Financial Oversight is Everyone’s Business: What Coventry City of Culture Trust tells us about Trustee Training

Written by Annie Jarvis, Cause4 Director of Strategy and Programmes

Trustees do not need to be accountants, but they do need to understand their charity’s finances well enough to recognise when something is going wrong, ask the right questions, and challenge the information put in front of them. 

That distinction has been brought sharply into focus by the Charity Commission’s conclusion of its case into Coventry City of Culture Trust. Published in September 2026, its findings provide a timely reminder for arts, culture and heritage organisations for what financial oversight means in practice, and why trustee induction and ongoing training matter. 

What happened at Coventry? 

Coventry City of Culture Trust was established to oversee Coventry’s successful bid to become UK City of Culture in 2021 and subsequently deliver its programme of events. In February 2023, the Trust entered administration, owing Coventry City Council just over £1.5 million. 

The Charity Commission concluded that the former trustees had failed to maintain effective oversight of the charity’s finances and that this amounted to misconduct and/or mismanagement. Importantly, the regulator found no evidence that charitable funds had been misused, but rather that the issue was one of governance and oversight.  

The Charity Commission identified several failings: inadequate budgeting and financial planning; overreliance on the executive team for financial decision-making; insufficient scrutiny of financial sustainability; and failure to notify the regulator promptly about financial risks and the loss of funding. It also highlighted concerns around a substantial loan taken when the organisation was potentially facing insolvency.  

Trustees and financial responsibility  

Arts, culture and heritage charities often recruit trustees for an impressive breadth of skills: artistic practice, fundraising, community engagement, marketing, education, legal expertise or connections to a particular place. It is tempting for financial expertise to be treated similarly - something provided by the Treasurer, Finance Director or one financially experienced trustee. 

But financial oversight isn't a specialist responsibility that the rest of the board can delegate. 

The Charity Commission is explicit that every trustee has responsibility for overseeing their charity's finances, even when the organisation employs someone with financial expertise to manage it. Its financial controls guidance also states that the Board as a whole is responsible for the charity's finances and that trustees should question and raise concerns about anything they do not understand. 

That creates an important distinction between financial management and financial governance. Trustees shouldn’t be doing the job of the Executive, but the board does need to be able to understand, scrutinise and question financial decisions.  

How financially literate does a trustee need to be? 

Trustees are volunteers, and charities cannot reasonably expect every new board member to arrive with the full knowledge of a professional accountant. However, organisations should ensure that trustees develop sufficient knowledge to fulfil their responsibilities, which means having an understanding of accounts, cash-flow forecasting and insolvency. 

Financial literacy should therefore form part of every trustee's induction and ongoing training and development. At a minimum, a trustee should be comfortable asking questions such as: how much unrestricted cash do we actually have? What assumptions does our budget make about fundraising, ticket sales or other uncertain income? What happens if that income doesn't arrive? How much of our reserves can actually be used? Are there warning signs that could indicate financial difficulty or insolvency? 

The financial position and performance of a charity should be a standing agenda item at all trustee meetings, and Trustees should feel comfortable enough to ask the uncomfortable questions; having Trustee only meetings to discuss finances in a low-pressure environment can also be invaluable. 

Trustees also need to be able to ensure that any loss (or potential loss) of a grant, sponsorship, fundraised or other forms of income is raised at board level, so a thorough financial review is triggered. What follows next might then be an updated cashflow, solvency review, or scenario planning.  

If Trustees don’t come from a financial background or feel under-confident in this area, then there absolutely must be a culture within the charity to upskill and develop their confidence. 

Borrowing should raise the level of scrutiny 

The Coventry case also highlights the significance of borrowing when an organisation is under financial pressure. 

Borrowing isn't inherently evidence of poor governance, as it can be a legitimate financial tool, but borrowing to manage a deteriorating cash position is fundamentally different from borrowing as part of a planned strategy. 

The Commission's guidance advises trustees to seek professional advice before making significant financial commitments such as borrowing and, where a charity is experiencing financial difficulty, to monitor cash forecasts to establish whether it can pay debts when they are due.  

Extra scrutiny is therefore needed if a board is considering emergency borrowing. If repayment of a loan depends on uncertain fundraising, future ticket sales, or funding that has not yet been secured, trustees need to understand the risks involved.  

The Coventry findings highlight a clear example of how trustee responsibilities can play out when an organisation comes under severe financial pressure. For our sector, therefore, the practical response shouldn't be more financial paperwork for its own sake, but better preparedness. 

A case for trustee development 

There is a wider lesson for how arts, culture and heritage organisations approach trustee development.  

A trustee induction might explain charitable duties, safeguarding, conflicts of interest and the organisation's strategic plan but financial governance also deserves equal prominence, and due care should be given to helping new trustees understand an organisation’s financial accounts, budgets, cashflows, and internal systems and controls.  

Yet induction alone isn't enough. The knowledge trustees require changes with the organisation's circumstances, and with the context of the sector as a whole. So, what else is actually needed? Following the delivery of the Transforming Governance programme led by Arts Council England, we heard from Chairs and Treasurers who shared their views about what is still missing when it comes to sector development and support:  

• Building whole-board financial literacy: As clearly stated by the Charity Commission, all trustees share financial responsibility. That means sufficient training and guidance is needed to help all board members understand this collective responsibility and feel confident in carrying out their duties. Accessible guidance, affordable training and regular updates on regulatory changes that are concise, practical and tailored to the realities of the sector will give trustees the tools they need to succeed.  
• Strengthened relationships between boards and executive teams: A strong relationship between trustees and the executive is essential. For that to happen, there needs to be healthy challenge and a clear scheme of delegation, so that the treasurer does not become too operational and that such responsibility is shared across the board. 
• Clarification of the Treasurer’s role: Treasurers can feel isolated, overly responsible, or unclear about the boundary between governance oversight and operational finance. Organisations (especially those recruiting treasurers to their board) should clarify the Treasurer role, outline boundaries, and provide practical and clear role descriptions.  
• Preparing for risk: Governance training, trustee guidance and board templates should also take financial risk into consideration. Scenario exercises around the loss of a major income source; training before embarking on borrowing or capital development; or regular financial refreshers on risk appetite and handling cashflow pressures can all help keep boards informed and prepared in the face of potential challenges.  

The lesson from Coventry isn't that every trustee needs to become a financial expert but that no trustee should regard financial oversight as someone else's job. Most importantly, charities should make sure that every trustee has the support and confidence needed to participate confidently in making financial decisions.