Room for improvement?
Board matters, a report on charity trusteeship by Belinda Vernon and Eleanor Stringer at New Philanthropy Capital...
...suggests that the problems of charitable governance remain ‘largely hidden from view’. The report claims ‘We know that UK charitable trusteeship is not up to scratch because charities and funders say so. All the experts we consulted felt that most boards still had lots of room for improvement. As one funder put it, “If we insisted on good standards of governance, then we wouldn’t give so many grants”.’
The authors believe that recruitment of new trustees is getting harder (apparently nearly half of charities have vacancies on their boards), few have adequate induction for new trustees and few even undertake performance reviews – or are ever held to account. However, they conclude that attempts to improve boards should use carrots and not sticks ‘with increased information, education and support for bodies trying to create change’.
Charity Trustee Networks (CTN) maintain that while the responsibilities for charities are important and must be understood, all too often the good things about being a trustee are underestimated and ignored. The body explains: ‘We are concerned that the current focus may be contributing to potential trustees because the majority of what they hear about the role is negative’. Their own research of trustees on positive aspects of the role yielded 200 responses. Nearly 70 per cent confirmed that a big plus was having skills and experiences valued by the charity of which they were trustees, with nearly 60 per cent confirming they had acquired new ones during the course of their tenure.
Rodney Buse, CTN’s chair told Caritas: ‘the work of NPC should be seen in perspective. Many trustees are doing their best. 2,500 appointments per week on average is a pretty stunning figure but there is no doubt that the greater support identified in the NPC report would help increase their effectiveness.’ He calculates this on the basis of 927,000 appointments, serving for seven to eight years on average equals an average of 2,500 per week and points out that the 820,000 trustee total highlighted in the NPC report is equal to 2 per cent of the UK adult population.
www.philanthropycapital.org
www.trusteenet.org.uk
Author: Clarissa Dann
Clarissa Dann was the editor of Caritas as well as an HR and management online service,he People Bulletin until July 2011.
She is now the editor of the specialist trade finance magazine, Trade and Forfaiting Review which can be viewed at www.tfreview.com but does write on charity finance and investment from time to time.
Clarissa has a background in legal and professional publishing, as well as business journalism and holds an MBA from
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