NPC issues briefing on best practice in fundraising for trustees
Melanie May | 27 January 2017 | News
NPC has published a briefing paper on how trustees can support their charity’s fundraising.
Best Practice in Fundraising: A Guide for Trustees is the result of a seminar held by NPC and The Clothworkers’ Company last November that explored the role of trustees in charity fundraising.
Speaking at the event were: Ian MacQuillin, director of fundraising think tank Rogare, Rachel Bartholomeusz and Liz Jorden, trustees, Disability Challengers, and Gethyn Williams, director of development and engagement, Contact a Family, chaired by Sally Bagwell, deputy head of the charities team at NPC.
The paper summarises the Charity Commission’s six key duties for trustees as set out in last year’s reissued CC20 guidance, and explores how trustees can fulfil these duties, looking at why fundraising matters for trustees, the role they should play in fundraising, and how to best support best practice.
This includes advice for trustees on how to set their charity on the right course, with key points including the need to establish a clear and sustainable fundraising strategy, ensure best practice compliance, and implement clear policies around sensitive issues.
Other key points include the need for trustees to:
- Have a good understanding of the charity’s accounts
- Understand current perspectives on best practice
- Challenge the status quo where necessary.
- Act as an ambassador for the charity
- Ensure that the charity’s fundraising connects with its values and culture
- Provide support and constructive challenge
To this end, the seminar’s panelists recommend that trustees ask themselves ‘what does ‘good’ fundraising mean for our charity?’, including how beneficiaries are portrayed as well as how supporters are treated.
The risk management side of the trustee role is also discussed, with advice on how to accomplish this successfully, such as understanding the reason behind any high cost fundraising activities and their likely return, having a clear complaints policy, and where possible, having a diversified range of fundraising activities without spreading resources too thinly.
The paper also covers how to support fundraising staff, how to monitor any outsourced fundraising, and questions for trustees to consider.
The paper is available as a free download from the NPC site.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.