Get a conflict of interest policy your committee can actually use

Because many governance problems start with uncertainty about what should be disclosed, who should step back from a decision, and how the issue should be recorded. In a not-for-profit setting, conflicts can arise through family relationships, supplier connections, funding links, personal benefit, or overlapping roles in related organisations. A clear policy helps the committee deal with those situations more consistently. It also gives chairs and secretaries a practical reference point for meeting conduct, registers and minutes, rather than leaving each issue to be handled ad hoc.

It commonly covers what counts as an actual, potential or perceived conflict, when disclosures should be made, how they should be recorded, who decides the management steps, and whether the affected person can stay for discussion or voting. Many organisations also need rules about ongoing conflict registers, annual declarations, and what happens if a conflict is identified late. The exact content depends on how your organisation is governed in practice. A useful policy should fit the way meetings, delegations and approvals actually work, not just repeat generic governance language.

The drafting usually depends on your legal structure, whether you have members as well as a committee or board, how decisions are approved, and the kinds of relationships that commonly arise in your sector. For example, a small community group with volunteer committee members may face different conflict scenarios from a larger charity with funding partners, service delivery contracts or related entities. Existing constitutions, trust deeds or governance policies can also affect the wording. The aim is to produce a policy that works with your current governance documents rather than cutting across them.

Template wording often needs adjustment so it matches the actual transaction, workflow and risk allocation. However, it often stays too general to be useful when a real conflict arises. Templates may not line up with your constitution, your meeting procedures, or the way your organisation records decisions. They can also leave out practical points such as who maintains the register, how recurring conflicts are handled, or what happens where a committee is very small. A tailored policy is usually more workable because it reflects the governance structure and conflict patterns your organisation is actually likely to face.

Not automatically. This service is for the conflict of interest policy itself and the practical procedures that sit around that document. If your organisation also needs a broader governance review, constitution amendments, filing steps or ongoing representation, that would usually be separate work. Keeping the scope document-led helps make the fixed-fee clearer. If, during drafting, it becomes obvious that another governance document is causing the problem, we can flag that and discuss whether additional support would be worthwhile.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Conflict Of Interest Policy For NFPs service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.