Last week, an ignorant comment by a charity Trustee prompted me to write an article lamenting misguided attitudes towards charity sector experience in the sector, and urging those who feel this way to stay out of the sector. It was initially intended …
Tired of experts? The charity sector is not for you.
Earlier today, a charity Trustee I know said to me ‘we want to bring in someone with no experience or knowledge of the sector’. Thankfully I lack a brick wall in my office or I may have found myself pounding …
Lady Susan Hussey’s comments wouldn’t be out of place in many charities – so what can we do about it?
The recent reports about what Lady Susan Hussey said to Ngozi Fulani has – quite rightly – caused a furore. I think Mandu Reid has set it out best in her Guardian piece today (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/01/lady-hussey-resign-monarchy-race-remarks-institution), so I don’t need to …
Navigating the tricky path of charity CEO supervision
How do you supervise the leader of a charity effectively? If you’re a CEO or a Chair, chances are you’ve had to find your way along this challenging path. Many Boards and CEOs struggle with getting this right. Of course, …
The five people you’ll meet an an away day… which one are you?
Away days. Something is in the air as I have facilitated more away days in 2022 than I have in the past five years combined. Perhaps it’s the sense of a fresh start after the pandemic, but I’m finding myself …
Shannon Trust Interim Leadership Case Study
It was an unusual start to an interim role. Far from the ordinary meet and greet with the team, I found myself travelling up to Leamington Spa on 19 March 2020 to have coffee with the Chair on my first …
Improving impact in the equalities sector
My job – in a nutshell – is to help make charities work better. I restructure staff teams to better enable productive and collaborative working. I help charities identify and achieve strategic targets to allow them to expand into new …
How to be a better funder
Grants and trusts funders vary enormously. Some are very large, giving vast amounts each year (sometimes with innovative and supportive systems and structure in place – I’m looking at you, National Lottery Community Fund and Comic Relief). Some are extremely …
How smaller charities can benefit from interim leadership
Interim CEO posts can be a high-impact and effective use of resources for small-to-medium charities, but the opportunities are sometimes disregarded by smaller organisations due to the higher costs of skilled interim leaders. It may come from a somewhat biased …
Managing your stress in a charity role
I was running a strategic planning course recently and invited everyone to introduce themselves. One attendee described the organisation she chaired, which was a place for relaxing, stress-free, simple holidays. The entire room of stressed-out, overworked and tired charity staff …