This is a selection of programmes, initiatives and organisations that are aimed at increasing the number of people from under-represented groups in leadership positions (trustees and directors) in the voluntary and not-for-profit sector – with a particular emphasis on people from black and minority ethnic communities. These organisations can provide ideas and assistance for voluntary and other not-for-profit organisations that are looking to understand: more … Continue reading Welcome Aboard

This week’s Association of Charitable Foundations conference on the role every funder has in tackling the Climate Crisis, whether or not our foundation happens to prioritise climate issues, is important and @TenYearsTimeLtd report is helpful in setting out what each of us can do right now: https://tenyearstime.com/climate-change/ But we all have a tendency to allow important issues like this to be crowded out by the … Continue reading People in Glass Houses

There is now a lot of talk by some voluntary sector leaders, membership associations and infrastructure bodies about the need to tackle the diversity deficit in the voluntary sector.  That’s a good start. Here are some questions for them and the others that haven’t started yet: (1)  How are you going to coordinate, collaborate and combine your various initiatives to reduce waste, maximise resources and … Continue reading 15 People in a Room: #NotAnotherBloodyToolkit – updated

As talk and activity around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion increases in the charity/not for profit sector – we need key indicators, targets and timescales to measure change and hold ourselves and each other to account. The Institute of Fundraising’s Manifesto for Change/Change Collective Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy is a good example of how it might look http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/library/change-strategy/ For the Trust and Foundation sector we … Continue reading Make Way And Shift The Power

I remain puzzled about which particular gallery the Chair of the Charity Commission is playing to – or what undeclared agenda she has – in her repeated attacks on registered charities. But maybe there are some clues.  She apparently worked for the Conservative party from 1991 to 2001, attempted to become a Tory MP in 2010, was created a Tory life peer in 2011 and … Continue reading A Broken Record

Institutional philanthropy (specifically trusts and foundations) has been the subject of significant criticism (though that’s not the same thing as effective scrutiny – which remains lacking) over the past 12 months.  Hoarding power, disregarding equity, degrading the environment, perpetuating inequality, lacking insight, amassing wealth, obsessed with process – are just some of the charges being laid against trusts and foundations in the UK.  In the … Continue reading Foundation Leader’s Reading Lists – No 2: Modernising Foundation Philanthropy

Below is a 16 point personal action plan that I wrote shortly before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017.  Given what’s currently happening in the UK it seemed appropriate to revisit the action plan to see what I’d now change.  The answer is – only two things.  2½ years ago I thought it was enough to get ready to resist the forces of regression.  Now I … Continue reading The Gathering Storm