Civil Society Media has today relaunched Governance magazine as Governance & Leadership, in recognition of the equal importance that executive leaders and trustee boards bring to the process of governing charities.

In today's world charity trustees are required to be better informed and more engaged in the workings of their charities, and the context in which they operate, than ever before.  Yet trustees cannot deliver best practice by themselves, it has to be a collaborative effort between the trustee board and the executive leadership team.

Governance & Leadership promotes and encourages partnership and effective communication between and among trustee boards and executive leaders, recognising that the best results will come from this approach. While the magazine is not afraid to challenge bad practice, its chief ambition is to seek out best practice and share this with its readers in order to drive up standards.

All the major features will contain ‘For consideration’ boxes which will highlight the types of questions that charity leaders should be thinking about and potentially asking at their next board meeting, to make sure their charity avoids problems before they arise, stays on the right side of the law, and follows best practice.

The first issue, published today, focuses on the theme of fundraising, and looks at what charities can do to ensure their fundraising activities do not pressure donors or reflect badly on their charity and the sector.

We talk to the chief executive, funding strategy director and treasurer of RNLI, the first charity to announce it would move to a system of permission-led fundraising; and we interview Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, about his recent review of fundraising and his controversial proposals for a Fundraising Preference Service. We also examine how trustee boards can create a culture within which good fundraising happens, even if they can't sit in on every phone call.

Governance & Leadership is itself a collaborative effort by Civil Society Media's team of experienced journalists and editors. It will be published every two months.

Editorial director Tania Mason said: "We recognise that good governance is a double-sided coin, so we have changed Governance to Governance & Leadership to emphasise that each side of the coin is as important as the other, and that trustees and the executive cannot achieve success without working together.

"Governance & Leadership will cover all the major issues relevant to the role of a trustee and executive director, presenting topics from both perspectives. It aims to help trustees to support the executive and the executive to support the trustees."

Each subscription provides up to five copies for your leadership team or trustees, with more available at a heavily discounted rate. Order your copies here.