Trustees today are expected to volunteer to govern in especially challenging times.

So how can boards lead well in a demanding political, cultural, financial and fast-changing environment? And, more specifically, what can boards get right when things go (very) wrong?

Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Bayes Business School, Steph Harland and Nick Wilkie joined nearly 100 chairs, trustees and chief executives at Trustee Exchange to think about how Boards might overcome even the most challenging of contexts and events.

In this article, we explore whether trusteeship really is tougher now. In the next two parts, we’ll look at seven aspects of preparedness that boards should consider, before exploring what effective boards have done well when things have actually hit the fan.

Is Trusteeship really any tougher now?

Pretty much every generation has harked back to a peaceable golden age, usually 30 years ago.

In the 80s, folk thought the 50’s had never had it so good.

Now many of us hark back to all things ’97, the age of 20+ Policy Action Teams all engaging our sector, junior minsters and senior civil servants eager to hear from front-line charities, MPs and think-tanks bristling with ideas, a Treasury with funds to pay for them.

Is it really any harder now? Or are we simply mourning our early careers? Middle age might have caught up with us both. But we don’t really think we’re guilty of nostalgia.

We think it’s reasonable to suggest at least five suspiciously apocalyptic-looking horseriders galloping around our sector now

One, support in many instances is declining. NCVO’s ever-reliable Almanac tells us fundraised income rebounded strongly after the pandemic but that larger charities have captured most of the growth. Meanwhile it seems we’re in the midst of a generational shift in how people support, not ‘just’ financially but in terms of attitude towards institutions.

Two, it’s (always) the economy. Cost bases have spiralled in synch with the depletion of individual incomes placing ever-greater pressure on our clients’ lives and the support they seek. One advice charity told us recently that even though their income has nearly doubled, greater complexity of need means the number of people they are able to support has remained the same, despite them becoming more efficient in how they manage caseloads.

Three, people. We saw sharp decline in formal volunteering during and after Covid-19, with only limited recovery so far. Charities are still recruiting volunteers, but participation remains below pre-pandemic levels. And whilst changing expectations and patterns around employment can (and should be) discussed in depth, we don’t know a single leader who thinks the world of work is what it was a decade ago. There may well be some advantages in this. But it feels beyond debate that a fundamental shift in the social contract of work generates novel demands on organisational norms and thus good governance.

Four, political fluidity. Opportunities to influence are different in a multi-party polity where majorities can be both broad and shallow. Whilst the means of influence are shifting in ways we suspect few if any of us really understand. How to optimise and govern a campaigning charity now?

Five, data and tech. Both defensively in terms of security, and expansively with reference to pinning down precisely what digital transformation should be. (And if anybody has a case-study of a major tech programme that has come in on-time, under budget we’ll buy you a very good lunch to learn about it.)

None of this is to suggest good governance has ever been a breeze. Still less that there aren’t opportunities around us now. (We’re long-term optimists by nature and experience.) Yet, there do seem to be clear and specific challenges to good governance now. The question is, what to do about them?

Find out more