An article by Deep South Media for HWB Chartered Accountants and Charisma Charity Recruitment.
POOLING RESOURCES: Independent charity consultant D'Arcy Myers says the biggest challenge for the Third Sector over the next two years will be efficiency.
He was speaking at the Charity Think Tank hosted by HWB Chartered Accountants and Charisma Charity Recruitment.
The round table event at the Southampton Harbour Hotel and Spa was attended by charity leaders and decision makers from across the region.
D’Arcy, who has 23 years’ experience working with charities at a senior level, helps boards and charities develop effective strategy, governance and strengthen the dynamics between the Chief Executive and Chairperson. He also steps in as an interim CEO where necessary – currently at Autism Hampshire – and is also Chair of Trustees for the ACO - The Association of Charitable Organisations, representing 120 benevolent charities and Chair of Trustees for the Smallwood Trust, and The Reef-World Foundation
He said: “More charities need to look at how they can partner and work with other charities and, indeed, more mergers. Utilising scarce resources in the best possible way and collaborating to provide solutions remains a great challenge.
“There is a real opportunity at present for charities to work more closely together in order to provide the best possible service to the people they support.
“One of the many things the sector is so good at is sharing, however, what they are not so good at doing is bringing things together and undertaking different actions towards the same goal – sort of a Venn diagram of partnership.
“The charity sector has always been really low on the number of charities that merge. A couple of the barriers to merging are two chief executives and the egos of trustees. I hope that can change.”
D’Arcy, director of his own company Consultdarcy Ltd, said the think tank was “a really good opportunity to sense check what you think you know. It’s reassuring to hear that other people are facing similar challenges”.
He added that challenges facing Autism Hampshire at the moment are the same for all charities working in social care, the underfunding in social care and staff retention..
“Our success is better engagement with local authorities and using the Care Act to back up what we are saying – councils are offering different percentages so we are working with the Autism Alliance to collate all of that and share it.
“We are working with local authorities to help them better understand the true cost of care.
“It’s really about good communication to ensure that resources are used in the best possible way.”
Often when charities are looking at their PR budgets and considering whether they should include media training, it is regarded as a “nice to have” rather than essential.
There are, however, several benefits to putting your senior leaders and experts through a programme of training, some obvious, some not:
When your charity has opportunities to promote itself in the media, if you have a trained a group of senior leaders and experts, you can have confidence that they will be able to talk about what you do in an engaging, interesting, compelling way.
Delegates learn how to take control of an interview, so they are not just answering the questions posed, but using each one as a springboard to deliver one of the charity’s key messages – and leading the journalist to ask the questions they want to answer.
Those who have been trained will be more aware of how to present information about the charity’s mission and campaigns in a way which resonates with an audience, using memorable stories, case studies and anecdotes, as well as evidence, to support your key messages.
If you plan to ask beneficiaries to give interviews as part of a campaign, media training can ensure they know what to expect, and give them the confidence to answer the questions posed.
Media training also teaches the importance of clarity and brevity when making your point. All too often, people’s most important messages get lost because speakers have the urge to elaborate and expand and elucidate – and generally say too much. We demonstrate how much more effective it is to make your point and then stop, so people have time to take it in – a benefit which can be used every time a spokesperson is talking about what you charity does.
Delegates will improve their delivery – in interviews and also when they are in meetings, on virtual calls, at conferences or giving other presentations. Our media training courses always include coaching in how to use your voice more effectively, and about body language and dress.
Every media training course should have a section on dealing with unexpected questions. These aren’t only asked when your charity is in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, they can be questions which asking you to comment on controversial issues, pushing you to make political judgements, or on topics which are unrelated to the subject of the interview. Whatever the reason, your spokespeople need to know how to respond elegantly and fluently, bringing the interview back to their safe ground and the points they want to make. These skills can be used, not just in interviews, but in the Q and A section of conference speeches, in meetings and when they are on panels.
When your charity is in the eye of a media storm, you need spokespeople who have had been taught techniques, such as bridging, to help them answer challenging questions, and who have the confidence to defend your charity and make your case. Media training courses can focus on this, and work on spokespeople’s responses.
Delegates learn about how the media operates and what journalists are looking for, which can be invaluable when communications teams are working on potential campaigns with both senior leaders and experts as it helps them understand what will work – and what will not.
And finally, clients often report that courses have been a real bonding and team–building experience and delegates have had a valuable opportunity to brainstorm, discuss and refine their strategies, ideas and key messages.
Media training has a wide range of benefits beyond simply learning how to answer questions and can come in all shapes and sizes. Courses can be for groups and one-to-one, be run face to face or remotely, can be combined with presentation skills training, can include sections on developing key messages or can focus solely on crisis interviews.
We must increase entry points into the voluntary sector
At the Charity Forum event last week Noama Chaudhry, Degree Apprentice, joined Sarah Vibert, CEO at NCVO, as our keynote speakers. Noama shares her experience and views:
A lot of the focus on diversity in the voluntary sector has rightly been on race, disability and also more recently on class. I also want to add age to this mix and suggest an intersectional approach to diversity, because to be truly representative of the communities we serve and create sustainable change, the voluntary sector must also attract more young people. I was 19 at the start of my apprenticeship. Three years later, I am still the youngest person in my organisation. With only 6% of employees in the voluntary sector being under 25 and less than 2% being 16-19, there is a significant lack of representation of younger generations in the workforce. Meanwhile, a quarter of staff in the voluntary sector are over 55. It is the same in charity governance too – just 3% of trustees are under 30.
In comparison, the private sector has double the proportion of people under 25 than the voluntary sector. A major cause of the better representation is the abundance of opportunities in the private sector compared to the voluntary sector. This means that the voluntary sector needs to create more entry points, such as alternative routes to typical education and provide work experience for students at school. An example of a school leaver programme is what I’m doing, a degree apprenticeship, where an apprentice can work at an organisation and study for a bachelor’s (or master’s degree) at the same time, paid for by their voluntary sector organization using the apprenticeship levy. This provides a more practical way to gain skills, provide support and gain a greater understanding of the sector.
The government has also recently introduced T-levels, which is a similar idea where the student gets 3-A-levels whilst working at your organization. Paid internships, graduate programmes and industry placements, all also fit into giving university students experience in the working world, which could be but aren’t currently very prevalent in the sector.
In this way, young people can learn knowledge, behaviours and skills that will help them navigate the future workforce, which is something that cannot be taught in a classroom but can only come through practical experience.
This is an effective way to attract and retain staff at a younger age by providing them with opportunities and a way to get their foot in the door, something that I have often heard is difficult to do particularly in the voluntary sector.
I would also say it is a low-cost high value return. For example many larger voluntary organisations need to pay an apprenticeship levy anyway and it adds capacity your organisation. Plus, these schemes are highly competitive and attract talent as there is not a lack of interest from younger people wanting to join the sector, but a lack of entry points from voluntary organisations.
By having these programmes, it increases social mobility and representation for the sector which means people from a wider variety of backgrounds are able to join, creating a more intersectional approach to diversifying the workforce. Indeed, in the scheme I am on, 80% of my cohort are from minority backgrounds and all were under 30 when they joined. These schemes are therefore an excellent way to enable new ideas and new approaches with a shift in perspective - at the moment whole pockets of society lack a voice in the sector so it is very important for cultural change. So, I hope to see the voluntary sector grab these opportunities and implement them in their organisations in the future and create a more diverse workforce.
If you would like to attend future Charity Forum events and join the discussion please sign up HERE. It is free to join and attend.
Good governance is all about ensuring the right people are in the right place at the right time with the right information and asking the right questions to make the best possible decisions.
I think this is a good rule of thumb to use in thinking about how your governance procedures are performing and what you can do to improve them.
Right people:
Do the people making the decisions have the right expertise?
Is there a diversity of perspectives to prevent groupthink?
Are they able and confident to ask the right questions?
Do you have a suitable number of people – not too many, but not too few – for the really big decisions?
Right place: the room (actual or virtual) is important because it can make a real difference in how decisions are made. The foundations should be in place to ensure meetings are productive or that information flows work well and support doing the right thing.
Right time: You need to make sure discussions to formulate, refine, recommend or approve decisions are held at the best point in time. Too late in the decision-making process, and there will be a reluctance to turn down poor proposals because of the time and effort already incurred. Too early, and the risk is that proposals are not fully developed and risks are not properly assessed, letting through impractical ideas or resulting in you having to come back to the same decision, again and again, to get it right.
You also need to make sure there is sufficient time to consider a proposal properly, both in the time available in meetings you may have to discuss it, but also in the time provided to decision-proposers and decision-makers to evaluate and respond. While deadlines are helpful in making sure decisions are made when they need to be, they need to be set so people have sufficient time to think.
Just as importantly, time needs to be valued. Are you using people’s time effectively, making sure that decisions are being made or approved at the right level so that they have enough time for the most important decisions? Use the 80:20 rule to focus on the 20% of decisions with the most impact, and minimise the time spent on the 80% that aren’t so critical.
Right information: Good governance lives or dies by the quality of information that forms the basis on which you make decisions. The information must be of high quality and transparent, setting out pros and cons, and – most importantly – be understandable and focused.
Right questions: I think asking the right questions is the most important element of any governance framework. Do decision-makers really understand what is going on? What is important to know? Who should I be talking with to get the answers? If you don’t ask the right questions, you are not going to get the right answers, or you might be satisfied with superficial information that doesn’t tell you what you really need to know. Ask questions that establish the facts, enable you to challenge and scrutinise, identify risks, prompt a thorough discussion, and aid and assure decision making.
Most importantly, you need to foster a culture where it is okay to ask questions, sometimes even the seemingly stupid ones. You may not have thought of the right question, but someone else may have if only they felt confident enough to ask it.
Making the best decisions you possibly can involves rigorously evaluating what you have done so that you can do better in the future. Are you continually appraising the decisions you have made, not only to learn from mistakes but also to learn from successes? Are you getting the right answers from the process that is your system of governance?
This is where the quality of oversight comes into its own. Are your formal structures playing their full role in challenging management to be the best you can be, both at the top level and also down through the organisation?
Continuous improvement is key, as processes are never perfect. Are you actively seeking to improve the quality of the decision-making? If key meetings are rushed, curtailing the opportunity for proper discussion of the merits of important decisions, can they be extended or less important items moved to a different forum?
Making sure you have a code of governance in place is important, but it isn’t enough on its own.
Trustee boards need to live and breathe governance for it to be effective. Otherwise, your code will be just another document gathering electronic dust in the far reaches of your website. Enough to tick a box to say you have one, but not nearly enough to help you steer clear of avoidable disasters.
During the pandemic, I am proud to have been the Chair of Trustees of the Smallwood Trust as we decided to address the twin challenges of growing poverty among women and falling income for women-led community groups by accelerating our Community Grant Partnerships.
These combine block funding including 20% for overheads with strategic support for organisations, which then distribute direct grants of up to £700 to individuals as well as providing advice around services.
By April this year we had expanded the model to 29 partnerships across England. 27%of which are BAME-led groups. Since 2018 £2m has been devolved to Community Grant Partnerships and in 2020 Smallwood’s funding supported 19,000 women to pay their rent and buy essential items, a 600% increase on 2019.
We were shortlisted for our Community Grant Partnership programme at this year’s Charity Awards and won the award in the Grantmaking and Funding category.
Matt Nolan, CEO of Civil Society Media which organises the Charity Awards, congratulated Smallwood Trust on winning the award. He said: “The standard of entries this year was as high as ever, despite the challenges that the sector has faced during the pandemic – so Smallwood Trust should be very proud to have won their category. Their programme has delivered great results.”
On receiving the award Paul Carbury, our CEO, said: “I’d like to thank our Board for their foresight in devolving around 30% of the grants budget to local women’s groups who know best to spend that money. Most importantly, we want to share this award with our Community Grant Partners who are enabling women to be financially resilient, keeping women safe from harm and violence and supporting them on a range of issues from housing to employability skills, in the face of so many challenges through COVID and the cost of living crisis.”
Covid and the cashless society from the perspective of small charities
An conversation with Neil Oliver on his Saturday program on GBNews about covid, the cashless society and charities.
When I was approached to be on Neil Oliver’s Saturday evening program on GBNews to talk about the pandemic and the cashless society from the perspective of small charities my first thought was to ask some the charities I know what it has meant to them.
Although I heard this sentiment time and again one military charity summed it up very succinctly “Covid has been savage for us from a staff morale point of view.”
For smaller organisations a move to cashless has been all about maintaining the interpersonal relationship. Their reliance on volunteers and on informal networks to support the ongoing operation is generally vital. Some charities will take advantage of the opportunities of digital and have also geared up for a return to "normal operation". However, some will be slow to open up. The disruption in viability, or growth, plans, and the need to re-establish or build new relationships with funders, and in a new working environment, will be a challenge for all particularly, perhaps, for those without deep pockets or significant in-house skills.
Some of the recommendations I heard were for small charities set up Facebook Fundraising (if they haven't already) and encourage their supporters to create event themselves, such as Walk 50 miles in May or Swim 20k in June. These challenge events work well on Facebook and a lot of people who take part, don't have a connection to the cause - they just want to take on the challenge. Facebook doesn't charge a platform or processing fee either.
Regarding the cashless society, one residential charity I spoke with told me that there has been minimal impact to how they work other than a positive one resulting from asking their residents during the pandemic to pay their service charge electronically rather than in cash. This obviously reduced the need for personal contact or cash handling during the worst of the pandemic. They also found that the switch from cash to electronic has significantly reduced arrears of service charge payments. They said that this is very important to their clients' ultimate wellbeing, as in order to move on into independent accommodation in the community, they need to demonstrate their ability to handle their money and not rack up service charge arrears.
Covid has meant that many charities have had to adapt services quickly during the early lockdown stages, which for some has had an ongoing positive impact. For example, the development of a webchat system to enable the charity to continue to support their clients remotely rather than face-to-face when they needed to reduce personal contact. Changes like this have, of course, been a challenge in obtaining additional funding to purchase technology such as smartphones and tablets or laptops whether that be for clients or staff who have had to work remotely.
For some other charities the impact has been less positive and has particularly affected small charities championing less mainstream causes or causes that have been particularly excluded from emergency funding during the pandemic, animal welfare charities for example - who might traditionally rely on in-person fundraising - such as events.
It is worth noting that many volunteer-led small charities don’t have a dedicated fundraising person, or a finance person, or even someone qualified to investigate collecting cashless payments for example. One person I spoke with told me that lots of small charities have had issues with registering on online platforms
To sum up. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has stimulated a large and sustained increase in cashless giving which is likely to stay. This is likely to include:
· More digital and hybrid fundraising events.
· Continued growth of social media fundraising.
· Giving through websites and apps, including crowdfunding sites. QR codes have become the norm for many during the pandemic.
· Increased availability and use of contactless card donation points.
Benefits for charities:
· Online giving encourages Gift Aid.
· Higher donation amounts.
· Data capture to enable stewardship through website and platform donations.
· Donors are getting younger so opportunity to engage Gen Z.
· Contactless can provide charities a uniquely powerful ask – e.g. tap to donate points on charity shop windows.
· Less resource heavy (processing of donations).
Barriers, particularly for small charities:
· Skilling up of staff and volunteers.
· Financial resources needed for set up costs – for example cashless collection boxes, contactless donation points, GivePanel for Facebook data.
· Initial ROI if not investing at scale.
· Contactless donations are anonymous so the challenge of anonymity.
· The move away from face-to-face events and giving limiting the charites ability to engage with donors.
An introduction on how video can help tell your not-for-profit story.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that video is becoming more used in the third sector. If you’re a communications officer or in charge of marketing for a charity or nonprofit, you’re likely aware that nonprofits of all shapes and sizes are now utilizing video formats more regularly than ever before and receiving great results. So what are some concrete ways you can benefit from using video in nonprofit communications?
Recently I met Emily Kay Stoker: ex-digital marketer and current founder of a video production company with 10+ years of experience. Emily has been helping to tell stories through video for nonprofits and brands promoting social good alongside her team of female filmmakers since 2018.
Emily has kindly written the following article. It will to help give you video ideas for your nonprofit to improve their communication efforts. Whether you have limited experience with video and tapping into the format seems overwhelming, or you’re looking for ways to spice up your nonprofit communication efforts, this article has you covered.
How can video help your nonprofit’s communications?
Video is a powerful storytelling tool that connects the viewer in a way other content types struggle with. Unlike written content, visuals and audio immerse and engage your desired audience. The internet agrees - according to digital marketing industry leader Sprout Social, video is shared twice as much as any other content. It’s no wonder algorithms on social media platforms and search engines are favouring video.
Additionally, consider video’s ability to communicate the story that you are trying to tell. Research shows that our brains are made to retain stories rather than facts and figures, as outlined in this article from the Guardian about the science of storytelling in digital marketing. Whether it’s a personal profile that shows the impact of your charity’s work, or a fun animation that explains the significance of some of the numbers behind your work. Video’s power to engage you in a narrative that adds meaning to a stream of facts or numbers is undeniable.
1 Nonprofit Social Media Video Content
Film based on our research on how working conditions and cultures are affecting junior doctors’ mental health. Follow participant Charlotte’s experience with depression as a junior doctor.
A simple starting point for your nonprofit video ideas is social media content. Open up your social media platform of choice and start to scroll. How long did it take you to come across a video? That’s no accident. Most platforms are pushing their creators to publish more video content, because it’s more likely to keep users on their platform.
This is useful to know for nonprofit communication officers to know in order to better engage your audience and compete with other organisations for your audience’s attention. Perhaps you’re communicating an important campaign or maintaining trust with your audience as an authority on your subject. Whatever the occasion, video is currently the best way to increase your reach and engagement on most social media platforms.
The tweet above shows social media video content commissioned by a research team at the University of Birmingham. This short film about the mental health of junior doctors used Twitter to gain shares and mentions on social media. It organically gained dedicated press coverage, and thousands of views within 24 hours of publication. The link on the tweet drove viewers to a longer version of the video on the university website. Video production courtesy of Emily Kay Stoker.
2 Fundraising Campaign Video for your nonprofit
Algorithms aside, charity fundraising video campaigns can have some very real benefits. What better way to connect with a potential donor and actually show them the problem you’re solving through your nonprofit’s video? Video can be an elegant tool to demonstrate what an incredible impact your solution has had so far by showing it to them in action. It leaves less up to the imagination and can help people connect on a very human level.
Plus, let’s not forget the research linking storytelling to an audience’s improved memory of important facts and figures as stated earlier. When you keep this in mind, the video ideas for your nonprofit really are endless.
Godmanchester Baptist Church and Community Centre commissioned this short documentary from Emily Kay Stoker to highlight stories of those benefiting from their services. It accompanied their fundraising applications for renovations including fixing their roof. The fundraising campaign film successfully helped to raise nearly six figures.
3 Nonprofit Video Case Studies
You don’t need me to tell you the power of sharing case studies for end of project reports, new fundraising campaigns, and sustained donor or audience engagement. So imagine how their impact could improve if your intended audience can hear the emotion in the voice of someone your project has helped, or see the stark before and after of a construction your nonprofit facilitated. Arguably it’s the next best thing to showing it to them in person and letting your audience speak to the people who benefit from your nonprofit’s work directly.
4 Introduction Video for Nonprofits
Let’s go back to basics. Is it already clear what your charity or nonprofit does for a new person who comes across it? Are you sure? Whether it’s a member of the public, a potential high ticket donor, or even an industry stakeholder - you need your main activities and purpose to be clear from the start. A nonprofit introduction video is a clear, efficient solution to communicate the core mission and activities of your organisation.
Sometimes simple messages like this are the most challenging to communicate. We can become so entrenched in the work of our nonprofit that it’s easy to lose sight of what newcomers might understand if they stumble across our work. While many actors in the third sector choose to communicate this through copy, it could be a smart investment to explain your nonprofit’s story so far through a short film that can be embedded on all of your important platforms and used at events.
The above example from the Esmee Fairburn Foundation successfully encapsulates so much of the work the foundation does and holds a prominent position on their website’s homepage. Six minutes is quite long for online attention spans, but questions like video length can also depend on your association’s objectives.
Nonprofit annual report videos could help the age-old challenge of making end of year results as engaging as possible. Rather than needing to read through pages of numbers and facts, complex concepts and lists of numbers can be made visual and easier to digest and remember. Storytelling aside, seeing visual representations of statistics is an innovative way to turn them into something an audience can comprehend.
The above Emily Kay Stoker annual highlight charity video commissioned by Little Angel Theatre is a sneak peek into the potential of this format.
Key takeaways
As you can see, tapping into the power of video for your nonprofit is about more than viral cat memes. Here are some of the key things covered in this article:
It’s proven that humans are better at remembering key facts when delivered through stories. Video can be an elegant solution for this.
If you’re utilising social media, you should be using video when appropriate to optimise your reach and engagement.
Video can gaze right into the eyes of your potential donors. If you can touch their hearts, they’re more likely to reach into their pocket and contribute.
Consider using video to help your audience conceptualise numbers and complex ideas on your reports.
Case studies can be elevated with video because of the format’s power to communicate emotion and impact.
Simple, efficient messaging can be achieved through video, particularly for fundamental communications like what your nonprofit does.
Now you have a wealth of video ideas for your nonprofit, you might be asking yourself how you can get started. My video production website blog might address some of your questions, or visit the contact page via that link to say hello. I’m happy to see what questions you have directly.
This year my personal New Year’s resolution is not to buy any new clothes, with the exception of pants, and to make do with what I have or find it in a charity shop. I've made this decision as one of the biggest contributors to global warming is the manufacturing and transportation of clothing.
According to figures from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), it takes 3,781 liters of water to make a pair of jeans, from the production of the cotton to the delivery of the final product to the shop. That equates to the emission of around 33.4 kilograms of carbon equivalent.
If that is for just one pair of jeans, imagine the environmental cost for everything in our wardrobes. The following statistics, published by the UNEP and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, give us an idea:
Every year the fashion industry uses 93 billion cubic meters of water — enough to meet the consumption needs of five million people.
Around 20 % of wastewater worldwide comes from fabric dyeing and treatment.
Of the total fibre input used for clothing, 87 % is incinerated or disposed of in a landfill.
The fashion industry is responsible for 10 % of annual global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. At this pace, the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions will surge more than 50 % by 2030.
If demographic and lifestyle patterns continue as they are now, global consumption of apparel will rise from 62 million metric tons in 2019 to 102 million tons in 10 years.
Every year a half a million tons of plastic microfibers are dumped into the ocean, the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles. The danger? Microfibers cannot be extracted from the water and can spread throughout the food chain.
From a work perspective, I have sometimes become wasteful of time. As we normalise working remotely we have adapted to Zoom etiquette and sat still from one meeting to the next. Not ignoring the damage this might be doing to our health both physically and mentally have we become more efficient in those meetings? I suspect not so my New Year's resolution for work is to have more effective meetings. I have created, with the help of Meetings for Dummies this infographic.
The Panasonic Trust is a charitable trust formed in 1984 to mark 10 years of successful manufacturing in the UK. The Trust is the responsibility of the Trustees who are proposed either from the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) or from Panasonic, however the day-to-day operation of the trust and its activities are managed by the RAEng. While the Trust bears Panasonic’s name, it is a fully independent charitable trust with some of the trustees being nominated by the company.
The stated objective of the Trust is ‘the advancement of education and training in engineering’, and it is the responsibility of the Trust’s trustees to ensure this objective is met.
In their endeavours to meet this objective, the trust has undertaken a project which encourages school children to take the qualifications that would enable them to take up engineering as a future career. Using links already being nurtured by the Panasonic nominated trustees the location chosen for this was the Welsh Valleys. As a relatively deprived area and with a history of traditional engineering, the Welsh Valleys was also seen as an ideal area to focus on by the RAEng building on the model of previous schemes set up successfully in other deprived areas.
The Welsh Valleys Engineering Project (WVEP) was set up and launched in 2018. The Trust committed to funding it for a minimum of 5 years.
The Trust currently wants to recruit a trustee to undertake the role of the treasurer to monitor the financial administration of the charity and report to the board of trustees at regular intervals on its state of financial health, in line with best practice, and in compliance with the governing document and legal requirements.
Trustees meet twice a year via Zoom.
The Trustee does not have a website so I am happy to support them. If you would like to know more please email me directly.
The Getting On Board Festival of Trusteeship was stuffed with useful tips for trustees and aspiring trustees. I am proud to be a trainer for Getting On Board. We have rounded up a few of our favourites to share with you here.
8 ways to correct an imbalance of power on your board of trustees
Those who are already on boards have more power than those who don’t. So power-sharing is bringing people on boards who aren’t currently there.
Use your position: reflect on the imbalance and acknowledge it.
Don’t create a differential between the value of lived experience and learned experience. They’re not binary.
Check who holds the balance of power. Two-tier boards are toxic!
Conduct board evaluations to see how the dynamic and culture is working.
The chair should make sure that the quieter voices are being brought to the fore.
Who speaks first has a big impact on the direction of the debate. Make sure it’s not always the same people.
For those experiencing a deficit of power, draw your confidence from your passion for the mission – it’s your yard, own it!
11 ways trustees can support their CEO
Be an ambassador for the charity - that’s invaluable.
Be committed. Hold the beneficiaries of the charity in mind.
Open your networks. You don’t have to be rich to be generous.
Don’t micromanage your CEO!
Be a strategic thought partner.
Know the difference between governance, strategy and operations.
Make time to have in-person conversations with your CEO – as them what they need from you.
As a chair you have a responsibility to indicate to the other trustees how and where they can help the CEO.
If you need to challenge, take it offline (Side note, a good challenge phrase is: ‘Do you think we’re on track for …’).
Roll your sleeves up and get stuck in.
Be a sponge, learn as much as you can!
The above power tips came from the panel discussion Generating discussion: power-sharing and participation on boards an illuminating discussion which threw up myriad thoughts and opinions, some of which didn't always see eye to eye!
The CEO support tips came from panel discussion CEO and Board - the critical relationship and what it means for you.
