Help centre / Getting started / Set up your charity in the first-run wizard
Set up your charity in the first-run wizard
The wizard opens the first time you sign in. Confirm your charity's details, confirm which trustees still serve, tick a few starter policies, and book your first meeting. Every step can be skipped, and nothing you do here is final or destructive.
Work through the wizard
- Your charity. Check the name, charity number, year end and website we pre-filled from the public register. Change anything that's wrong, then click Looks right.
- Your rules (optional). Upload your governing document, or fetch it from Companies House if you're a charitable company. We read it and propose your quorum, notice periods and who decides what. You confirm every item before anything is saved.
- Your trustees. The trustees from the register are listed. Click Still serving for each one who is, use Add email to invite so they can sign in later, and + Add a trustee for anyone missing.
- Starter policies. We've ticked the ones most charities your size need, for example safeguarding and conflicts of interest. Untick any you don't want, then click Prepare & continue. They're saved as drafts, not adopted.
- First meeting. Pick a date and click Schedule it. We add an agenda item called Adopt the charity's starter policies, with a motion for each draft, so the board can adopt them properly.
- First project (optional). On plans that include projects, pick a ready-made plan, for example a fundraising event. Otherwise skip.
- Priorities. If you did the Charity Control Check, your top actions are listed here. Click Go to my dashboard to finish.
Why are the policies drafts?
One person setting up a workspace can't adopt a policy on the board's behalf. That's a trustee decision. So the wizard prepares the text as drafts, and your first meeting is where the trustees formally adopt them. Don't worry, the drafts are complete and ready to review.
Can I come back later?
Yes. Click Skip for now at any point. The wizard remembers where you got to, and a Your first week checklist on your dashboard shows what's done and what's left as you invite trustees, hold your meeting and adopt your policies.
The governance behind this: our free guide on charitycontrol.org explains the why in plain English.