It is a charity’s leaders, both executive and voluntary, that decide and deliver the direction of work for the organisation. The trustee board is tasked with setting the strategy, and the executive team is tasked with delivering it. Strong, effective leadership is crucial to the success of any civil society organisation.
NCVO is attempting to seek out the sector’s future leaders by holding a series of ‘curry club’ meetings across England’s nine government regions.
Eleven charities have made it into the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies list, but Christians Against Poverty has dipped from the poll position it held for the past two years.
Regular governance reviews need not be costly, work intensive or complicated. Dorothy Dalton advises.
Inspired by Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, Tesse Akpeki offers some insights into why we don't always chase our dreams
The fair haired woman in the burgundy chair opposite me is looking very earnest and is gazing intently at her notepad. As I pass by, I can’t resist a furtive glance. The top of her sheet grandly proclaims ‘Culture – very practical’ and further down ‘Reflections …’.
Over the last 20 years charities and civil society organisations have been exhorted to become more businesslike, and they have responded well. After all more than 50 percent of charities’ revenues are now derived from earned income which is a testimony to their developing businesslike approaches.
INTERIGHTS has appointed Danny Silverstone as its next executive director. Silverstone takes over from the organisation’s chair Jeremy McBride who has been acting as interim executive director.
Last week Ian Austin, the Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government, the minister responsible for homelessness, came out on an evening shift with Thames Reach’s street outreach teams. Together we walked the dank streets of central London, Ian still in his suit and tie having raced over following a late night debate in the House.
CSV has appointed Sir Jon Shortridge as its new chairman.
Moving British Waterways out of the public sector and into the voluntary sector would create the 13th-largest charity by income and the fifth-largest fundraising charity, according to a new report outlining the pros and cons of the idea.
Impetus Trust has appointed Louis Elson as its new chairman. Elson, who previously worked as managing partner and co-founder of Palamon Capital Partners and has been trustee of Impetus since July 2009, will officially take up the role on24 March.
OnSide North West, a charity dedicated to giving young people safe and affordable places to go in their leisure time, has appointed Jeremy Glover MBE as its new chief executive.
Leukaemia Research has changed its name to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research to mark a new strategy which will see the charity focus on all types of blood cancers, including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
Mimi McCord is the new chair of Barrett’s Oesophagus Campaign – the national charity dedicated to the prevention of cancer from Barrett’s Oesophagus and the support of people living with the disease.
The Directory of Social Change has appointed Nick Seddon, journalist and author of the book Who Cares? as its new chair.
Guide Dogs for the Blind has appointed a NATO strategist as its new chief executive.
Just as in The Simpsons, conflict is a natural part of human behaviour and can be used constructively and be transformational in reinventing relationships in an improved form. The danger lies in dealing poorly with emerging stresses and eroding the quality of the relationships.
The National Trust for Scotland’s governance arrangements are “inflated” and too complex, according to the second strategic review report by the Rt Hon George Reid.
Is the time right for paid trustees and unitary boards? Money is short. Charities labour to make ends meet. Trustees struggle with the dilemma of cutting core costs or axing frontline services.
Entering a new year is like entering unchartered territory. The fear of the unknown could cripple our capacity to take action. How do you respond when you are asked to do something that takes you into the territory of the unknown? The unknown is full of haunting ‘what ifs’ yet we are often called to chart unknown territory.
The British Lung Foundation has restructured its operations and created a new trading subsidiary that will deliver lung testing events for Primary Care Trusts across the country.
The UK charity Autism Speaks, founded five years ago by the UK’s first Ambassador for Philanthropy Dame Stephanie Shirley, has changed its name to Autistica.
PF Awards winner Erich Reich has received a knighthood for charitable services in the 2010 New Year Honours list.
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.
Andrew Hind, chief executive of the Charity Commission, reflects on the lessons other sectors can learn from charities in light of the economic downturn, in a short film by Civil Society’s resident video journalist, Alex Goddard.
The Alzheimer’s Society is creating more than 100 new jobs and setting up 49 regional central branches in the UK in a bid to win more contracts from Primary Care Trusts and local authorities. Some 36.5 per cent of its income currently comes from grants and contracts.
Tesse Akpeki is inspired by discussions about the 'new normal' at the BoardSource Leadership Forum 2009 held in Orlando, USA.
Jewish poverty-reduction charity Tzedek has decided that the problems faced by its developing-world beneficiaries are so intertwined with climate change that it has adopted an ambitious environmental policy that will govern all its operations both here and overseas.
RNID has changed its organisational structure into three directorates – corporate resources, external engagement and service provision.
The National Trust for Scotland has hired the former presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament George Reid to conduct an independent review of the organisation. Reid will focus on issues of long-term financial stability and governance, in order to ensure a “sustainable and secure” future for the organisation.
