Charity elections, run online, in minutes.
Trustee and board elections, AGM resolutions, constitutional changes and member consultations. One platform, a secret ballot where you need one, and an audit trail behind every result. Built for UK charities, CIOs, trusts and community groups.
- Trustee elections by secret ballot, with candidate statements
- Constitutional changes counted to the majority your governing document requires
- Members vote from anywhere, on any device, with postal alongside if needed
- Free to register, free up to five voters, then priced per election
- UK hosted, ICO registered, your logo on the ballot
What do charities use online voting for?
Mostly the things the governing document makes you do. Electing trustees when terms end. Putting the accounts and the auditor or independent examiner to the AGM. Changing the constitution, which usually needs a bigger majority than a show of hands can safely prove. And then the things a good board does anyway: asking members what they think before a big decision, electing regional or branch representatives, running a members' poll on a new name or a merger. Choice Voting does all of it from one login, for a charity with forty members or forty thousand.
Govern the charity. Hear from the members.
Your constitution tells you which votes you must run. Your members tell you which ones you should. The same platform handles both.
Votes that stand up to scrutiny
For the secretary, the chair and the governance lead who need an election that is secret, properly counted and defensible if a member, an auditor or the Commission ever asks.
- Trustee, board and officer elections by secret ballot
- AGM resolutions: accounts, auditor, re-appointments
- Constitutional and articles changes counted to your threshold
- STV, instant runoff or first past the post, your rules decide
Ask members before you decide
For the chief executive, the membership team and trustees who want a real mandate rather than a guess at what the members think.
- Member consultations on strategy, mergers, names and fees
- Branch, regional and volunteer representative elections
- Surveys and polls, open or anonymous, your choice
- Results and participation you can report back to members
Built around how charities are governed.
Charity governance is not one set of rules. It depends on what kind of charity you are and what your governing document says. The platform is flexible enough to follow yours, and rigorous enough that the record stands up afterwards.
Constitution, articles or trust deed
Sets who the members are, who can stand, how long trustees serve, what majority a resolution needs and whether the vote must be secret.
How Choice Voting helps: eligibility, seats, ballot type, counting method and pass threshold are all set per vote, so the election follows your document rather than the other way round.
Board effectiveness and renewal
The Code asks boards to have a planned approach to trustee recruitment and turnover, and treats nine years as the point at which continued service needs a proper justification.
How Choice Voting helps: regular, well run trustee elections with candidate statements and a clean result make renewal routine instead of awkward.
Openness and accountability
The Code expects charities to be open about how decisions are made and to give members and beneficiaries a real say where the structure allows for one.
How Choice Voting helps: a consultation with a published result and a participation figure is evidence of listening. A conversation at the AGM is not.
If it is ever questioned
Disputes about charity elections tend to surface later, when a decision the new board made is challenged and someone asks whether the board was properly elected.
How Choice Voting helps: every vote produces a timestamped audit log and a downloadable results report. You keep it with the minutes and it is there when you need it.
This is general information about how charities in England and Wales are commonly governed, not legal advice. Your governing document and, where relevant, Charity Commission guidance take precedence. Check with your own advisers before relying on any of it.
A show of hands from the twelve people who turned up is not a mandate.
When trustees are elected by whoever made it to the AGM, the result is only as good as the turnout. Put the vote online and the whole membership can take part, wherever they are, and the result comes with a record.
Example results
Trustee Election, two seats
Constitution Amendment
Every charity vote, in one place.
From a formal trustee election to a quick poll on the summer fundraiser, each one runs on the same platform and leaves the same record.
Trustee and Board Elections
Elect trustees by secret ballot with candidate statements, multiple seats and the counting method your constitution names.
AGM Resolutions
Adopt the accounts, appoint the auditor or independent examiner, re-appoint officers. Results the moment voting closes.
Constitutional Changes
Put an amendment to the members and count it against the majority your governing document requires, reported as passed or not passed.
Mergers, Names and Big Decisions
When the board needs to know the membership is behind it before it commits, a proper consultation gives a mandate you can quote.
Branch and Regional Representatives
Federated charities elect regional reps, branch officers and committee members to the same standard as the national board.
Member and Volunteer Surveys
Ask members and volunteers what they think, anonymously if you prefer, and report the answers back to them.
Set up a vote in minutes.
Trustee election or members' poll, it is the same four steps. No training course, no consultant.
Choose the type
Election, resolution, consultation or survey. Add the candidates or the question, pick the counting method and any threshold.
Add your members
Upload your membership list and set who is eligible, exactly as your governing document defines it.
Open the vote
Your logo on the ballot. Invitations and reminders go out for you. Members vote on any device, with postal alongside if some do not use email.
Get the result
Live result when voting closes, a downloadable report and a full audit log to keep with the minutes.
Everything a charity needs. Nothing held back.
No plans, no tiers, no features you have to pay extra to unlock. The price is worked out from the number of voters, and that is it.
Secret ballot or open vote.
Trustee elections get a true secret ballot. Consultations can be open or anonymous. You choose per vote.
Thresholds for special resolutions.
Set the majority your governing document requires and the platform reports passed or not passed against it.
STV, IRV and first past the post.
Multi seat trustee elections usually want STV. Single seats want IRV. The Election Wizard helps you pick.
Nominations built in.
Run the nomination stage online first, collect candidate statements, then go straight to the ballot.
Postal alongside online.
Members who do not use email are not left out. Postal votes come into the same count.
Eligibility you control.
Full members, associate members, branch members: each vote goes to exactly the right people.
Your logo on the ballot.
Members see your charity, not ours.
UK hosted and secure.
Encrypted, UK hosted and ICO registered. Member data and votes stay confidential.
Full audit trail.
Every ballot, vote and result logged and timestamped, downloadable if a result is ever challenged.
Trusted where the result has to be right.
Choice Voting has run elections, resolutions and consultations for charities, membership bodies, unions and schools across the UK for fifteen years.
Charity elections online: what people ask us.
Try it before your next AGM
Register free, build the trustee election or the resolution exactly as you would run it, and only pay when you are ready to launch it to real members. If you would rather we ran the whole thing for you, we do that too.
- Free to register, no card needed
- Build and test the full election before paying
- Your logo on the ballot from day one
- A managed service if you want it taken off your hands entirely
Not sure which counting method?
Most constitutions do not say. Our Election Wizard asks a few plain questions about the seats and the candidates and tells you which method fits, then sets it up.
See how the Election Wizard works →Two minutes, no jargon.Give your members a vote they trust.
Trustee elections, AGM resolutions, constitutional changes and consultations. One platform, one audit trail, every result you can stand behind.