Strategy, planning and running your organisation effectively
Topics: Structure and Strategy
We’ve pulled together links to some excellent resources on strategy, planning and running your organisation effectively. Click the orange links to be taken to the resources.
Your charity’s Governing Document or constitution needs checking approximately every five years and SKC can help you review your existing articles of association – Contact Sarah or Georgie at our First Step Support service for support.
Charity Governance Code
Visit the Charity Governance Code to see the seven hallmarks of a good charity. There is a self- assessment tool on the website that you can use to review your Board.
National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
Governance:
Have a huge array of Governance and Trustee resources including their know.how guides to Governance including Getting Started with Governance and Improving Your Governance Practice which includes a Trustee Skills Audit and Trustee Induction Schedule and Pack.
Another free resource is The Governance Wheel a tool to measure and develop your governance and leadership, which links to The Charity Governance Code above. Measuring Up Impact is another useful tool to improve the way you plan, evidence, communicate and learn from the difference that your charity’s work makes.
Strategy:
The Strategy and Planning section of their website is useful and leads you to their excellent Knowhow guides on strategy (this is a free page with useful strategy information), including producing your strategic plan. Some content is for members only.
A reminder, they have made all COVID-19 resources free to access.
Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR)
Offer leaders of smaller voluntary organisations online peer support sessions during this prolonged period of stress and uncertainty.
Cranfield Trust
Support is available from skilled business volunteers. Cranfield Trust are offering their services remotely and are encouraging charities to get in touch with them.
Charity Excellence Framework (CEF)
Have a website full of free resources, including a funder finder database, the latest Covid funders and core funders, plus the 50 Charity Excellence downloadable funder lists; and lists of organisations and skilled professionals who help the voluntary sector for free.
Provide a self-assessment tool for you to use to review your organisation’s effectiveness. Sign up and then do questionnaires on the health of your organisation – within each questionnaire there are many useful resources. Their LinkedIn page has a huge range of links and useful information.
The Charity Commission
Charity Commission Guidance from setting up a charity to closing a charity and everything in between.
They published five new guides or 5-minute reads for Trustees Week 2020:
- Charity Finances: Find out how to make sure that your charity’s money is safe, properly used and accounted for.
- Charity Rules and Purposes
- Conflicts of interest: what charity trustees need to know and do to manage them.
- Making decisions: what charity trustees need to know and do.
- Your charity and the Charity Commission: what to send and what help you can get.
Small Charities Coalition
Members can access an excellent general resources page. It’s free for organisations to join the Small Charities Coalition. Sign up here to access their resources.
Volunteer Management
Handy downloadable resources and templates for volunteer management (click the orange links below to automatically download the documents):
BHIB Charities Insurance
Have teamed up with SKC to support organisations across the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector.
What type of insurance should I consider for my charity?
What is Trustee Indemnity insurance?
Charity Mentors Kent and Medway
Offer charities and not-for-profit community organisations in Kent and Medway to meet Mentors for free strategic advice.
Social Enterprise Kent
Support a huge range of new and existing social enterprises through support capacity building programmes
Lloyds Bank Foundation
Have published a new toolkit: How to be a Changemaker with questions and tools to support you as a small organisation to be an effective influencer. They aim to help you answer the questions what should you ask for and how to successfully get others on board.
Catalyst
Promote open learning, encouraging organisations to share tech and tools. The Open Working Lineup (OWL) is a team of service and content designers helping Catalyst funded charities work in the open and reuse existing tools and tech.
Blog: what is working in the open for non profits
See our Marketing and Communications resources for more help with digital.
Hyper Island Toolbox
Hyper Island design learning experiences that help you make progress in your career and accelerate business transformation. They have designed this free toolbox for anyone who wants to do things more creatively and collaboratively in their team or organisation. It includes tips on everything from team working to wellbeing.