Away days. Something is in the air as I have facilitated more away days in 2022 than I have in the past five years combined. Perhaps it’s the sense of a fresh start after the pandemic, but I’m finding myself …
Shannon Trust Interim Leadership Case Study
It was an unusual start to an interim role. Far from the ordinary meet and greet with the team, I found myself travelling up to Leamington Spa on 19 March 2020 to have coffee with the Chair on my first …
Improving impact in the equalities sector
My job – in a nutshell – is to help make charities work better. I restructure staff teams to better enable productive and collaborative working. I help charities identify and achieve strategic targets to allow them to expand into new …
How to be a better funder
Grants and trusts funders vary enormously. Some are very large, giving vast amounts each year (sometimes with innovative and supportive systems and structure in place – I’m looking at you, National Lottery Community Fund and Comic Relief). Some are extremely …
How smaller charities can benefit from interim leadership
Interim CEO posts can be a high-impact and effective use of resources for small-to-medium charities, but the opportunities are sometimes disregarded by smaller organisations due to the higher costs of skilled interim leaders. It may come from a somewhat biased …
Managing your stress in a charity role
I was running a strategic planning course recently and invited everyone to introduce themselves. One attendee described the organisation she chaired, which was a place for relaxing, stress-free, simple holidays. The entire room of stressed-out, overworked and tired charity staff …
Setting your values as a charity – how and why it matters
It may be seen as just one step in the branding or strategic planning journey, but setting a charity’s values are of central importance and should be taken seriously. Why? Because a charity’s values set out what it prioritises. It …
In Celebration of Charity Chairs
No, I don’t really mean the thing you sit on. I mean the person who leads the Board and oversees and supports the CEO. I’ve worked with a number of Charity Chairs in my time – yes, a minority who …
Getting started with a Big Lottery Fund Organisational Strength Review
If you’re thinking about applying for, or have already won funding from, the Big Lottery Fund (BLF) Building Capabilities programme, you might be wondering about how to get started with your organisational strength review. Why does the BLF offer this …
Early warning signs of a failing Trustee Board
Working with many small-to-medium charities across the country, I meet many inspiring Trustees who are doing amazing work, often in challenging situations. I also come across many charities where things have gone badly wrong. This may be directly connected to …