How charity boards can end 2021 on a high

The charity sector can all agree that the past two years have been tumultuous. Whether we were dealing with endlessly changing restrictions due to COVID-19 or adapting to new ways of hybrid working, there has not been a lot of time for charities to sit down and assess their long-term performance.

But, as 2021 draws to a close, charity boards and leadership teams will be arranging their final meetings of the year and assessing their performance should be top of the agenda. It may seem like a tiresome, or even daunting, task, but if done properly, it can give organisations a huge head start heading into 2022.

Without such assessment, improvement is impossible. A thoughtful examination of a board’s performance can direct their long-term strategy, or redirect it, if needs be and something is not working.

It reveals needed skills and enables charity leaders to look at the bigger picture – what is helpful for the future of the charity and what needs to be reworked.

Here, we look at the three stages of board assessment and what each charity board member should keep in mind as they enter the latter stages of the year.

Before

The best place to start is by getting your tools in place – professional services firm PwC actually suggests using the meeting before the final board meeting to review the questions and “have a proactive discussion about the objective of the assessment to begin with”. Do the questions in the assessment relate to the objectives you wish to discuss?

This preliminary meeting should ensure that everyone understands what they are measuring and why. Topics that could be evaluated include diversity and skills, the quality of meeting discussions, and how information gets to your board, as well as looking at risk and compliance issues like sustainability.

Once everyone is on the same page, this will encourage honesty and openness later when the assessment is actually underway.

During

Trust is extremely important for all charity boards, and this extends to the assessment process, too. Finding out what’s working in your organisation and what isn’t is not a blame game – doing it well means pulling together to find the reasons behind your performance and adapting as necessary.

Think about the tools you use to conduct the assessment too. They need to be accessible for every board member and considerations should be made for whether the meeting will go ahead in person or in a hybrid capacity.

Questionnaires on paper can easily be lost and are difficult to analyse, while PDFs aren’t the easiest to secure and will be home to a lot of sensitive information. Consider all your options – board management tools and software may be able to help you since they are designed for that very purpose.

After

There should be a full board discussion after the assessment, led by the chair, to discuss the findings. In these meetings, focus on the comments, as well as the data. Scores and rankings are all well and good, but comments are where charities can find more meaty information.

Has someone noticed any inefficiencies, for example? Is the board working well together? Objectives don’t always tell the full story. If your objectives have been met, but members of the board are unhappy with the processes, or think they can be improved, then chances are the objectives won’t be met later down the line as things continue to fester.

Once these findings have been discussed, it’s time to consider actions. Going into a new year is an ideal time for changing and adapting. “Temporal landmarks” such as 1 January can be motivational, helping us to compartmentalise and psychologically separate from everything that went before. There’s a reason we have New Year’s Resolutions – it’s the Fresh Start Effect.

The purpose of the meeting should be to come out knowing where you stand as an organisation. Board assessments shouldn’t be treated as a dull necessity, but rather as an opportunity. If you’re not measuring your performance, how can you possibly hope to improve? If something is not working, it’s best to find out now, before we head into the new year repeating all the same mistakes.