Trusteeship and governance

In light of trustees week, George Hoare reflects on his own experiences as a charity trustee, explaining how the board has established ways to measure the charity's impact.

Governance has been getting a lot of attention recently. High profile charity failures highlight a need for boards to avoid damaging failures. But we're equally concerned with how boards can up their game more generally: to avoid coasting, and really go the extra mile for the charities they serve. This is the argument we make in our recent report 'It starts from the top'. Iona Joy explains our thinking in this blog.

Being too risk averse can often have the opposite of the intended effect, argues Kate Sayer of Sayer Vincent. Reflecting on recent sporting wins, she explores how charities can be more bold in their decision making to achieve success.

There has been much doom and gloom about the fortunes of the sector over the past year, and much of the fault for recent scandals has been laid at the door of trustees. So it is refreshing to gain a more positive perspective in the form of an award ceremony for exemplary charity governance.