written policy gives everyone the same checklist. It records who approves invitations, what checks happen first, and what the charity will do if a talk raises concerns.

The Governance and Reputational Considerations

Trustees hold overall responsibility for protecting the charity's reputation. An external speaker who causes controversy can damage public trust, funding relationships and the goodwill the charity depends on.

The policy should make clear that hosting a speaker is a governance decision, not just an administrative one. For higher-profile or sensitive events, trustees may want sign-off to sit with the board or a named senior officer rather than with whoever booked the venue.

Reputational risk sits naturally within the charity's wider risk management. Many charities record speaker-related risks on their risk register alongside other major risks, so the board can see how they are being managed.

1. Approval and Vetting

Set out who can approve a speaker and what proportionate checks apply. This might include a short review of the speaker's public statements, the topic, and the audience, with tighter scrutiny for events that touch on contentious issues.

Where a speaker has a personal or financial connection to a trustee, the policy should link to your conflicts process. Trustees must identify, declare and manage conflicts of interest, and a register of interests is good practice.

2. The Overlap With Campaigning and Political Activity

Speakers often raise the trickiest questions when their talk strays into political territory. A charity may campaign to further its charitable purposes, but it must never support a political party and cannot make political donations.

Your policy should warn organisers that a speaker who endorses a party, or appears to, can put the charity in breach of charity law on political activity. The safest approach is to set expectations with speakers in advance and to read the policy alongside your campaigning and political activity policy.

3. The Overlap With Social Media

Modern events do not end when the speaker sits down. Talks are clipped, quoted and shared, and a single line taken out of context can travel quickly across social platforms.

Decide in advance how the charity will record, stream or promote a talk, and how it will respond if content is shared in a way that misrepresents the charity. Aligning this with your social media policy keeps your online messaging consistent.

4. Safeguarding and Serious Incidents

Trustees have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect from harm everyone who comes into contact with the charity. Where speakers interact with children or adults at risk, apply your safeguarding procedures and DBS checks where roles are eligible.

If a speaker event causes significant harm, or significant damage to the charity's reputation, it may amount to a serious incident. Trustees should report serious incidents to the Commission promptly and, where a safeguarding matter is involved, to the police, obtaining a crime reference number.

Quick Reference

Area	What the policy should cover
Approval	Who can invite and sign off speakers, with tighter sign-off for sensitive events
Vetting	Proportionate checks on the speaker, topic and audience before confirming
Conflicts	Declaring and managing any trustee connection to a speaker
Campaigning	No support for a political party and no implied political endorsement
Social media	How talks are recorded, promoted and corrected online
Safeguarding	Protecting attendees, with DBS checks where roles are eligible
Incidents	Reporting serious incidents to the Commission, and the police where relevant

What Trustees Must Do

• Adopt a written external speakers policy and review it at agreed intervals.
• Assign clear responsibility for approving speakers, with board sign-off for sensitive events.
• Check speakers proportionately against the topic, audience and the charity's purposes.
• Declare and manage any conflict of interest between a trustee and a proposed speaker.
• Brief speakers that the charity cannot support a political party or imply endorsement.
• Record approval decisions and any concerns raised, so they can be evidenced later.
• Report any resulting serious incident to the Commission promptly, and to the police where safeguarding is involved.

Common Mistakes

• Treating speaker bookings as purely administrative and keeping trustees out of the loop.
• Inviting a speaker without considering how their public statements could affect the charity's reputation.
• Allowing a talk to drift into party-political endorsement that breaches charity law.
• Ignoring the social media afterlife of a talk and having no plan to correct misleading clips.
• Failing to record who approved a speaker and why, leaving no audit trail.
• Overlooking safeguarding where speakers interact with children or adults at risk.

How Policy Pros Can Help

We write bespoke charity policies that fit how your organisation actually runs events, rather than generic templates. Our team can draft your external speakers policy and align it with your wider governance framework through our charity policies and procedures service. Further trustee guidance is collected in the Charity Commission's guidance publications.

An external speakers policy works best as part of a connected set. We can also help with your campaigning and political activity policy, your social media policy and your risk management policy, so your approach to reputation and external messaging holds together.

For the bigger picture, our charity policies and annual return guide shows how each policy supports good governance and the questions trustees face. Get in touch to discuss a policy package built around your charity's activities.