Restricted funds without frightening a new trustee

A restricted balance that looks large on a summary page will tempt a new trustee to ask why the charity is still sending appeal letters. The honest caption is uncomfortable: that money is already promised to a roof, a named worker, or a funder’s activity list.

We draw restricted funds as labelled blocks, not as a slice of a cheerful pie. Pies suggest a whole that the board may carve. Restricted money is not a pie.

For United Kingdom charities, the Charity Commission language already exists. We do not replace it with friendlier words. We put the fund name as the charity uses it in minutes, the closing balance as the treasurer supplies it, and one sentence on what would have to happen before a penny could move.

If several small restricted pots make the page noisy, we group them under a heading such as ‘Named repair funds’ and list them. Grouping is not hiding. The list still names each donor condition.

Unrestricted reserves sit on a different page. Mixing the two in one chart is how a village hall once nearly voted to treat a kitchen grant as a cushion for winter fuel. The grant letter was three years old. The temptation was new.

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