Trusteeship: The trials and tribulations of governing a small charity

On 31 March 2011, the chair of trustees of a tiny south London charity stood in his charity’s doorway. He stood there for ten minutes, keys in hand, trying to decide whether to lock up for good.

It was the financial year end and things weren’t looking good. The organisation only had two members of staff, and was perilously close to having none. One had just resigned, the other was threatened with redundancy, and there was a general feeling of hopelessness and lethargy among volunteers and trustees.

At this time, I had been on the board for a few months and was still getting to grips with how the whole thing worked. It wasn’t a particularly complicated charity, but nobody could really spell out its activities or aims very clearly. The treasurer had gone awol six months before, and there had been no management accounts for a year. The list goes on. This was a charity that had lost its way.

It is telling that neither I nor anyone else on the board knew that the chairman was wrestling with the decision of whether or not to shut up shop. Without decent leadership, the board was meandering from meeting to meeting, each month going over the minutes from the last in painful detail, without ever discussing anything new.

Even so, it was not a bad group of trustees. Between them, they had masses of experience, knowledge, enthusiasm and good will. They were just a bit tired and disillusioned, which had unfortunately led to complacency and neglect.

In many charities, this wouldn’t have mattered so much. Some trustee boards sit back and let their charity tick along nicely. They review papers, attend meetings, and have their say about strategy and direction, but they are removed from the mundane and everyday activities that keep an organisation functioning. But in a charity as small as my south London charity, if the board sits back and relaxes too much, it is not long before morale falters and activities ground to a halt.

A new start

Today, my charity looks very different from six months ago. We have interesting and productive board meetings, we see management accounts every two months, and we have funding to recruit a Director for the next three years. Staff and volunteers have a new sense of purpose, and I have replaced the previous chair of trustees. We have a vision, strategy and some concrete aims, and most importantly, our activities seem to be making a difference in local people’s lives.

So what changed? I think there are three key factors:

• New trustees: We have managed to recruit some excellent new board members who have brought expertise, diversity and energy to the table.
• A critical friend: We have received some stern words, strategic support, financial guidance and plenty of encouragement from a brilliant consultant who has given his time for free.
• Time and effort: Evenings and weekends spent fundraising, putting together budgets, writing new policies and more are at last bearing fruit.

Thankfully, our old chair of trustees didn’t close the charity back in March. He locked up for the evening and was back the next day. Our little charity has gone from being a bit tired and hopeless to being full of energy, potential and vision. As one local person wrote to us:

‘You are all superbly optimistic and managing brilliantly and gaining loads of strength. My fingers are always crossed for [this charity] to continue to blossom slowly and surely, helping people always.’

On 15 December, NPC and the Clothworkers’ Company are holding a seminar for trustees of very small charities. Find out more here.

This is the fifth in a series of blogs to mark Trustees’ Week, an annual event to showcase the great work that trustees do and highlight opportunities for people from all walks of life to get involved and make a difference. You can find out more about Trustees’ Week and about becoming a trustee here.

The golden age of ageing

Photograph supplied by Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Last weekend, I went to a 79th birthday party on a little island in Scotland. Most people there were in their 60s, 70s and 80s, and just four of us were in our 20s. We went on a boat, ate, drank, gave speeches and danced a ceilidh. A great way to get old.

Of course, it wasn’t all fun and games. There were aches and pains, forgetful moments, struggling to get on the boat with a cane, and going home to the help of a nurse to get into bed. Nevertheless, there was good cheer in abundance from this group of people making the most of their older years.

The charity WRVS recently published its Gold Age Power List, celebrating people who are making extraordinary achievements and inspirational contributions in the later decades of their lives. People like Queen Elizabeth, who at 85 is the UK’s longest-lived monarch. And the less well known Doris Long, who at 96 is the world’s oldest abseiler and has raised £15,000 for charity.

Yet many people still look on old age with apprehension or even dread. As The Guardian points out, ‘In this golden age of ageing, old people are met with fear and loathing.’

Perhaps this is not surprising, especially given the recent succession of reports that have highlighted the appalling quality of care that many older people receive. For instance, the Care Quality Commission has found elderly patients in some hospitals routinely dehydrated, undernourished and treated without dignity or respect. And there was plenty of publicity when Elaine McDonald, a former ballerina, was denied night care, saving the local council £22,000 a year but leaving Elaine trapped in her bed at night, having to use incontinence pads despite not being incontinent.

As disability rights campaigner Nicky Clark tweets, all too often, ‘it’s not about what people are worth but what they cost’.

Care difficulties can make it seem almost impossible for many people to face old age with dignity and a sense of worth, but some charities are working to help people make the most of older age. The volunteering and training charity CSV runs a programme called RSVP, the retired and senior volunteer programme, which gets older people volunteering in communities across the UK. Some drive disabled patients to hospitals, others help children who are struggling to read. Some befriend people who are isolated or housebound, and others knit teddies for children who’ve suffered trauma.

Volunteering reduces depression, tackles isolation, improves physical health, and gives older people a sense of purpose. It also benefits the people served by the projects.

Charities like RSVP can give older people hope for a happy and fulfilling life. We won’t all be as poised as the Queen or as agile as Doris Long in our 80s and 90s. But we can face old age with dignity and a sense of worth.

Creative solutions to social problems

Last night, a friend of a friend said to me: ‘I could never work for a charity—I’m far too creative.’

Where did he get this absurd idea that creativity and charity are opposed? It’s ludicrous to think that those of us who do non-profit work are somehow limiting ourselves intellectually and creatively for the greater good. On the contrary, it is our creativity that allows us to help    people all the more.

Take Magic Me, for example, a small charity in east London that uses art to bring together children and older people from all walks of life. With projects including photography, creative writing and drama, Magic Me is breaking down prejudice, building self-esteem, and tackling isolation and loneliness. As one young participant says, ‘Magic Me is the best thing going on, because it is actually changing people’s lives.’

Another brilliant east London charity is Quaker Social Action, which tackles poverty and isolation. QSA’s flexible and creative approach allows it to tackle the most urgent issues local people face, including financial exclusion, unemployment and fear of crime. QSA is a leader in financial education for families. Its successful Made of Money project doesn’t just teach about bank accounts and interest rates; it helps families to communicate better about money, think about their experiences and aspirations, and even compare ‘no-frills’ products with more expensive brand names in blind-tasting sessions. Taking creativity a step further, at Made of Money’s recent fifth birthday party, QSA unveiled an exhibition of photos from a project that gave fathers and their children ‘a chance to look together at money and value through a lens’.

Charities like QSA and Magic Me are successful because of their creativity. It’s true that many people working in the charity sector make sacrifices—time and money being the most obvious. But we don’t sacrifice our talents, skills or brains. We don’t all dress in beige, doling out soup and debt advice. Far from it. Charities are full of resourceful, entrepreneurial, creative people who thrive in this sector. I think my unfortunate friend’s friend is the one missing out.

‘Fundraising, charity shops and chuggers’ at the Guardian

We were thrilled to see the new charity effectiveness site from The Guardian—a whole section of their website dedicated to helping charities to be more effective, set up in partnership with knowhownonprofit. In the face of looming pubic sector spending cuts and an increasingly competitive funding market, it has never been more important for charities to prove their impact.

The latest podcast on The Guardian’s site features our very own Martin Brookes, discussing ‘Fundraising, charity shops and chuggers’, together with Clara Avery of Macmillan Cancer Support and Peter Storey of Kidney Research UK. The podcast looks at some of the challenges fundraisers face and discusses the future of fundraising.

Given that support from the public sector is set to shrink over the coming months, there’s a real need to rekindle individual interest in giving to charities and raise the level of donations. At NPC, we have always argued that demonstrating impact is key to keeping people interested and therefore key to increasing donations. Macmillan is one example of a charity that takes measuring results seriously: after working with NPC in 2008, it set up a Research Intelligence Unit to monitor its outcomes.

You can listen to the podcast on the guardian charity effectiveness website, where you can also see the full series of podcast debates.