Eighteen of the UK’s top 100 charities pay one or more of their trustees, according to research published today in Charity Finance magazine.

Of those, two – Eton College and the Royal Shakespeare Company - have unitary boards in which executive directors are legally trustees, and those are the only trustees which receive payment.

Two others – the Salvation Army and the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance – have employees who are trustees outside of their day-to-day work as religious ministers, and the charities say they are not paid for their non-executive roles.

One – the Girls’ Day School Trust – provided remuneration to the previous chair but not to the current chair.

The other 13 paid at least one current non-executive director for their work as trustees, according to their most recent accounts.

St Andrew’s Healthcare and Turning Point also have unitary boards in which executive directors are paid to act as trustees, but both also paid one non-executive trustee.

The figures are drawn from an analysis carried out by Helena Wilkinson, partner and head of charities and not-for-profit at Price Bailey.

The analysis examined the accounts of the charities that feature in the haysmacintyre / Charity Finance 100 Index – a list of the largest charities in the UK which excludes public sector bodies, and is based on a three-year rolling average of income.

There is one more charity on the list of those paying their trustees, compared to last year. Alternative Futures, which pays its chair, moved into the top 100 for the first time this year.

The biggest trustee-payers

Nuffield Health and the Wellcome Trust are the largest charities to remunerate their trustees.

Nuffield Health’s accounts show that it obtained permission to pay its trustees in 2000.

The Wellcome Trust’s governors, who are directors of the Wellcome Trust Ltd, which is the charity’s corporate trustee, have been entitled to be paid since 2000. Its chair is paid £141,677 and deputy chair £106,258. Other governors were were paid between £35,527 and £70,839

To be able to pay trustees, charities need to obtain permission from the Charity Commission. It is unknown how many charities overall pay their trustees, though William Shawcross, chair of the Charity Commission, has said the regulator looks sympathetically on requests.

The full article can be read here.

Charities which pay their trustees:

1. Nuffield Health
2. Wellcome Trust
3. Girls’ Day School Trust
4. Salvation Army
5. St Andrew’s Healthcare
6. Woodard Corporation
7. Church Commissioners for England
8. RNIB
9. Turning Point
10. Orders of St John Care Trust
11. General Medical Council
12. Nursing and Midwifery Council
13. Education Development Trust
14. Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance
15. Richmond Fellowship
16. Eton College
17. Royal Shakespeare Company
18. Alternative Futures