News
Challenges and recommendations on charity governance.
Challenges to improving governance 1. Articulating a clear purpose and vision for the charity to focus and direct decision making. 2. Clear responsibility and ownership for critical matters within the Trustee Board. 3. The need for Charity Trustee Board members to have appropriate diversity of skills, thought and experience to provide effective leadership 4. Training of Charity Trustee Board members on matters tailored...
Building effective Trustee Boards
If you are a charity trustee or have been one I am sure you are as interested as I am in what makes an effective board. Every charity is different, every trustee is different and effective boards will look different in every organisation. Good governance comes from getting the balance between extremes, good...
UK benevolent funds hand out £216m as hardship grows.
As Chair of Trustees for both The Association of Charitable Organisation and the Smallwood Trust I was delighted to see the following article in The Guardian at the weekend. Return of pre-welfare state charities created to help struggling ‘gentlefolk’ as people fall through safety net. Benevolent funds – many created on a...
Charity2020 meeting - 17th March - BOOK NOW
Charity 2020 brings together senior people in the charitable sector to meet leading figures from this and other sectors to gain the benefit of their views on major topics of current interest. The next meeting is on Tuesday 17th March and our speaker Anne-Marie Piper, Senior Charity Partner at Farrers, will be sharing her insights. Meetings are held up to three...
Effective performance management - Individuals goals aligned to the Charities values
One of the golden rules when setting goals is to ensure that they are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. But being smart alone isn't necessarily enough to guarantee that your goals will be valuable to the charity and its staff. Additionally, goals should be: aligned with...
UK Social Sector Health Check Report
For Charity Bank's inaugural UK Social Sector Health Check report, they polled 182 social sector leaders to understand the challenges they face and to assess the impact of the current climate on the sectors ability to respond to the needs of people and communities. They invited guest contributors to share insights on the state of the sector, how political and Brexit uncertainty are impacting,...
Is safeguarding the new governance hazard?
The introduction of the Charity Governance Code (July 2017) was welcomed by the sector and endorsed and supported by the Charity Commission (the ‘Regulator’). In April 2018 a story broke revealing Save the Children mired in allegations that it had failed to investigate sexual abuse and inappropriate behaviour by staff and was to be formally investigated by the Regulator. In September...
Charity Health Check
As a Trustee or the CEO of a charity, there are lots of demands on your time and resources. Being confident that all aspects of the charity are functioning as they should means constant monitoring and adjustment. Conducting a charity health check is an easy way of examining all the key areas and developing an action plan to address...