Charity trustee boards need to show strong leadership

Charity boards need to provide strong leadership and support to help charities survive the economic downturn and public sector cuts. A new report by charity consultancy and think tank, New Philanthropy Capital, highlights the importance of an effective board and calls on government to encourage more people to become trustees as part of the ‘Big Society’.

The report, Trusteeship 2010, looks at governance in the voluntary sector and finds that recruitment; training and evaluation of boards are under-resourced and need to be given a higher priority by charities, funders and government.

According to Ken Olisa, award-winning chair of homelessness charity Thames Reach, the role of a trustee is as central to a charity’s success as a director is to a business, especially in difficult times.

‘The danger is not so much that cuts are coming but that they will be stupidly implemented and charities will respond with knee jerk actions. Rather than making cuts across an organisation, it is important that trustee boards prioritise services, looking at which have the biggest return on investment and are most effective. This means boards will have to be more hands on and closer to the executive action until things settle down.’

NPC believes that the recession and the demands on charities’ services have made it even more crucial that charities find the right people with the right mix of skills to build an effective board.

The report concludes that charities and those they support are going to be hard hit by public spending cuts. So it is more important than ever that charities receive the support they need from their trustees, and that boards are as effective as possible.

Visit www.philanthropycapital.org and search Trusteeship 2010 (you need the second of the search results) to read the full article and download the Report Trusteeship 2010.