Third sector management, finance

Publications
A Breath of Fresh Air: young people as charity trustees
Charity Commission, 2010
This report examines the experience of 18-24 year-olds as charity trustees and young volunteers’ attitudes to trusteeship. It identifies as problems that young people are significantly under-represented in this role, that few know about it, and that charities are failing to think how to attract them.

Actually doing more with less: avoiding the traps of traditional budget-cutting
Monitor, 2011
This short and practical report presents a new strategy for unlocking more value out of fewer resources, particularly aimed at the public sector. 

CC14: Charities and Investment Matters: a guide for trustees
Charity Commission, 2011
This updated investment guidance describes the legal duties and principles that apply to charity investments and the risks that trustee must address. It covers programme-related investment, revenue participation or quasi-equity, outcomes-based investment (e.g. social impact bonds), loans and loan funds, and “mixed motive” investments. 

Challenges of organizational learning
Katie Smith Milway, Bridgespan Group, 2011
While most non-profit leaders view knowledge sharing as a critical means to advance their organisations' missions, many organisations struggle to do it effectively. Based on a survey of 116 groups, this report finds that most nonprofits, regardless of size and field, struggle to develop clear, measurable goals that connect knowledge sharing to improvements in performance. The report encourages best practice such as articulating clear goals around knowledge sharing, incentivising knowledge sharing, and showing how it can be managed and applied.

Community organisations: a guide to effectiveness
Angela Kail, Sarah Keen and Tris Lumley, New Philanthropy Capital, 2011
A practical guide to help community organisations ensure they are as effective as possible and communicate that effectiveness. The paper covers six areas; activities, results, leadership, people and resources, finances and ambition and is based on NPC’s methodology for charity analysis. 

Consortia for the delivery of public services: the issues for small and medium-sized charities
Charity Commission, 2011
The benefits that can come from working in consortia, including accessing additional funding, building capacity through peer support and sharing resources and back office facilities. It is a careful look at issues of governance, mitigation of risk, and other important factors.

Getting on brilliantly: running effective meetings and events
Annette Zera and Susan Murray
A distillation of much experience into a book available as a free download. The book contains over 70 different tried and tested ideas to make meetings more participative, productive and enjoyable. The website also contains reports of some of the events Annette has facilitated.

Investing in social growth - Can the Big Society be more than a slogan?
The Young Foundation, 2011
How the Big Society idea could be made more tangible and useful, drawing on many examples ranging from community organising to jobs, social enterprise and data management. It identifies the gap between the ambition of the Big Society and the modest proposals currently associated with it, and of the risk of big public expenditure cuts. It shows how government could develop better tools for judging the social value of public programmes and spending, to reduce the harm associated with deficit reduction. 

Managing risk: operating in the new world
Charity Finance Directors Group, 2011
The annual risk survey report, with information from 288 charities about how they are responding to social, policy and financial changes. It highlights a “fundamental imbalance” between supply and demand in the sector, with charities seeing increased demand for their services but being unable to invest enough to meet that demand and few doing enough to secure their long-term future.

Story of a merger and Merger as strategy
IVAR, 2012
Two reports based on feedback from staff and trustees involved in the respective mergers of DTA and bassac. The reports provide an insight into the planning, discussions and challenges of merger, as well as some of the critical success factors. 

Supportive to the core: why unrestricted funding matters
Institute for Philanthropy, 2009
Core funding has traditionally been a tricky issue for funders and voluntary organisations alike. Some funders are reluctant to support core costs, seeing project funding as providing more direct benefit whilst some voluntary organisations find it difficult to communicate their core needs. On both sides there can be reluctance against funding, or admitting to, ‘overheads’ even when these represent essential basics like HR, IT and accounting costs. The report looks at how core support can increase grant potential, addressing the rationale and methodology of good core support. Case studies are offered from the perspective of funder and beneficiary. 

Survive and thrive
Race Online
Good use of technology to support organisations to find new routes into funding and reach more people – donors, policy makers or beneficiaries. Eight UK funders have been discussing the role of technology in the modernisation of charities and to improve their efficiency and this guide was a result, with case studies and tips on how to use technology to cut costs, raise more money, build communities, increase reach and more vividly demonstrate impact. 

Talking to trustees
Clare Yeowart and Jane Thomas, New Philanthropy Capital, 2010
How trustees can help their charities to be as effective as possible. The paper is based on discussions at a series of seminars for charity trustees that NPC organised with The Clothworkers’ Company. 

Voluntary sector independence
Panel on the Independence of the Voluntary Sector, 2011
A report to underpin a five-year study of voluntary sector independence, outlining some of the perceived threats to the sector in order to encourage responses. 

What does the voluntary sector workforce look like?
NCVO, Skills–Third Sector and Third Sector Research Centre, 2011
How the sector’s workforce changed between 2001 and 2010. Key findings include, more than half (57%) of the voluntary sector workforce being employed in “health and social work”, equating to 437,000 people.

What future for London’s third sector providers in Europe 2020?John Griffiths, Rocket Science, 2011
The changes to European commissioning, and the likely impact of those changes to the ESF programme in London and on the VCS in particular.