Charities are vital to the social fabric of Britain and sitting on the board of a charity is a critical leadership role. While the government toys with increasing regulation, we believe this to be little more than a knee-jerk reaction. It’s informed, skilled and confident trustees who understand their role, the purpose of their charity and the needs of their beneficiaries that are required. Increased rules and regulation doesn’t create better leaders.

At Charity Leaders, we feel strongly that against the current economic, regulatory and social backdrop, the increasing demands being placed on trustees and directors now requires a step change in the way in which these leaders are supported in what they do.

The Advanced Trustee Programme is accredited by the Institute of Leadership Management – a first for the sector – and moves away from the common short one day courses to provide participants with a far more comprehensive approach to professional development and a supportive framework.

The majority of trustees do their jobs exceptionally well as the chair of the PACAC Bernard Jenkin recognised, but with 75% not making it past the first year of their tenure, it’s clear that charities and other sector bodies must do more to support the development and efficacy of trustees. In this respect the approach shouldn’t be any different that of the private sector: it’s vital to the succession planning of charities and ensuring their sustainable future.

Take a look at what you can expect to learn from the module leaders for the programme give a brief overview of their modules:

Module 1: The Sector and the trustee role – Ian White

Being a trustee is no easy task: there is a myriad of legislation and regulation and some recent events mean that charities – and their trustees – are under the spotlight more than ever before.

This part of the programme will help you understand your responsibilities as a trustee, the regulatory environment and how to deal with risk so that you can be an effective board member and leader.  If nothing else, it will underpin the mantra that to be a valuable leader of your organisation you will need both courage and integrity.

Module 2: High performance and delivering Impact – Srabani Sen OBE

Competition for funding, the increasingly complex needs of beneficiaries, challenges to the sector’s reputation – all these factors are placing pressures on not-for-profit organisations. Trustees bear the responsibility for steering organisations through these complexities.

But how do you do this when you may only meet as a Board four times a year? How do you reach the right decisions, and ensure beneficiaries are at their heart? How do you know whether your organisation is on track?

Module 2 of the Trustee Academy programme will equip you to deal with these issues, and to drive the strategy and success of the organisation on whose board you serve.

Module 3: Cultural fit & getting things done – Nigel Kippax

The board should operate as a high performing team of trustees but recent research indicates that 75% of new trustees leave the board at the end of their first term, either because they want to leave or because they are asked to leave.  The strength of a team derives from its differences not its similarities. Good team decision making requires diversity of insight and thinking to ensure as many variables as possible are considered.

In this module we understand our preferred ways of working, examine our personal motivations for being a trustee and introduce a model for organisational culture to be used as a diagnostic for the trustee to use in their new board and examine the benefits and challenges of diversity in the board room.

The course starts soon on March 22nd so visit the Trustee Academy homepage for all the information on the course and register your interest today.