Charity Boards are required to understand and manage risk, but are many viewing risk as just a threat, or are they also seeing the opportunity? Much of the guidance available for chairs and trustees emphasises the importance of minimising risks using tools such as ‘risk registers’ and ‘heat maps’; however, recent studies and analyses demonstrate that these approaches do not improve decision-making. In addition, these tools were not designed for the charity operating environment. They focus on minimising harm and do not support organisations in making informed decisions to grow their impact and realise the full potential of the charity’s work.
The Charity Finance Group (www.cfg.org.uk) and The Risk Collaborative (www.TheRiskCollaborative.org) are currently working with the Charity Commission to rewrite the CC26 guidance on risk in order to help boards to:
- Effectively manage the major threats to the charity
- Identify opportunities for growing impact so that board decisions address the upside of taking risks
- Understanding what is within, and what is not within, the control of the board
Join us (Association of Chairs) for an update on this work, which we believe will be interesting, stimulating and challenging.
Association of Chairs membership info - https://associationofchairs.co.uk/about-us/join-the-association-of-chairs/