News & Events

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.

Thursday May 23rd, 10.05am-10.55am

Register here

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.

Register for free now.

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 17^th. 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.

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.

To apply

Apply as outlined in the role descriptions below before January 14th 2024.

1. Board Member (Trustee & Director) with Governance and Risk Experience
2. Board Member (Trustee & Director) with Finance Experience
3. Board Member (Trustee & Director) with Strategy, Training and Client Services Experience

For more information on these board vacancies or Carmichael, please contact the Services Manager, Róisín McGuigan, at roisin@carmichaelireland.ie. 

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.

Carmichael Good Governance Awards Winner 2023

The Good Governance Awards recognises and encourages adherence to good governance by non-profit organisations in Ireland. The awards were developed by Carmichael with the support of our partners and leading national bodies in the non-profit sector.

The winners of the Good Governance Awards 2023 were announced at our Awards Ceremony on Thursday November 17th.

Read the press release here.