Report calls for campaign to promote trusteeship and a register of board vacancies

The report, commissioned by the Charity Commission and the Office for Civil Society, says there are fewer trustees than thought and most are male, retired and well-off

A report revealing that the majority of trustees are male, retired and well-off has called for a national campaign to promote trusteeship and a national register of trustee vacancies.

The report, Taken on Trust: The Awareness and Effectiveness of Charity Trustees in England and Wales, was commissioned by the Charity Commission and the Office for Civil Society, and is based on a survey of about 3,500 trustees carried out by Cass Business School and the Cranfield Trust in January.

The report says that there are 150,000 fewer trustees in England and Wales than previously believed. The commission register records about 950,000 trustee roles, of which 100,000 are identified as being held by someone who holds another role, which suggests there are about 850,000 trustees. But the report concludes that the total number of people serving as trustees is closer to 700,000.

Researchers found that 64 per cent of trustees and 71 per cent of chairs are male, and that 75 per cent of trustees have a household income above the national average.

The most common average age of a trustee board is between 55 and 64, and slightly more than half of trustees – 51 per cent – are retired. Among charities with annual incomes of less than £10,000, the average age of trustee boards increases to between 65 and 74.

More than four out of five (82 per cent) of trustees said they understood their general legal obligations as trustees, but in charities with incomes of less than £10,000 a year, a quarter of trustees said they did not know they had a collective responsibility for all the decisions taken by the board, whether or not they personally contributed to the decision in question.

The areas where most charities reported a lack of skills on their boards were legal, digital, fundraising, marketing and campaigning.

“There is some concern expressed regarding their role and ability in the prevention of fraud and mitigation against external cyber-attack,” the report says.

“These factors increase as the size of the charity reduces; one in five trustees in the smallest charities lack confidence in their competence in these respects.”

A second report published by the commission today, based on research by Cranfield and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, says that trustees do not take up the support offered to them and the market for this help is not functioning well.

In its recommendations, the main report calls for voluntary sector umbrella bodies, supported by the government and the Charity Commission, to establish a campaign to promote the value of trusteeship to public life, beneficiaries and trustees themselves, and promote greater diversity within charity trustee boards.

It says the government “should play its part in resourcing such a campaign” and it should be match funded by the charity sector and the private sector.

The vast majority of trustees (71 per cent) said they had been recruited through an informal process, the report says.

In response to the finding, the report says: “A national register and regional registers of trustee vacancies should be established and publicised widely.”

Helen Stephenson, the chief executive of the commission, said it was heartening that the research showed trustees were positive about the role.

“But there is no room for complacency about the state of trusteeship,” she said.

“Trustees do not reflect the communities charities serve. Charities are therefore at risk of missing out on the widest range of skills, experience and perspective at board level.”

She warned that uniformity at board level risked creating a culture of group-think, where decisions were never challenged, and said she hoped the findings would be a catalyst for change.

Source link

More than half of charities lack basic digital skills, says Lloyds Bank report

Its 2017 UK Business Digital Index says three-quarters of charities do not feel they are digitally skilled enough to protect from fraud and scams

Three-quarters of charities feel they do not have the digital skills to protect themselves from fraud and scams, and more than half are lacking basic digital skills, according to a report from Lloyds Bank.

Published today, the UK Business Digital Index 2017 measures the digital capability of 2,000 UK small businesses, including 500 charities, using a combination of actual online behaviour and survey analysis to understand their attitudes to digital technology.

Although 58 per cent of charitable donations are given in cash, the growth in online payment capability and the increase in online accounting services (two in three charities are now using these) means that there is a need for charities to improve their online safety and security, the report says.

But the report says that 75 per cent of UK charities are not confident of preventing criminal activity.

The index says that more businesses and charities are becoming more digitally capable, but there is a growing minority of organisations with low capability, including an estimated 100,000-plus UK charities that lack one or more of five “basic digital skills” (see “Basic digital skills in the report”).

Of the 52 per cent lacking basic digital skills, 5 per cent of charities had none of the five.

However, nearly half of the 500 charities surveyed do have the full set of skills, the report says, and 20 per cent (equating to about 40,000 charities) are “on the cusp” of gaining full basic digital skills, with four of the five areas covered.

The report says that the areas most lacking among voluntary organisations and which need most focus are those of “managing information” (missing in 42 per cent of charities surveyed) and “problem-solving” (36 per cent).

Compared with a similar exercise carried out last year, the 2017 report says that problem-solving “continued to be the skill with the greatest opportunity for development” among charities. It saus although 64 per cent of charities exhibit these skills, there is scope for many charities to take advantage of using technology to help them reduce costs and increase efficiency.

The report says the number of charities using online analytics remains very low, although it has increased from 6 per cent in 2016 to 11 per cent this year, and 81 per cent do not store digital information on their customers and suppliers. The authors say this presents “a huge opportunity for charities to learn more about their donor and volunteer bases using free trails such as Google Analytics or Webtrends”.

Almost three-quarters of charities report time savings as the greatest key benefit, increasing to 90 per cent among those regarded as the most digitally capable, says the report.

Attracting more volunteers and donors, more effective marketing and increased interaction with supporters, simplified payment and donations processes, and cost savings also feature highly among the benefits to organisations with greater digital skills.

The report says that organisations with high digital capability are more likely to invest further in digital; 83 per cent of this group say they are confident in the future of their charities and are twice as likely to see growth as important or very important to their charities’ strategies.

Among those charities with the lowest digital capabilities, motivation remains the biggest barrier, the report says.

More than a third (33 per cent) of those in this group say that being online is not seen as relevant, a figure that has remained virtually static since 2014. However, a lack of staff digital skills (31 per cent) and a lack of time (24 per cent) are also seen as major barriers to developing digital capabilities.

Nick Williams, managing director, consumer and commercial digital at Lloyds Bank, said: “Small businesses and charities demonstrating low digital capabilities are increasing, and they are at risk of falling further behind. There are now 1.6 million small businesses and still 100,000 charities without the full set of basic digital skills. It is still alarming to hear that one-third of charities and one-quarter of small businesses still do not see how digital is relevant to them.”

Source link

Terrorism risk for charity funds downgraded by Treasury report from medium-high to low

This year’s National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing says little use of charity funds to finance terrorist activity has happened

The risk of charities being used to fund terrorism has been downgraded from medium-high to low, according to a risk assessment carried out by the Treasury and the Home Office.

The National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing 2017, published yesterday afternoon, says comparatively little terrorist financing is known to have happened given the size of the charity sector. It praises the Charity Commission’s work in this area.

But it warns that some charities, particularly those working abroad, are still vulnerable to this kind of abuse, and says the problem could intensify if banks continue to withdraw services from charities that operate in high-risk areas.

The last National Risk Assessment was published in 2015 and estimated the risk of terrorist financing using charities to be medium-high.

But the latest report deems the risk to be low, saying: “While the risks in the sector are unchanged, government and law enforcement agencies have conducted significant work since 2015 to increase understanding of the sector and the risks that it faces around terrorist financing.

“In comparison to the overall size of the UK charity sector, the amount of known abuse for terrorist financing is very low.”

The document says it is unlikely any charities had been set up specifically to finance terrorism.

But it warns that the 13,000 to 16,000 UK charities that operate internationally face “significantly higher risks”, particularly those operating in areas such as Syria and Iraq.

The 30 per cent of these charities with annual incomes of less than £10,000 are especially vulnerable to abuse because they are less likely to be receiving professional advice and could make honest mistakes or adopt poor practices that put them at risk, the report says.

Where charities have been linked to financing terrorism, the report says, “a significant proportion” have been legitimate charities that have fallen victim to internal abuse by employees, volunteers or trustees, or they have been looted in the country in which they operate.

Latest headlines

A number of aid organisations have had their bank accounts frozen or closed by banks in recent years because of concerns about operating in high-risk areas.

The report acknowledges this and warns: “If this trend persists, de-risking may have the effect of pushing charities out of more intensely regulated areas of activity and into higher risk ways of working, such as transacting through physical cash or unregulated money service businesses, thereby increasing the risks in the sector.”

In the UK, the charities most likely to be at risk are those operating in London, the Midlands and north-west England, according to the report.

The report says the Charity Commission’s outreach programme focusing on charities identified as high-risk has been effective and, with the commission’s guidance and regulatory alerts, was likely to have contributed to reducing the risk of abuse from within charities.

Michelle Russell, director of investigations, monitoring and enforcement at the commission, welcomed the report.

In a statement, she said: “It is essential that those charities that are at greater risk take steps to protect themselves so that charitable funds are not abused.

“Any trace of terrorist financing within the sector corrodes public confidence in charities and cannot be tolerated. One case is one too many, which is why we continue to work proactively with the subsection of the sector that remains at high risk.”

She urged charities to review the compliance resources available in the commission’s website and to ensured they had strong financial, due-diligence and monitoring controls in place to prevent terrorist exploitation.

Source link

Report recommends improved mental health policies in the workplace

Thriving at Work, written by Paul Farmer of Mind and the peer Lord Stevenson, sets out six ‘mental health core standards’

All workplaces, including those in the charity sector, need to improve their mental health policies for employees, with 300,000 people across the country losing their jobs every year because of poor mental health, a new report says.

The report, Thriving at Work, written by Mind chief executive Paul Farmer, and the crossbench peer Lord Stevenson, was commissioned by the Prime Minister, Theresa May, in January to examine how employers could better support staff with mental ill-health.

The report says poor mental health costs the UK between £74bn and £99bn a year, whereas effective mental health policies have a return of between £1.50 and £9 for every £1 invested in them.

It also sets out six “mental health core standards”, which include promoting effective people management, routinely monitoring employee mental health and wellbeing, and developing mental health awareness among employees.

Other core standards it suggests include producing and implementing plans for mental health at work, promoting a healthy work-life balance and encouraging open conversations about mental health.

Online portals in which to discuss mental health and wellbeing guidance and using digital technology to support remote workers are also recommended in the report.

Farmer said: “We found that, in many workplaces, mental health is still a taboo subject and opportunities are missed to prevent poor mental health and ensure employees who might be struggling get the support they need. In many instances employers simply don’t understand the crucial role they can play, or know where to go for advice and support.

“Every employer in the UK has a responsibility to support employees with mental health problems and promote the mental wellbeing of their entire workforce.”

Third Sector ran a series of online features on mental health in charity workplaces earlier this month, for which Farmer contributed an article in which he said it was crucial for charity leaders to set good examples on mental health.

“The most crucial thing is leadership,” Farmer said in the article. “Despite what we might like to believe, senior leaders are not immune to stress and mental health problems at work, and only by acknowledging that can we set the best example.

“Taking responsibility for our own mental wellbeing, being honest with ourselves about what our limitations are and doing our best to maintain a good work-life balance are the only ways to make sure our staff do the same. We are surrounded by people who are passionate about their work and who will happily go the extra mile, but if we set the wrong example we can’t expect our teams not to repeat our own bad habits.”

Source link

It’s a boom time for major giving, says nfpSynergy report

The Major Donor Giving Research Report gathers together the findings of research on major donors from the past five years

The UK is experiencing a “boom time” for major giving, an nfpSynergy report that collates available research on major donors has concluded.

The report, Major Donor Giving Research Report: an updated synthesis of research into major donors and philanthropic giving, published today by the research consultancy, summarises the findings of research on major donors from the past five years.

The study points out that much has changed since nfpSynergy compiled a similar report five years ago, particularly in the wake of the vote to leave the European Union. But despite fears about the impact of Brexit on the economy, the number of billionaires has increased to record levels since the vote, the report says.

“Whilst data on major donor giving since the Brexit vote is not yet available, major donor fundraising continues to be a fast-growing element of UK charity fundraising activity, and a small proportion of ‘major’ donors disproportionately shape giving in the UK,” the report says.

“There is now credible year-on-year data to substantiate claims of it being (at least pre-Brexit) a ‘boom time’ for UK philanthropy.”

The report draws on the Coutts Million Pound Donors Report 2016 by University of Kent academic Beth Breeze to support its conclusions, and also highlights recommendations from Breeze’s report in collaboration with Theresa Lloyd, Richer Lives: why rich people give, both which called on charities to address their lack of confidence in their own competence at asking for major donations.

Joe Saxton, co-founder of nfpSynergy, said: “Most people I talk to would say that major donors are going to be a bigger part of the funding mix because the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation will make it hard to talk to large databases of donors.

“Major donors will be more likely to feature in people’s work and thinking going forward.”

The report points out that there is no set definition of what constitutes a major donor, although Breeze suggests £5,000 as an industry standard, and instead says they are more generally defined as people who make large personal donations to charitable organisations

It takes into account research from the US, which it concludes remains significantly ahead of any other country in terms of giving, having given $258.5bn (£197bn) to charity in 2015, compared with $17.4bn (£13.2bn) in the UK. This might be due, research suggests, to differences between the tax regimes and the tendency for giving in the US to be more public than in the UK.

But the report says there is more to large-scale philanthropy than money.

“It remains easy to define major donors in financial terms, yet this is to underestimate the breadth of engagement that major donors may offer the charity sector, whether this is time, advice, expertise and contacts,” it says.

Source link

Money held in banks by largest charities increases to £16.2bn over the past year, report finds

The latest figures, from the charity data website Charity Financials, are based on data from the largest 5,000 UK charities by income, expenditure or net assets

The amount of money held in banks by the UK’s largest charities has increased by £300m over the past year to a total £16.2bn, according to a new report on charities and the banking sector.

The latest Charity Banking Spotlight, which is produced by the charity data website Charity Financials and based on the top 5,000 charities in terms of income, expenditure or net assets, says the most recent figure is still below the peak of £16.8bn in 2012, but almost £600m more than in 2014.

The report identifies the Charities Aid Foundation as having the most cash in hand or at the bank, with the charity having £768.8m.

CAF, which runs its own bank, had the most borrowing with £1bn – about £700m more than the charity in second place, Aston Student Villages.

Latest headlines

The Church Commissioners of England had the greatest change in cash levels over the past year, with a £49.1m increase to a total of £440.7m, the report says.

More than half of the charities surveyed have been with their bank for more than a decade, the report says, and HSBC saw the biggest fall in cash levels, with a drop of £287m.

Barclays, which also sponsored the report, was the most popular bank among the top 5,000 charities, and also is the bank of choice for a third of the top 100 charities in terms of income, the report says.

But NatWest holds the most cash on behalf of charities, with £3.2bn compared with Barclays’ £3.1bn, the report says.

Source link

Charities in north-west England contribute £2.5bn a year to the region, report finds

But study says that those in the poorest areas are the most likely to be financially vulnerable

Charities in north-west England contribute £2.5bn a year to the region’s economy, a new study has found.

Third Sector Trends in the North West 2016, which was published last week, says voluntary sector organisations in the region have an estimated 110,000 full-time equivalent employees spread across more than 10,000 organisations.

But although the report says that most organisations are in good financial health, it adds that those in the poorest areas are twice as likely to be in financially vulnerable positions than those in the more affluent areas.

The report, which was written by Professor Tony Chapman of St Chad’s College, Durham University, is part of a three-year programme of work led by the think tank IPPR North on the state of civil society and the voluntary sector in the north of England.

Chapman’s report is based on an online survey completed last year by more than 1,400 third-sector organisations in north-west England.

Researchers found that 30 per cent of charities in the poorest areas believed they were financially vulnerable, compared with 14 per cent in the richest areas.

Organisations working with people from minority ethnic groups were the most likely to feel they were in weak financial positions, the report says, followed by those tackling concerns about gender and sexuality.

The report says the voluntary sector in the region “is very much a local sector”, with 30 per cent of organisations working solely at neighbourhood or village level and 62 per cent within the boundaries of one local authority. Only 9 per cent operate at a national or international level, it says.

It says the voluntary sector in the region is dominated by small and medium-sized third-sector organisations, representing 6,306 and 4,425 charities respectively.

There are only about 835 charities with annual incomes of more than £500,000, says the report.

Using data from across the north of England generally, the report says the figures indicates that the proportion of part-time staff in the sector has risen from 35 per cent to 45 per cent over the past eight years.

Charities in the north west of England draw upon an estimated 440,400 volunteers who contribute more than 31.7 million hours of work a year, worth at least £228m, the report says.

Jack Hunter, research fellow at IPPR North, said the data showed charities in the region were “an economic powerhouse in their own right”.

But he said the link between deprivation and a charity’s overall financial health was worrying. “Those that are arguably doing some of the most important work with the most excluded north-west communities appear to be suffering the most as a result of the government’s austerity policies,” he said.

“More attention must be paid to poorer parts of our region, where charities and other third-sector organisations are most likely to be in vulnerable financial situations.”

Source link

Charity’s app allows people to report cetacean sightings

Whale Track from the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust was helped by a grant of more than £79,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund

The conservation charity the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust has developed an app to allow people and boat operators to report sightings of whales, dolphins and porpoises off the Scottish coast.

The Whale Track app was made possible by a grant of more than £79,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and is available to download to Apple and Android phones and tablets for free.

The app is designed to work in areas with little or no network coverage, so that boat operators, fishermen and other seafarers can share their sightings, and coastal communities and visitors can report their sightings from land.

Of the 92 whale, dolphin and porpoise species in the world, 24 have been spotted off the coast of western Scotland. The app includes a guide to help people identify the marine life they see.

All the scientific data collected by the app feeds into a web portal, allowing anyone to see what sightings have been reported and where.

Registered users will also be able to upload photographs.

Dr. Lauren Hartny-Mills, the charity’s science officer, said: “Whale Track is an exciting innovation that will help to gather crucial data that will improve our understanding of local species of cetaceans – especially coastal species such as bottlenose dolphins and rarer ones including killer whales and humpback whales – and  inform policies to safeguard them.

“By using the technology most of us carry around in our pockets, Whale Track makes recording and submitting sightings of marine mega-fauna more convenient and accessible to everyone. This is important in an area that is difficult to monitor because of the nature of the remote coastline.”

Whale Track has been developed by the mobile app company Natural Apptitude.

Lucy Casot, head of HLF Scotland, said: “Our natural heritage is a most precious resource and, thanks to National Lottery players, Heritage Lottery Fund grants have helped to protect an amazing range of landscapes, habitats and species of plants and animals.

“HLF is delighted to support the Whale Track app, which will stimulate people’s interest in the marine wildlife along Scotland’s west coast and help them conserve it for future generations.”

Source link

Avoid word-of-mouth trustee recruitment, says ICSA report

The governance institute says this is not the best way to improve diversity or to demonstrate that a charity is impartial and effective in recruiting board members

Charities should avoid word-of-mouth recruitment of trustees where possible and focus on increasing the diversity and skills of their boards, according to guidance issued by the governance institute the ICSA.

In a report on charity trustee recruitment published today, the ICSA says that fewer than 10 per cent of trustee positions are advertised, with many charities relying on approaching people who are already known to the board.

The report says that although this method can lead to the appointment of competent trustees, “it is not necessarily the most appropriate for demonstrating that the charity is impartial and effective in the way it recruits its trustees”.

It says: “It has also been shown that word-of-mouth recruitment tends to result in boards that are not very diverse, and this can have an adverse impact on the quality of the board’s decision-making.”

The ICSA says in the report that charities that recruit trustees from their membership face a similar problem and can, as a result, fail to attract a diverse range of candidates “with the skills, experiences and expertise the board needs”.

But co-opting trustees is supported in the report as an effective way to recruit people with the skills needed for the charity’s medium to long-term success.

The report adds that meetings with potential trustees are important because they provide an opportunity to assess the skills, competence and enthusiasm of the potential board members.

A meeting could also help select trustees who can add to the existing skills and personality of the board and help “wider diversity issues to be broached with an initial assessment of personality, background and experiences that can help engender a diverse approach to decision-making in the boardroom”, the report says.

For larger charities, this might best be done through a formal interview panel, the report says.

After recruitment, appointment and induction of trustees, ongoing training, assessment and development are also required for board members, the report says, to ensure that their knowledge is up to date and relevant, and that the board functions effectively.

The report says: “Establishing robust systems for recruiting trustees from a range of backgrounds and communities provides charities with the best possible opportunities to find people with a range of skills and experiences of use to the charity and the activities it offers to support beneficiaries.

“Furthermore, by attracting trustees from the beneficiary groups of the charity, the organisation will strengthen its claim to be serving the needs of the beneficiaries as best it can.”

The report can be downloaded here.

Source link