Principle 4 - Exercising Control
Digital
Digital isn’t just about channels. It’s a strategic and governance issue and charity leaders need to know how digital could help realise their vision for their charity. Equally, digital raises questions about traditional ways of leading, offering opportunities for leaders to build networks and collaborate further.
Reserves
There are three types of reserves:
Serious Incident Reporting
The Commission regards a serious incident as an adverse event, whether actual or alleged, which results in, or risks, a significant:
Accounting and Reporting Guidelines
The requirements for financial accountability produced by the Charity Commission are set out here.
Openness
Developing a culture of openness in charities can be challenging because there are some things which are confidential and should be treated as such. However committees should consider where the boundaries are and how they can communicate with people about their organisations. The creation of the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland has given the public more access than ever to information about charities.
Fundraising
Ethics in Fundraising
The recent report by the Parliamentary Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee: The 2015 charity fundraising controversy: lessons for trustees, the Charity Commission, and regulators shone a light on the ethics in fundraising in charities. It states,
Liability
The Management Committee is ultimately accountable for the organisation. They are therefore responsible or liable for the consequences of actions taken or not taken by the organisation, its staff or volunteers and other Management Committee members.
What this means is that the Management Committee may be held responsible for making good any loss or damage (financial or otherwise) to the organisation or to third parties and may be held personally responsible, where relevant.
Insurance
Management Committees need to ensure that they have assessed the types of insurance that the organisation needs to adequately protect its assets, activities, staff and volunteers. It is always important to seek professional advice in relation to particular types of insurance. More
Sub committees
Sub-committees are set up so that a small group of management committee members (and sometimes co-opted experts) may focus in detail on a particular issue. This allows the management committee to ensure that sufficient attention is being paid to the detail of specific issues without one topic dominating the committee agenda at every meeting. An example of this may be a sub-committee dealing with finance and personnel, fundraising or a specific project such as a new building or a merger.