|
Overall responsibility for the control and management
of the charity rests with the Management Committee.
Depending on the nature and size of the organisation
it is normal to delegate responsibilities of the day to day volunteers
and employees.
-
Develop a strategy/future development plan
-
Safeguard assets
-
Need of beneficiaries
-
Draw up budget
-
Constantly renew and assess performances both
financial and
-
Comply with regulations – Health and
Safety, COSHE
-
Define the operating structures.
Charity Commission leaflet CL3 – Responsibility of Charity Trustees
Liability – if trustees act sensibly and within the
law then any liabilities c/o charity business will be met from
personally liable and as the present law stands fellow trustees will be
liable.
Areas of risk
-
Where charity is acting outside its objects
or there is a breach of trust.
-
Failure to follow statutory regulations
reporting required e.g. Charities Act 1993.
-
Where the charity continues to operate the is
involvement (i.e. cannot meets its debts)
IMPORTANT TASKS
A PLANNING THE ORGANISATIONS DEVELOPMENT
-
Irrespective of the size of the organisation
a long term plan (2-5yrs) should be developed.
-
Review the objects ®
mission statement.
-
Review needs of beneficiaries – ask them
what they need.
-
Appraise current operations and create an
action plan giving a time scale for implementation and
additional resources required.
-
Prepare a budget for the organisation and for
individual projects if relevant.
-
Use the right accounts to monitor the
progress of the plans. Compare actual figures with the original
budget. Identify major differences and determine if additional
resources are requires for if any resources need to be
reallocated.
-
Assess the risk of your operations and try to
anticipate a way out of any problems you may encounter.
-
Listen to the ideas and concerns of staff and
volunteers – they can often see the pitfalls that management,
being one step removed cannot.
B DEVELOP INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
-
Share the information and ideas with the
people who will carry out work on the ground i.e. the staff and
volunteers. Involving them in setting the ‘grades’ will
encourage commitment.
-
The flow of information should work both ways
and both are equally important.
-
MC ¬ staff and
volunteers
Information can be shared by newsletter, meetings
social events, charity etc.
C REVIEW EFFICIENCY
-
Are the staff/volunteers using their time
efficiently or would some of the tasks be performed better by an
outside agency or with additional training e.g. cleaning,
secretarial or financial services.
-
Externalising some tasks should be done for
the right reasons e.g. to allow staff to concentrate on the main
objectives of the work or to access new skills. It should not be
done to strip people of their skills and leave you with a ‘low
cost shell’ of an organisation which relies totally on outside
agencies.
D MANAGE THE FUNDS
-
Make sure clear and complete records are
being kept and that money given to the charity is being used for
the purpose intended by the donor.
-
Prepare and use management accounts.
-
Consider internal control of finance.
-
We are often asked what is the appropriate
levels of resent for an organisation to have. It is really a
matter of opinion!
-
Some funders do not like to see a high level
of reserves being
-
Others would not like to risk funding a
project if your reserves are pegged around zero, in case you
could not fulfil your obligations.
-
We would suggest that a minimum level is the
amount that would be sufficient to settle the organisation debts
at any point in time and allow for the winding up (therefore you
have to allow for redundancies and penalties on contracts and
unspent leases). As you can imagine this from day to day and
from organisation to organisation but it is a rough guide and
trustees should plan to review this at least once a year.
|
