I advised a faith based community charity on improvements for the trustees’ decision making process.
They had become tied up by their own conscientious decision making in trustees’ meetings. They would request reports on various matters; these reports would then be considered by a relevant committee and then by the trustees – there was significant overlap between the two groups.
At the trustees’ meeting, the report and issues would be reconsidered, however the purpose behind the report, the decisions required, reasons and consequences were not clear. They were careful and deliberate in their considerations, yet not focussed. Much time would be spent in this way.
I helped the trustees to improve this by devising a cover sheet for all reports, to be prepared by the report’s author, to guide the trustees as to the strategic context and purpose of the report, the decisions sought, and the importance and consequences of the decisions.
I advised a grant making charity on its future, leading to a radical reappraisal by trustees.
The charity had been making grants for around 70 years but now faced two significant challenges: one concerning grant recipients and one concerning the trustees. Grant recipients, in the field in which the charity operated, faced considerable financial pressures, meaning larger grants were appropriate.
Most of trustees were long-serving and aged over 60, some much more so; succession was needed in order for the charity to remain viable long term.
I helped the trustees think strategically and dispassionately about the various options open to them, leading to a strategy of increasing grants and an acceptance this would expend the charity’s funds within around 10 years.
A health charity for children and young people needed training for both serving and new trustees.
The charity was at an important stage in its development, as it had succeeded in launching and promoting its services and now sought to grow. The trustees and senior leadership team wanted to ensure the trustees understood their duties and responsibilities before they embarked on this next chapter.
I spent time exploring and learning about the charity’s development, operations and ambitions and then devised and delivered training which matched their experience and collective skill set.
We also explored after the training the impact and potential changes to their ways of working.
A long standing charity needed to address its board composition and recruit for the future.
There were some features of the existing board which were not likely to serve the charity well over the long term. These included a rather limited range of skills and experiences and a tendency to recruit from amongst those personally known to serving trustees.
This was addressed in two ways. First, all serving trustees were surveyed as to their skills and experience so gaps could be identified in the needs of the board as a whole. Second, a wide pool of potential candidates was identified and canvassed to maximise applications.
This gave rise to a very welcome group of applicants from which appropriate potential trustees could then be drawn. Following a thorough selection and induction process, the board was considerably strengthened.
Someone approached me for mentoring as to their development, having recently embarked on a new chapter in their career.
We first met to get to know each other, agree ground rules and a way of working. We then met every 6 to 8 weeks to explore how he was progressing in the areas he had identified that he wanted to work on, to discuss positive experience as well as ongoing challenges.
We would also agree one or two goals in order to challenge him and monitor progress, then review these in our next meeting. The person mentored was pleased with how I adapted the way of working to his particular working context, so we stayed relevant to his area and its particular qualities.
He was sufficiently pleased after several months that he had made enough progress to move ahead with confidence.