Governance

Are You Ready For Automation?

Co-authored with Ashlea Faulkner Automation is the use of technology to perform manual and repetitive tasks. Automation can range from simple tools like mail merges or online forms to more complex systems like robotic process automation (RPA) or artificial intelligence (AI). Automation can bring many benefits to not-for-profit organisations, such as saving time, reducing errors, improving quality, freeing up staff for more strategic or creative work and achieving financial sustainability. This article will explore what not-for-profit organisations need to consider before adopting automation and how they can foster an innovation mindset to embrace new opportunities and overcome challenges.

Advisory Boards for Not-for-Profits

Jump to Section What Is an Advisory Board? Advisory Board Benefits Common Challenges & Risks Slow Decision Making Bad Communication Shadow Directors Under-Commitment Advisory Board Roles and Responsibilities Tips for Running Advisory Boards Setting Up the Board Sourcing Advisors Running Board Meetings Further Resources As a not-for-profit organisation, forming an advisory board can be a strategic way of gaining access to advice and expertise. Advisory board members bring fresh ideas, new networking opportunities, and partnerships to the table.

Purpose-Led Governance for Mission-Driven Organisations

What does it mean to govern with and for purpose? How do we really listen to and account for stakeholder interests? How is impact centred in our work and protected in our governance? How do our governance structures reflect our ambition for systems change? These are questions we have long been considering at B Lab Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand (AANZ), and questions that are highly relevant to our work as part of a global movement seeking to transform the way businesses operate and contribute to economic systems change for the benefit of people and the planet.

Achieving Transformative Governance Change

Good governance is the soil in which healthy not-for-profits grow, but if organisations fail to renew their arrangements over time, they may fail to bloom and reach their full potential. Governance frameworks should be dynamic and responsive to organisational growth, developments in best practice governance and changes in the regulatory landscape. The possible range of governance reforms is broad. It can range from changes in board or member composition to constitutional reform to a change from a federated body to a single national body or changes in the form of incorporation.

It Takes Two To Tango

The role of an NFP director continues to become more complex in an increasingly challenging environment. Half of directors who responded to a recent survey1 stated they are spending more time on their director role compared to the previous year. One way to keep this in check is to focus on improving how information flows between your organisation and your board, and vice-versa. A fundamental mechanism for information flow is the reports presented to your board from the CEO and management.

School Governance 101

Schools face a number of challenges — and so do the boards that govern them. While concern about some of these challenges has fluctuated since 2014, high salary costs and school fees as well as compliance issues have remained top priorities for governors for almost a decade. Twelve key characteristics of effective school boards define healthy school governance and present opportunities to improve at every turn. By adopting most or all of these characteristics, schools can mitigate many of the issues they face today.

Constitutions – The Foundations of Good Governance

Constitutions are crucial documents. At a national level, they describe how a country is governed. In democracies Prime Ministers and Presidents are elected to office following the processes described in a nation’s constitution. The Australian parliament states that the “national constitution is a set of rules for governing a country”. Similarly, constitutions lie at the heart of associations and charities and provide their rules. Significantly, they define who the members are and the process by which the organisation is run and elects its leadership.

In Service of Two Masters – Conflicts in the Context of Multiple Directorships

Director recruitment is an important task for both not-for-profit and for-profit organisations alike. It is an opportunity to enhance the skills, experience and diversity of the existing board and ensure the directors are best placed to serve the organisation into the future. But what happens when the preferred candidate already sits on multiple boards, including the board of a potential competitor? It is a well-known principle of corporate governance that a director owes certain duties to the organisation they serve.

How to Handle Conflicts of Interest at your Not-for-profit Organisation

A conflict of interest occurs when someone has the opportunity to use their authority to benefit themselves, instead of the party they’re supposed to be serving. In not-for-profits (NFPs), this can take the form of awarding lucrative supply contracts to family or friends, giving certain people exclusive benefits, or interfering with awards. NFPs have to consistently monitor for conflicts of interest, so that changes with the agenda and board members’ circumstances don’t create an issue no one catches.

Climate Risk Governance – The Role of the Board

Organisations can no longer ignore the pressing need for a proper climate risk governance strategy. Corporate liability due to failure to discharge duty in direct relation to climate risk is now a reality. Boards and directors can — and should — systematically apply a climate risk governance strategy to ensure they have discharged due care and diligence to mitigate this risk. At one of our recent webinars on Climate Risk Governance, Charlotte Turner, Senior Associate at MinterEllison, presented the key ways in which not-for-profit (NFP) boards and directors should effectively govern climate risk.