Investing in Governance - new discount available!

Why good governance for charities?

We don’t need recent tales of corporate collapse to know that the strategic decisions a board takes is of life and death importance to an organisation. This is why well-run companies invest huge amounts of time and money in good governance.

The 2005 Code of Good Governance and the Charities Act 2006 underline the importance of good governance for voluntary organisations, but many charity boards feel unsure about how to examine and improve their own performance. As a result, many charities are not functioning as efficiently as they could be. This is where Investing in Governance comes in. They have examined tried and tested best practices from business and adapted them to meet the needs of charities.

What is good governance?

Governance is the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented at board level. It is good when -

• The decision-making is:
     Inclusive
     Focused on consensus
     Fair
• The board works well as a team
• The board’s decisions are:
     Accountable
     Transparent
     Responsive
• Management and stakeholders can see how well the charity is performing.
The end result is that the charity becomes more efficient and effective. Good governance also ensures the charity is law-abiding.

Does your charity practice good governance?

It takes guts to hold up a mirror and take an honest look at your own performance. Because many charity boards are staffed by volunteers, there is a feeling that they should not be held up to such scrutiny. So, ask yourself: Are all the members of the board able to contribute effectively to discussions and decision-making and can see that their contributions are listened to and valued by the Chair and other board members? Does the board work in partnership with the management team? Can the board demonstrate they are monitoring progress towards achieving the agreed strategy? Are you working in partnership with stakeholders through consultation and communication with its funders, donors, employees, volunteers, community and beneficiaries?

Investing in Governance is a tool that helps you answer these and other questions. It is designed to enable charity boards to assess their governance against best practice, and to make changes to improve performance.

The Investing in Governance board evaluation framework contains 69 governance practices designed to reflect the breadth and depth of processes involved in running a board, recruiting and inducting board members - through to supporting and reviewing their individual performance and that of the whole board.

Trustee boards can buy the tool and work though the tick boxes themselves. Alternatively they can pay for a consultant to work through it with them, achieving a quality mark at the end of the process.

The Investing in Governance framework costs £29.50 to download
The Investing in Governance Quality Mark costs £3,250

trusteenet and trusteenetplus members can get a discount on both the download and the quality mark.

·         10% discount on the framework, reducing its cost to £26.55.

·         £100 discount on the Quality Mark, reducing its cost to £3,150.

To do this you need enter one or both of the codes below into the Investing in Governance website  www.investingingovernance.org.uk

CTN2008FW – Framework Discount £2.95

CTN2008ACRED – Accreditation Discount (£100)