Boards must work effectively to ensure they govern the organisation properly. One of the key mechanisms for this is the board meeting.
Research (Velthuis, 2011) has shown that social impact measurement in the Republic of Ireland is significantly underdeveloped. This is not to say that it is not happening at all, because there are some excellent examples.
Nor is it to suggest that there is no appetite for it, because there clearly is, as shown by numerous conferences, courses and publications on the topic. It is simply that times are very challenging, most people are extremely busy and many of them do not know how to start measuring and demonstrating their outcomes, even if they might want to.
Make sure you know who your members are
If your charity is a Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG), a lack of clarity about who precisely are your members can lead to unintentional breaches of company law and/or your Constitution. It also can create confusion as to who are entitled to vote at general meetings and who should receive company information.
Members of the company are those persons or entities which hold an interest in the company (in companies with share capital, e.g. limited or PLC companies; they would be shareholders). It is possible that your members are the same as your directors. When a director is replaced their membership interest should be passed to the new director.
Do you really know how to prioritize?
In my experience, most of us are somewhere between okay and pretty awful when it comes to really understanding how to prioritize.
It tends to be a mixture of crisis management and those things that fall into the category of “things I like to do”!! Not great criteria!
So, what lessons on how to prioritize can we learn from the top performing CEOs that I have worked with?
Performance Appraisal – What is it?
Performance appraisal (also called performance evaluation or performance review) is a structured, periodic, reflective discussion between an individual employee and his or her line manager, concerning the employee’s actual work performance, behaviours and future developmental needs in relation to agreed goals and behavioural standards.
When there is a clear link between what an organisation is striving to achieve and what each individual is expected to deliver it makes it easier for employees to feel connected to the organisation and motivated by their work.
A good fundraising plan allows you to reasonably project the income your organisation will generate and can be used as an ongoing guide and measure.
When creating your fundraising plan it is important to calculate a tangible income figure that your organisation needs to operate – your goal. It is not realistic or productive to simply aim for “as much as possible” – instead you should have monthly and annual figures to work towards. This will allow you to work backwards and can help to quantify how much you are aiming to generate from the various sources you intend to work with.
In fundraising it is also important to spread the risk – by relying too heavily on one source of income you will leave your organisation too vulnerable to any potential changes that might be out of your control.
Putting yourself forward for consideration or responding positively to an invitation to become a trustee of a charity is a very important and needed act of civic responsibility. The thousands of charities play a critical part in society’s response to a wide range of human needs.
Many are small groups surviving on very limited resources, but are tackling large problems. Through the passion, commitment and activities of these groups, a wide range of needed services and supports are delivered in areas such as health, social services, education, emergency relief, sports and culture. There are tens of thousands of people engaged daily in providing these services.
They are creating an untold quantum of public good – enhancing culture, health, recreation, social justice, and civil and human rights. They are performing roles and making contributions that for many are not recognised or properly valued. However, to run effectively and properly, they need 1,000s of people to step-up and become volunteer board members.