Governance & Charity Registration

Our trust deed

Muskaan Care Trust is governed by a trust deed registered in 2016. Key elements:

• Purposes: charitable purposes for the relief of poverty, sickness, and distress; the advancement of education, culture, and health; and the benefit of the community across Aotearoa.
• Trustees: minimum 3, maximum 7. Appointed for 3-year renewable terms.
• Powers: the board has full power to manage all aspects of the trust's affairs, including delegating to sub-committees and appointing paid staff.
• Distribution on dissolution: all assets must go to another NZ charitable purpose, not to any individual.

A copy of the trust deed is available on request, email tascanz@muskaancaretrust.org.nz.

How we make decisions

• Board meetings, monthly, with quarterly strategic reviews
• Sub-committees, Finance & Audit, Programmes, Risk & Compliance
• Annual General Meeting, open to members; usually August
• Consumer advisory input, major service decisions go through lived-experience advisors
• Conflict of interest register, maintained and reviewed annually

Annual reporting

We lodge with Charities Services each year:

• Annual return
• Audited financial statements (Tier 3 reporting standard)
• Performance information (services delivered, communities served)

All of these are publicly searchable at charities.govt.nz. Search "Muskaan Care Trust" or our number CC51234.

Policies

The following governance policies are available on request:

• Conflict of Interest Policy
• Safeguarding (Children & Vulnerable Adults) Policy
• Volunteer Code of Conduct
• Trustee Code of Conduct
• Risk Management Framework
• Privacy & Data Handling Policy
• Cultural Safety Framework