Unprofessional leadership erodes charity ambition
Howard Lake | 8 May 2009 | News
London, UK – Britain’s charities need to get serious about effective leadership according to a new report by London-based charity consultancy and think tank, New Philanthropy Capital.
The UK’s charity sector consists of 170,000 charities and has an income of £33bn, managing assets of £86bn. It employs over 600,000 people meaning there are more charity workers than full-time teachers in England and Wales.
The report, Board matters: a review of charity trusteeship in the UK, looks at governance in the voluntary sector and concludes that recruitment, training and evaluation of board members is frequently under-resourced and ill-managed.
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‘We’ve seen the high cost of poor governance in the commercial sector and the charity sector needs to take heed,’ says Eleanor Stringer, co-author of the report. ‘Charities are part and parcel of UK life and to allow haphazard governance is potentially very damaging, especially in these difficult times.’
According to NPC, the role of a trustee is as central to a charity’s success as a director is to a business.
The report notes that recruitment of new trustees is getting harder and nearly half of all UK charities have vacancies on their board. Added to this, very few charities undertake performance reviews. The report also critiques the lack of diversity, noting that nearly half of all trustees are aged over 60.
‘Charities deserve the best people with the best skills,’ says report co-author Belinda Vernon. ‘If the government is serious about promoting volunteering it could consider giving employees time off to undertake voluntary tasks such as being a trustee,’ she added.
NPC estimates there are around 820,000 trustees of registered charities in the UK, but spending on governance by charities themselves remains low. Last year almost half of all charity boards received no training.
NPC is urging people to volunteer to sit on charity boards to encourage diversity of skills in the sector, that new trustees receive good inductions and for boards to be evaluated.
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For further information about NPC, its research reports and charity recommendations, or to arrange an interview please contact:
Email: me***@ph*****************.org Tel: +44 (0)207 785 6317 M: 07932 688 431 or M: 0789 6150396
Notes to Editors:
1. In order to get an understanding of the situation on the ground, NPC consulted with around 50 people who have experience of being or working with trustees, including:
• public bodies, such as the Charity Commission;
• third sector umbrella bodies;
• charity chief executives;
• trustees of charities;
• trusts and foundations; and
• organisations (such as law firms) providing services to trustee boards.
The research focused on trustees of operational voluntary sector charities, not on trustees
of grant-making charities, nor on school governors.
2. Case Studies of good boards
Cancer Research UK is the largest fundraising charity in UK, formed by the merger of the Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in 2002.
To ensure a healthy turnover and a mix of experiences, trustees have a term limit of three years, with the expectation of a second three-year term and the possibility of a third. The chair is limited to two terms of three years. Each trustee is formally appraised once in each three-year term, which forms part of the process leading to the decision on whether the board will recommend to the members that a trustee should be reappointed.
Trustees also have annual one-to-one meetings with the chief executive and with the chair. If a trustee attends fewer than two thirds of board and relevant committee meetings in a year, the individual will meet with the chair to discuss his or her attendance record and overall commitment.
Email: li********@ca****.uk
Edinburgh Cyrenians is a charity tackling homelessness in Scotland. It has grown significantly over the past ten years. The board recognised and planned for this growth, and realised it affected the trustees’ role. When the charity only had 12 staff, the board had to be quite involved with running the organisation, by supporting the staff and management. As the charity grew, the board needed to step back and be able to delegate more responsibility to staff, and begin to focus more on its governance role and the charity’s strategic direction. Working with the director, the chair encouraged the board to invest in the organisation’s infrastructure, building staff capability, and led the board in understanding its changing role. This improvement included the board reviewing its own performance.
Email: De*****@cy*******.uk Tel: 0131 475 2354
3. Emilie Goodall, 27, is one of a new breed of young trustees. She is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a child protection charity. Email: EG******@ca*******.org
4. New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) is a consultancy and a charity think tank that enables donors and charities to do good, better. Set up seven years ago, NPC’s team of consultants and analysts have built a wealth of experience in analysing charities; understanding social issues; and providing expert advice to a variety of donors, their advisors and, more recently, charities. NPC’s approach has been adopted by countries in far afield as Brazil, Canada, Estonia and Israel. With partners, including the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany and the Hewlett Foundation in the USA, NPC is helping to build an infrastructure to enable donors and charities to make good decisions and create the greatest impact through their work.
For further information see:
www.philanthropycapital.org.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.