Running the organisation rather than governing it. Deciding what the charity does next and what it stops doing, planning at a scale you can deliver, managing people and volunteers, and holding things together when capacity is the constraint – which in a small charity it usually is.
A deficit that appears quarter after quarter is a question about how the charity is funded and what it spends, and the board’s first job is to work out which kind of deficit it has. Some deficits are about timing,…
A small charity can plan its strategy without paying anyone. The real cost is board time, and the planning works when that time is organised: one person prepares the evidence, one person runs the discussion, and the board meets a…
Saying no to money that is lawful, fits your charitable purposes and comes from a reputable funder is one of the harder decisions a board makes. The Charity Commission’s starting point is that trustees should accept donations, so turning one…
A strategy that has stopped guiding decisions needs one of three responses. It may need using again, because nothing is wrong with it except that nobody refers to it. A refresh fits when the direction still holds, and the circumstances…
Deciding what to stop is harder than deciding what to start, and most charities only do it when money forces the issue. By that point, the bank balance is making the choice and the board is signing it off. Stopping…
A theory of change is an explanation of why your work should make a difference. It fits in a few sentences: when we do this, this changes for these people, because of that. Everything else written about it – the…
You are writing two documents, not one. A one-page strategy that your board and team use to make decisions, and a longer strategic plan that funders, partners and the Charity Commission read. They contain different things, they are written for…
Why the Case Closing Isn’t the End You can usually feel it before you can name it. A grievance has been resolved, or an investigation has concluded, the paperwork is filed, and the process is formally over, and yet something…
Try finishing this sentence out loud, in your own words: “If our work succeeds over the next five years, the thing we exist to address will…” Most charity founders or trustees can start that sentence. Many find they can’t quite…