• Amnesty International UK
• Oxfam
• Save the Children

 These are household charity names. Great charity profiles. Instant recognition through great reputations. Great charities. Until something goes badly wrong.

Trust and reputation                

Charities such as these form the fabric of our society. …

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Congratulations to the Kids Company charity trustees for fighting off the High Court Director Disqualification proceedings . Congratulations also to its charity CEO Camila Batmanghelidjh who faced similar criticism. But isn’t finding out what went wrong with Kids Company’s charity governance more important?

The court case

The court case was all about the honesty and competence of the Kids Company charity trustees and whether the public should be protected from them in future. So their personal fitness to hold office …

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Leadership If your charity has adopted the Charity Governance Code you will know the importance of a Charity Trustee Board in providing the strong leadership so essential to your charity’s effectiveness and well-being. The key leadership players will be your charity’s Chair and its senior employee, the charity’s CEO. Their good working relationship is fundamental to the effective delivery of your charity’s objects and to maintaining your charity’s ethos, vision and reputation.

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Helen Taylor Thompson was an inspirational charity trustee -

• in establishing Europe’s first Aids hospice
• by founding a charity to educate people in developing countries about Aids
• and by founding a charitable network of social entrepreneurs committed to tackling social problems through business.

The Mildmay Early in her career, Helen joined the board of the Mildmay Mission Hospital in London. Helen, then as a charity trustee, pioneered The Mildmay to become Europe’s first hospice for people with Aids-related illnesses. It …

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Taking charity minutes - for trustee and other key meetings - may seem a hum-drum task. Maybe so, but proper minute-taking is vital - as the trustees of Marie Stopes International recently found out to their embarrassment.

Public outcry

Marie Stopes International provoked public outcry by its decision to award its chief executive a £434,500 pay package. The Charity Commission asked the charity’s trustees to explain their decision and in particular how they weighed up its inevitable impact on the …

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Here is some practicaladvice to help your charity survive the Coronavirus crisis.

1. In times of trouble, think positive.
2. Above all, look after your beneficiaries and look after your staff.
3. Remember your charity’s reputation matters - do to others as you would be done by.
4. If you have fund-raised for an event that is not going to happen, refunds may be necessary. But try asking your individual donors, who may well be happy to stand by their donations.
5. For cancellations …

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“Succession planning” for your trustee board may sound daunting.  And it might feel like an item on your never-ending To Do List which can surely wait.

But it can be a straight-forward part of your charity’s annual governance cycle.  It’s  the key to your charity’s sustainability, continuity and long-term success. 

A small investment in forward planning can do wonders in stopping the wheels from falling off when a key player needs to withdraw.  And neither do you want anyone to …

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Who's in charge of a charity?  The answer is always “the Trustees”, right?  Unfortunately, things are sometimes less straightforward than you'd hope.

It’s elementary to most charity trustees that their Governing Document is their charity’s “bible”. Pretty much every charity trustee knows its Governing Document sets out what the charity is about, how the charity is run, who are the people in charge and how they get to be the people in charge. So it really matters.

It's your Governing …

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