Paying for consultancy services may be a daunting prospect in small-to-medium charities, where every penny is precious and results may be uncertain. I’ve been there. As a former-CEO of two charities, I’ve hesitated to bring external help in because I …
Shaky ground or firm foundation?: Understanding your charity’s governing document
Your charity’s governing document, or constitution, sets out your charity’s legal existence. But how well do you know what it says, and what that means for your charity? Understanding your governing document may not always be straightforward. If you’re lucky, …
A Trustee Policy: Why having one is essential to your charity’s success
Being a Trustee is challenging. Whether at a large or small charity, your official responsibilities are the same. In practice, the role varies enormously. Each charity also has a considerable breadth of choice about how its Board and Trustees carry …
Is your charity fighting fit?
Health Check Series Part 1 Through my work with small-to-medium charities, I have discovered: Most of the people involved in the charity are invaluable: hard-working, passionate and dedicated. The charity’s governance and organisational effectiveness are often not up to …
Nowhere to hide: how your Charity Commission Annual Report may be undermining your charity’s success.
Health Check series Part 2 For many small-to-medium charities, the Annual Report to the Charity Commission can be seen as simply another job to get out of the way so that you can get back to focusing on the ‘real’ …
Heading in the right direction: organisational effectiveness for small-medium charities
Health Check Series Part 3 Office policies, strategic plans, budgets and processes…these piles of paperwork can make many charity leaders feel like they are miles away from the causes that inspire them. That’s simply not true. If your organisation …
Your greatest asset: why charities need to meet best-practice HR standards
Health Check Series Part 4 People are a charity’s greatest asset. More than in the commercial world, staff working at charitable organisations are often driven by the need to make a positive difference. They are also usually willing to be …
Risk and reputation: are your charity’s finances in order?
Health Check Series Part 6 Say the words ‘budget’, ‘finances’ or ‘management accounts’, and most people’s attention starts to drift. Finances aren’t glamorous but, when it comes to charity accounting, they are of crucial importance. Charities are under particular …
Locking Horns: how to avoid conflict between the Board and staff
Health Check Series Part 5 Recent vitriolic pieces in the media (such as here and here) have demonstrated something that most people involved with small and medium–sized charities already know: there is often tension between the Board of Trustees and the CEO …
Sound as a pound: how robust fundraising practices will increase your charity’s success
Charity Health Check series part 7 It may seem a cliché, but fundraising is the lifeblood of charities. Small-to-medium charities have to be good at it to survive, but they can sometimes struggle with understanding both the regulations that …