Governance Weekly for 17th November
The weekly roundup from VANEL on good governance, charity trusteeship and non-profit leadership. News, information, resources and ideas. Complemented by our monthly “View from the Top” e-newsletter (Trustee Network members only), our “aboutgovernance” online discussion space for leaders and trustees and our @aboutgovernance Twitter feed.
Last week was national Trustees’ Week and, unsurprisingly, there was a lot of news to report. It’s still worth taking a look back at our “Governance Weekly” column from last week here.
It’s particularly worth reading the materials coming from the Trustees’ conference in London at the start of last week.
Also of note was that the “Code of Good Governance”, which has long been a key resource for governance improvement and development in the sector, has been refreshed, updated and shared as a a new version of the Code (now called the “Charity Governance Code”) which is now out for consultation.
The consultation itself goes on until Feb 2017, but it’s now time for all boards and trustees to take a look at this new version and provide feedback. You can read all the background to the document and the consultation here, including links to the new code itself.
It’s Children in Need time again. A wonderful fundraising example for a serious and important cause. Hope you’re getting involved again. Children in Need is very open and transparent about where it’s income and spending goes and states that all fundraising goes direct to the good causes whilst their (considerable) overheads are met by other means. How does this stack up in your own organisation? How do you meet your overheads? Where does your donated funding go? How do you record and evidence this and share with your donors and supporters? There’s a really important dialogue to be had about openness, transparency, fundraising, evidence, overheads and more. A new Guardian article sums this up and details it well and should be read by all trustees.
Sir Steven Bubbs’ new Charity Futures initiative is going to be looking at better models of governance and openness that will contribute to this discussion, so we’ll be watching this with interest over the coming years. As a starter, they carried out a trustee survey recently and here’s 20 headline things they learned.
Also worth a quick read is this from the Guardian Voluntary Sector news – “Five questions that will make you a smarter trustee“.
Finally for this weeks news. It’s worth reminding ourselves that we need to aspire to have charities and non-profit organisations that do all the right things and do them well. So take some time to look over this report from NPC asking, “What makes a good charity?“. A section on this is of course on governance, but as a board and as trustees, perhaps we need to be considering how our charity or organisation would be able to answer these questions.
VANEL is Here to Help
A reminder that egistration on the AboutGovernance Trustee Network forum is now possible. The site is www.vanel.org.uk/aboutgovernance but to register contact Karl Elliott direct first (karl@vanel.org.uk). Open to trustees and board members for any VANEL Member or Friend organisations or for anyone aged 25 or below who is looking to move into a leadership role. On the site we share news, information, resources, ideas, thoughts and articles about anything related to governance, trusteeship or leadership. But the important bit is that this site enables comment, feedback and discussion. We’d love you to get involved – whether you’re new to Trusteeship and need to learn and ask questions, or are long experienced and would like to share ideas and knowledge and answer questions. Get in touch or visit the site to find out more.
To discuss governance, trusteeship or leadership, or to subscribe to the Trustee Network, please drop me a line.
Karl Elliott, Development Manager
www.vanel.org.uk/governance – for resources and information
www.theviewfromthetop.org.uk
www.youngleadersmatter.org.uk
www.vanel.org.uk/aboutgovernance