GuideStar loses another director

Governance | Tania Mason | 16 Dec 2009

GuideStar UK director Les Hems has left the organisation to take up a new role as director of research at the Centre for Social Impact in Sydney, Australia.

He is the third executive leader to depart the organisation within the last two years, but GuideStar International spokeswoman Caroline Neligan insisted its future was not in doubt.

She said Hems (pictured) would continue to provide consultancy up until the end of the year - even though he has been in Australia since 7 December and is only returning to the UK for a week over Christmas.

"We will be continuing as before with the free public website and GuideStar Data Services," she said. "Nothing has substantially changed." Asked whether a replacement for Hems was being sought, she replied: "Not actively - in the new year we will be able to be clearer publicly about that."

History of GuideStar UK

The GuideStar UK website was established in March 2004 with £2.9m from the Treasury's Invest to Save Budget and more than £1m from other funders, including the Bridge House Trust, the Institute for Philanthropy and the Community Fund.

Former Millennium Awards director Erica Roberts was its first chief executive. Its aim was to improve transparency in the sector by making information about charities’ financial and operational activities freely available online.

In 2006, Roberts and chief operating officer Jocelyn James left GuideStar UK and David Brocklebank became chief executive. He oversaw the launch of new services to sell charity data to organisations such as local government, legal and financial companies.

The following year, GuideStar UK merged with Civil Society Systems, the charity that promotes and supports the establishment of GuideStar programmes worldwide, to create GuideStar International. The UK website database continued to run as a ring-fenced project overseen by a new advisory board chaired by Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO.

GuideStar International also set up a community interest company called GuideStar Data Services to handle the paid-for services - such as its Local Government Intelligence Service and the Legal Intelligence Service.

GuideStar Data Services was funded by a £3m grant from US non-profit Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, of which £1.25m was provided as a loan to establish GuideStar Data Services CIC. This was expected to break even within 18 months and eventually to cover the costs of GuideStar UK. The remaining £1.75m was used to expand GuideStar International to develop GuideStar systems in other countries.

Recent directors

David Brocklebank moved over to head up the Data Services arm and in March 2008, Lewis Temple joined as director of the free website resource. But he only lasted a year before returning to his roots in the international development sector.

Another restructure this summer saw GuideStar UK combined with the Data Services trading subsidiary and Les Hems, who had been director of third sector data and analysis at GuideStar Data Services and involved with the organisation since its inception, was promoted to director of the overall enterprise.

Brocklebank and one other director were made redundant and the workforce was a skeleton of five full-time equivalent staff, down from a peak of 13 a couple of years ago.
Hems lasted just a few months in the role before securing his new job in Australia.

Neligan said the data services side of the business had grown this year and was able to fund the charitable objectives of the free public website, but she could not say whether it was fully sustaining itself yet.

Hems: 'Great new job'

The Centre for Social Impact, based at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, is funded jointly by the Australian government, philanthropic endowment and corporate contributions.

Hems declined to say why he left GuideStar, stating only that "I have a great new job which provides me with an opportunity to undertake a much wider research role and which utilises a broader range of my knowledge and expertise".

Who's Who: Les Hems

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