Governance

Over the last few weeks I have been thinking a lot about governance and, in particular, the governance that I see in the charities and other organisations that I deal with, and that I read about. Governance is so important, and the success and future of your organisation depends on it!

There has been a lot in the press over the last few weeks with the vote for FIFA’s president, unsurprisingly won by Sepp Blatter for a fifth term, despite the corruption that is plain for all to see in the organisation and the arrests of several executives the day before. He won exclaiming that he was the man to clean up FIFA – after being President for the previous 17 years!! Thankfully he has now fallen on his sword and resigned, let’s hope all of his cronies go with him and football gets to clean up its act.

I compare that with some of the charities that I work with and the efforts they make to get their governance right, and to do things in a respectful way. People who are usually volunteers, who give their spare time to run their charity and act as Trustees on top of a busy family and job, with little reward other than the satisfaction that they have helped others.

At a recent conference, I had a discussion on the subject of PQASSO, a set of standards for third sector organisations to measure themselves against and seek to work to that will show that their governance is in order. Currently they are looking for organisations in Wales to work with under a lottery funded scheme to seek to bring the levels of good governance in the sector higher than they are now.

There is a desire to support charities that want to improve their governance procedures – and to get the recognition of the standards to which they are performing. This in turn is expected to help with funding applications and, therefore, has a positive knock-on effect for the future of the organisation.

Have you considered the governance of your organisation recently? How do your Trustees perform – are they aware of all that is expected of them? What about your staff/volunteers? What about the interaction between Trustees and staff/volunteers? Is you governance kept in order and nearer to the PQASSO standards – or is it in a mess and heading towards the chaos of FIFA (hopefully without the corruption)!!

Every year, a charity is required to have an audit or independent examination of its finances. Have you ever considered a wider review of your governance? Is it better to continue plodding along and hope that you are covering everything – or to have a review of your performance and find out where you can improve? I have gone into a few organisations as an independent person to look at the governance and provide a report of my findings – positive areas and recommendations for improvement – and am available to undertake a review for you. I would also love the opportunity of training Trustees to ensure they are aware of their duties and responsibilities.

If you would like to talk further about your governance and how I may be able to help, please get in touch. If you want details of the PQASSO in Wales program, I can point you in the right direction – Expression of Interest forms are needed by July 17th.

Governance is so important! Your organisation depends on it! Take it seriously – and if you need help, then ask for it!!