Transparency and accountability in the nonprofit sector are more important than ever – Carmichael
– Carmichael opens applications for the Good Governance Awards 2024 –
Transparency and accountability are vital for any nonprofit to build and maintain public trust. That’s according to Carmichael, who launched the opening of applications for their Good Governance Awards 2024 today (11.06.24).
Now in its ninth year, the Good Governance Awards recognise and encourage adherence to responsible governance and transparent reporting by nonprofits in Ireland. Each year, more than 100 nonprofit organisations enter their annual report and financial statements into the awards to be assessed under the criteria of transparency, governance, strategy, and financial information. In 2023, the 7 Good Governance Awards Winners ranged from NiteLine, an out-of-hours peer support service for third level students which has an annual income of just over €44,000, to Trócaire, an international social justice organisation with an annual income of more than €93 million.
Commenting after the 2023 Awards, Helen Nolan, CEO at Spraoi agus Spórt who were winners of Category 3, said “This award is a reflection of the professionalism and the strive for excellence within Spraoi agus Spórt, especially in terms of our governance. I’m absolutely delighted for our board who devote so much time to Spraoi agus Spórt to make sure that we are governed in the best way that we possibly can be and also for our staff and our volunteers who always go the extra mile in their work and to do their best for Spraoi agus Spórt.”
Speaking today, Diarmaid Ó Corrbuí, CEO of Carmichael and Founder of the Good Governance Awards, said, “The Good Governance Awards raise the quality of corporate governance in our sector by encouraging higher standards of good practice in annual reports. Expert feedback is provided to all entrants on how to improve the quality of their annual reports. This helps to ensure our sector is meeting best practice, constantly improving and communicating appropriately to its stakeholders.
“This year we are especially encouraging applications from the diverse range of organisations working in the nonprofit sector. We welcome applications from all areas – from arts and sports to homeless services and youth organisations. Due to the growing profile of the Good Governance Awards, we expect to see our highest number of applications ever this year.”
How to Enter
Any nonprofit organisation in Ireland, whether a charity, Company Limited by Guarantee, sports club or social enterprise, can enter the Awards. There are seven categories for the awards based on the annual turnover of the organisation:
- Category 1: For organisations with an annual turnover of less than €100,000
- Category 2: For organisations with an annual turnover of between €100,000 and €250.000.
- Category 3: For organisations with an annual turnover of over €250,000 and under €750,000.
- Category 4: For organisations with an annual turnover of over €750,000 and under €2.5 million.
- Category 5: For organisations with an annual turnover of over €2.5 million and under €10 million
- Category 6: For organisations with an annual turnover of over €10 million and under €50 million
- Category 7: For organisations with an annual turnover of over €50 million.
Details on the entry criteria and categories; the judging panel; how to enter; and other resources such as annual report templates are available at: www.goodgovernanceawards.ie.
Contact: Róisín McGuigan, Good Governance Awards Coordinator
Email: roisin@carmichaelireland.ie
Download press release here.
The Level 6 Certified Charity Trustee Programme aims to provide learners with a broad understanding of the governance framework guiding Organisations and an understanding and appreciation of the organisational behaviours within an organisation. This will allow the learner to be informed and confident in their roles.
This predominantly online 1 year part time programme has been designed in partnership with Carmichael and TU
Dublin. The aim of this programme is to provide participants with an opportunity to deepen their understanding of
their roles and obligations. Since 2021, Charities have been required to report on their compliance with the Charities
Governance Code which is designed to help charity trustees meet their legal duties under the Charities Act 2009. With over 11,000 registered charities in Ireland this programme will assist organisations and their trustees to effectively fulfil their roles within an organisation in line with regulatory framework and to be professionally competent within the team to do so.
Course Content
- Governance & Legal Compliance Responsibilities: The module focuses on the legal and accounting framework as it applies to organisations. The module will draw on the Law, Accounting and Governance that is required to fulfil their duties and responsibilities effectively in compliance with the regulations.
- Charities Act
- Charities Governance Code
- Trustee Governance
- Companies Act 2014
- Financial Governance
- Risk Management
- Data Protection
- Cyber Security
- Organisational Behaviour & Dynamics: This module focuses on the behaviour of individuals and groups in organisations including not-for-profit organisations. It will provide learners with an understanding and appreciation of this behaviour and an awareness of how it contributes to the success of the organisation. The module will draw on concepts and theories from the field of organisational behaviour, management and the not-for-profit environment to gain further understanding of different organisational behaviours and to improve learners’ self-confidence and potential governance effectiveness. Learners will engage in self-reflection regarding their use of individual and organisational actions.
- The Nature of Organisational Behaviour
- Individual Behaviour
- Motivation
- Communication & Decision-making in the Workplace
- Working in Group & Teams
- Leadership in Organisations
- Organisational Power and Politics
- Organisational Conflict
- Organisational Culture
- Organisational Change
Application Details
Applications are now open here.
Please contact school.globalbusiness@TUDublin.ie for further information.
Module Details
TU Code: TU5533
Level: NFQ Level 6
Award: Certificate in Business in Organisational Governance and Behaviour
Duration: 1 Year
Contact: school.globalbusiness@TUDublin.ie
Method of Delivery: Weekly online lectures, 1 evening per week, with two face to face workshops during each semester. Please see schedule below with further details.
Location: Face to face induction will take place on TU Dublin’s Blanchardstown campus. Location for the capstone workshop will be confirmed with learners during the semester to ensure location is accessible for the majority of learners.
Schedule: This programme runs for 2 semesters, one module per semester.
Semester 1 will begin at 2pm on Friday 20th September 2024 with a face to face on campus induction.
Please see current summary timetable here.
Commencement Date: Semester 1 will begin at 2pm on Friday 20th September 2024 with a face to face on campus induction. Induction will take place on the Blanchardstown campus from 2pm to 6pm. This will be followed by 2 hour weekly online lectures from 7pm to 9pm which will begin on Wednesday 25th September.
All registered applicants will be contacted by the Head of Discipline/Programme Coordinator two weeks prior to the commencement date with further details and room location for their face-to-face induction.
Fees: The reduced Student fee of €600 from €1250 is available for this delivery of the programme starting in September 2024. This reduced fee is now available courtesy to funding available from The TU Dublin Enterprise Academy, which is funded by the Higher Education Authority’s HCI Pillar 3, a government programme designed to meet priority skills needs, by increasing collaboration between higher education and enterprise with a focus on innovations in teaching and learning.
Find out more information click here
Testimonial for the Certified Charity Trustee Programme
The programme has provided me with a broad understanding and appreciation of the governance and compliance requirements of a Charity, it identified very clearly the specific legal, financial, and governance responsibilities of a Charity Trustee.
It provided me with a strong understanding and appreciation of Organisational Behaviour, looking at individual behaviours, motivation, working in a team/group, decision making, leadership styles, organisational power, influence, conflict, culture and change management.
I thoroughly enjoyed the learning on this course and meeting the other participants and presenters on the course. Most of the classes were online which worked well for me.
The course has helped me both personally and professionally. I highly recommend the course to any person aspiring to be a Trustee or officer of a charity.
Maria Barry.
Retired School Principal, St. Wolstan’s Community School, Celbridge, Co. Kildare. 1999-2022.
Trustee, Le Chéile Schools Trust, February 2023 -To date.
Thursday May 23rd, 10.05am-10.55am
In this free webinar for nonprofit organisations, we will discuss:
- Deciding when to take on your first staff member
- Preparing to become an employer
- Managing expectations of board members and volunteers when taking on the first staff member
- Setting boundaries as a nonprofit’s first staff member
Our panel of experts tackling this issue include:
- Donna McGaharan: HR Services Manager with Adare Trusted People Partners (Previously Adare HR Management).
Donna is an experienced Human Resources practitioner advising and supporting a wide variety of organisations across the private, not for profit and public sector. Her role is to provide oversight of the HR Partnership Programme services provided to clients across a wide range of sectors by the team of consultants within Adare Trusted People Partners. - Ciarán Davis: Director of Crohn’s & Colitis Ireland.
Ciarán has been a Director of Crohn’s & Colitis Ireland since 2007 and served as Honorary Secretary from 2011 to 2019. During this period, the organisation expanded from being entirely led by volunteers to employing 2 staff members. - Derek O’Reilly: Training Manager at Carmichael.
Derek has been Training Manager at Carmichael since 2008. Previously, he was employed in an international aid organisation as their first CEO.
There will be a Q&A at the end.
Statement from CEO Diarmaid Ó Corrbuí
I am delighted to be launching Carmichael’s 2023 Annual Report.
The publication of the organisation’s annual report is a very important event. It is the organisation’s accountability statement to its stakeholders, its funders, staff, volunteers, service users, supports, regulators and the wider public.
The 2023 Annual Report sets out our purpose, strategic objectives, services, governance arrangements, our funding sources and what we did with those funds and resources in delivering on our purpose, our objectives and targets set in our strategic plan.
There are a lot of achievements by the Carmichael team in 2023 that I am very proud of. These include;
- Carmichael was home to 44 different nonprofit organisations.
- 3,679 people were supported through our training and support services. In 2023, we expanded our range of training programmes and eLearning modules. We also saw growing demand for our board evaluation and governance review services.
- Our mentoring programme continues to go from strength to strength. In 2023 we had a record number of 53 CEOs and managers of nonprofit organisations that were assigned a mentor under the programme which is delivered free of charge thanks to the pro bono support of our 60+ mentors.
- We provided 189 informal supports/guidance to 871 people from 271 organisations and networks.
- We had 833 meeting room bookings and with the appointment of our new chef, Jeff we have substantially enhanced our catering offer for meetings.
- We had 134 entries and more than 200 people attended our 2023 Good Governance Awards event.
- In partnership with TU Dublin, we were delighted to launch the Certified Charity Trustee programme which we will be running again in 2024.
Like many nonprofits, 2023 was not all plain sailing and we experienced higher staff and operating costs in 2023. The board also made the strategic decision to significantly enhance our communications capacity by creating a new post of Communications Officer. We also had some building issues which meant that some of our meeting rooms and offices we not available. The net effect of these was that we incurred an overall deficit of €78,000 which will be funded from our reserves.
Overall, it was a very strong year for the delivery of our services and meeting our strategic targets, but our expenditure was greater than the income we were earning and received from our statutory funders. Our challenge for 2024 is to continue to grow and expand our services and carefully manage our expenditure to reduce the size of our operating deficit and work to a breakeven position in 2025.
I want to thank the Board of Carmichael for their supportive guidance and governance oversight. A big thank you to the team in Carmichael, our staff and volunteers and all those who support us with the Good Governance Awards and the mentoring programme, our funders and supporters and especially, the thousands of people from the sector that use our services and supports every year.
Diarmaid Ó Corrbuí
CEO
Carmichael
4 North Brunswick Street, Dublin, D07 RHA8
Tel: 01 873 5702
Carmichael and The Wheel’s Training Links Programme
Training Links funds and supports networks of community and voluntary organisations to undertake training together. Applications for funding for Training Links 2024 – 2026 is now open. Closing date is May 17th. Training Networks are invited to apply for grants ranging from €10,000.00 to €50,000.00. There is a total fund of €255,000 available and applications are welcome from new, existing, previously funded networks who have completed their programme or previously unsuccessful networks. See here for more information.
If you are looking for a training partner, Carmichael can develop and deliver customised training on behalf of your network. Please contact derekoreilly@carmichaelireland.ie for further details.
We’ve launched our new interactive quiz for charity trustees to test their knowledge.
It only takes 3 minutes to complete. Find it here.
Share with your fellow trustees and see how you score.
To improve your knowledge consider one of our training courses or eLearning courses.
Free coaching, mentoring and peer support for leaders in the nonprofit sector.
Carmichael is delighted to announce the relaunch of the Mentoring Programme for 2024.
The programme began in 2013, when our initial panel of 14 pro bono mentors supported 16 nonprofit leaders. We now have more than 50 mentors on our panel and support more than 50 nonprofit leaders per year. Since the programme’s inception, 247 nonprofit leaders from 143 nonprofit organisations have participated.
Interested in mentorship?
The updated programme brings in more structure to the mentoring process and, as well as continuing to provide mentoring and coaching, we are introducing a peer support network for those who complete the programme to continue the benefits of having a sounding board outside of your own organisation. To apply for mentorship, see our website. The next round is open for applicants until February 12th.
Interested in becoming a mentor?
We can only continue to meet this rising demand for mentoring if suitable individuals continue to step forward and volunteer to become mentors.
Are you a current or former leader in a nonprofit? This could mean leading the entire organisation, a department or a team or volunteers.
When you first stepped into that leadership role, could you have benefited from more support?
Knowing what you know now, could you offer some support to someone starting their leadership journey, or facing a new challenge as an experienced leader?
We would love to hear from those with experience in the nonprofit sector who are interested in getting involved. See our website or contact roisin@carmichaelireland.ie for more information.
This programme is kindly sponsored by BHP Insurances.
Improving Your Nonprofit’s Annual Report – February 27th 2024 from 10.05-10.55am
Carmichael is delighted to provide free training webinars on relevant themes for nonprofits.
In this webinar nonprofits of all sizes will gain tips and advice from an expert panel on how to improve the content and narrative of their Annual Report.
The recording is now available of the webinar “Improving Your Annual Report”:
Passcode: D*c2=3dD
In this free webinar for nonprofit organisations, we will discuss:
-How can a nonprofit, with limited time and resources, produce the best possible annual report?
-Who reads an annual report and why?
-What are the key elements to a strong annual report?
-Where can you find more support with producing your annual report?
-When should you start preparing your annual report?
There will be a Q&A at the end.
Our panelists will be:
-Róisin McGuigan (Chair): Services Manager at Carmichael and Coordinator of the Good Governance Awards
-Nina Arwitz: CEO of Volunteer Ireland
-Aedín Morkan: Audit Partner at Mazars Ireland
-Senan Turnbull: Consultant and trainer specialising in nonprofit annual reports
In collaboration with The Wheel, Carmichael are pleased to announce a new National Training Fund Programme for 2024. The National Training Fund is funded through the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. There is a range of different programmes to support small to medium sized organisations.
NTF Annual Report Support Programme 2024– Fully booked
NTF Impact Management Support 2024– Fully booked
NTF Succession Planning – Online 08/03/2024 or 19/07/2024
NTF Leadership Programme September 2024: Effective Leadership & Management of Teams
NTF Diversity & Inclusion Programme: Embracing Diversity, Encouraging Inclusion-April/May 2024
NTF Leaders, Managers and Management Teams -Fully booked
NTF Enhance Coaching Skills for Greater Collaboration – In-person 05/07/2024-Fully booked
NTF Bullying Complaints – Guidelines for Investigation – 26/07/2024 (In-person workshop)
If you have any questions, feel free to email training@carmichaelireland.ie.
This NTF programmes are aimed at Charities/Community Groups/Voluntary Organisations/Social Enterprises in the Republic of Ireland.
The funding for the provision of these services comes from the National Training Fund administered by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science. There is a nominal charge by way of a contribution.
We will be taking a break over Christmas and the New Year.
We will close on Thursday 21st December and be back open on Tuesday January 2nd 2024.
It will not be possible to book meeting rooms while the centre is closed.
If you need anything from us before then please get in touch.