(painting JMW Turner, The Burning of the Houses of Parliament in 1834 at Tate Britain)
If you use me as a consultant and coach I might just tell you what's actually going on! Reassuringly, after I presented this missive, fully supported by the CEO I'd been coaching, the organisation pulled together to work with me on a new strategy, recruited some new trustees and is about to hold their first away day with the new board.
Combining Coaching with Consultancy gives clients more insight and better strategies for implementing new ideas from someone who has got your back.
Your Charity Governance
By Clare Bamberger sent by email 2024
Alert: this paper is unusually blunt, but my focus is what is best for Your Charity and my role as a consultant would be lacking in integrity if I were to hold back.
The situation
I have been working with Your Charity for the last few months on a developing a new strategy. Under current arrangements Your Charity risks no longer being “a going concern” in the relatively near future – three years at most, according to my broad-brush projection.
Over the course of the project, I have become more and more aware that the very hard-working Board of Trustees does not include trustees who have the basic business management skills needed to govern a charity effectively and to make best use of the company limited by guarantee.
It is incumbent on the Board to guide the executive, providing clear direction for the organisation and monitoring results and the use of resources. With only one staff member, Your Charity cannot hope to become a thriving, sustainable organisation in the absence of business experience such as finance, risk management, strategic direction and business planning among board members.
With a small board of only 4 people, it is not unusual to have a limited skill set. In Your Charity’s case the four trustees are all highly skilled in the purpose of the organisation (the cause) and each has a vision for how best to promote it – often in conflicting ways. Each trustee invests a huge amount of their own time volunteering to run Your Charity and each offers a unique perspective and effectiveness in their own field of expertise.
There is, however, no trustee with expertise in strategy, finance, governance, business management, communications, fundraising, marketing, HR or many of the other skills it is desirable to find on an effective board.
It is not in the best interests of anyone, least of all your beneficiaries for these skills to be missing at board level. An organisation that is stagnating or pulling in different directions will struggle to attract more trustees (and staff, when the time comes).
My recommendations
CREATE A SUSTAINABLE MODEL
1. Burning platform. You still have no clear strategy and have disagreed on your ultimate aims. If you do not agree soon on a clear direction and on a sensible business model that will bring in enough money, you cannot expect staff and the exec to manage the organisation well and to come up with a business plan to sustain and expand the activity. Focusing on a specific preferred activity rather than an activity as part of a strategic plan will not result in a sustainable model.
2. It is urgent to do a full board skills review and recruit trustees (or staff) who will enable Your Charity to function effectively. Your two new trustees fill some of the gaps but by no means all of them. The most urgent gap I see for now are finance and strategy, which would bring you skills to budget, report, manage risk and set clear directions and business model. A detailed three-year financial forecast based on the status quo would at least show you what the prognosis for funding and give you something to work from to improve the situation.
3. Without doing a full governance review you could improve the situation quickly by sorting out delegation of authority and signing off the different necessary policies. Without these the exec is working with one hand tied behind their back.
4. A light-touch governance review would highlight where you can focus your energies where they are most needed in improving how Your Charity is run and make longer term efficiencies for everyone.
Final remarks
Your Charity has the potential to play an important role in society for the good health of the public, and the professionals who treat them and I want to see it succeed! Operating the same way you have been will not make that happen. Neither your programme with another advisory organisation nor my intervention, has resulted in your agreeing on a model or even a general direction for the transformation that Your Charity needs.
The CEO and I will be working on a flexible business plan to save Your Charity, which will require budgeting and financial forecasting. We will be working out how much money and other resources you need to achieve your objectives over time. With little guidance on what those objectives are we will come up more with a template for a business plan than an actual plan for you.