News and views

The Importance of Good Governance

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 10:28:12 GMT

Why Good Governance Is the Lifeblood of UK Charities

In the ever-evolving landscape of the UK voluntary sector, good governance is not just a box to tick, it’s the backbone of a charity’s integrity, resilience, and impact.

With increasing public scrutiny, regulatory reform, and shifting funding models, charities are expected to be agile, transparent, and purpose-driven. Governance isn’t just about compliance, it’s about leadership. Trustees and senior teams must now navigate complex terrain: NHS transformation, digital inclusion, lived experience leadership, and safeguarding - all while staying true to mission.

Good governance is the system by which charities are directed and held accountable. It covers everything from decision-making and financial stewardship to stakeholder engagement and safeguarding.

Core pillars include:

Clarity of Purpose: Trustees understand and uphold the charity’s mission without straying into operational micromanagement.
Effective Leadership: Boards foster inclusive cultures, ensure diversity of voice, and regularly review their own performance.
Financial Transparency: Risk is acknowledged, reserves are justified, and annual reports tell the real story.
Compliance & Safeguarding: From GDPR to the Charity Commission’s guidance, legal duties are met and exceeded.
Strategic Foresight: Trustees use scenario mapping and lived experience to inform strategy, not just react to crises.

Why It Matters

Credibility With Funders: Trustworthy governance reassures funders that their grants are in safe hands. It's the difference between funding awarded and funding declined.
Empowered Leadership: Good governance enables CEOs and teams to lead with autonomy and clarity, knowing the board has their back.
Public Confidence: In a climate of misinformation and charity scandals, governance is what keeps communities engaged and invested.
Resilience in Change: Whether adapting to NHS reforms or digital innovation, governance provides the framework for confident transformation.

Practical Governance in Action

The best boards:

Use dashboards and matrices to make risk visible and manageable.
Invite lived experience into strategy spaces.
Ensure every trustee knows why they’re there , not just what their title is.

The Charity Governance Code reminds us that: good governance isn’t static. It evolves with the people, the sector, and the society it serves.

If you'd like to find out how you can improve your charity's governance, contact us today.

Your brand values are important!

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 16:07:26 GMT

Your reputation is everything.

I recently had a meeting with a fairly high profile company outside of my usual geographic area. The corporate brand of the company exudes high values and the product marketing supports it. Sadly once I was inside the organisation, the values seemed to disintegrate before my eyes. The team and staff didn't seem to notice me standing around, and no-one wanted to know. It was like I didn't matter. Customer service was out of the window, and apathy seemed to reign.

Does your brand values run through your organisational behaviours? Its worth a check today. Mystery shopper tests on your staff and team attitudes may reveal a few things.

Your reputation is everything and upholding brand values means real transformational changes may be necessary. Sometimes they just need a tweak. Either way ensure your brand values run from top to bottom and side to side throughout the whole organisation.

The Impact of the Cost of Living Crisis on Grant Funding

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 15:55:38 GMT

Looking at the effects of the Cost of Living Crisis.

.The UK's charity sector is facing many challenges, with the ongoing pandemic, rising inflation, and now the cost of living crisis putting immense pressure on their finances. This is particularly true for smaller charities, which often rely on grant funding to support their operations and deliver vital services to vulnerable communities.

Rising Costs and Lower Donations

The cost-of-living crisis has exacerbated the financial difficulties charities already face. As the cost of essential goods and services soars, charities are struggling to keep up with their rising expenses, from rent and utilities to staff salaries and food donations. This is happening

at a time when donations from individuals and businesses are also declining, as people grapple with their own financial burdens.

Increased Demand for Services

Despite these financial constraints, charities are experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand for their services. The economic downturn and the cost of living crisis have left many individuals and families struggling to meet their basic needs, increasing the reliance on charities for food, shelter, and other forms of support.

Dwindling Grant Opportunities

While charities are facing growing financial pressures, the availability of grant funding is also shrinking. Funding bodies, including government agencies, foundations, and trusts, are facing their own budgetary constraints and are becoming more selective in their grant making decisions. This has led to increased competition for funding, making it more difficult for charities to secure the support they need.

Impact on Charities and Communities

The shrinking availability of grant funding is having a significant impact on charities, forcing them to make difficult decisions about

their services, staffing, and even their very existence. This is leaving many communities without essential support services, particularly those serving the most vulnerable members of society.

Strategies for Resilience

In the face of these challenges, charities are exploring various strategies to adapt and ensure their continued operation. Some are diversifying their income streams by exploring alternative funding sources, such as social enterprises and crowdfunding. Others are focusing on improving their financial management and resource efficiency to make the most of their limited resources.

Government Support

The government has recognized the pressures facing the charity sector and has taken some steps to provide support. The Charity Support Fund, launched in 2022, has provided grants to charities facing immediate financial difficulties. However, more comprehensive and long-term support is needed to address the sector's structural challenges and ensure its sustainability.

The Way Forward

The cost-of-living crisis has highlighted the importance of the charity sector in supporting communities during times of hardship. However, it has also exposed the sector's vulnerability to economic fluctuations and the need for a more resilient funding model. To ensure the continued effectiveness of charities, a collaborative approach is needed between the government, funding bodies, and charities themselves to address the sector's funding needs and support its long-term viability.

Top 10 tips for writing grant applications

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 09:44:23 GMT

Our tips when applying for grant funding

With the global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the current economic situation we all face – the demand on grant funders to help organisations and charities is at an all-time high.

Grant funding is now a highly competitive arena for those applying. To put it into perspective, there are around 165,000 charities in the UK, and according to research completed in 2022, these charities spend around £900m a year on costs for applying to grants, trusts and foundations.

Most funders are therefore oversubscribed. Making your application stand out is crucial to winning successful grant funding.

There is no one single formula for a successful grant application. And in many cases, the application process can vary from a simple letter or postal form to a complex online gateway with several steps along the way.

We’ve listed below a few tips to help you navigate your way through your application:

Firstly, allow plenty of time to plan, draft and submit your application. Collating much of the detail can be time consuming, so give yourself plenty of working headroom.
Always research funders carefully and ensure that your project or application content meets the eligibility criteria of the funder. Also check that the scale of your project is appropriate to the funder too.
Think about the audience reading your application. They may be unfamiliar with your project work, so be clear, concise and avoid jargon.
An application can be very compelling when written or told as a story . A “beginning, middle and end approach” is good for postal applications. This way you can evidence need, how your project will help and what the outcomes are.
Write persuasively and with positivity, as this helps your application stand out. In many cases your project will be new and innovative, or may have significant outcomes. Do not be afraid to write your application using positive statements.
Adding a strong impact statement can help your potential funder understand the difference that your project makes.
Supporting data and evidence really underpins the need for your project, so include any relevant findings that support your project.
If you are working with delivery partners, ensure you have created evidence of how your partnership will deliver and mitigation of any potential risks.
Be clear on the project outcomes . In many cases, this is the most important section. Include the impact your project will have, and the difference it will make. If you don’t know the precise outcomes, develop some assumptions, and tie in with your aims and objectives of the project. This will help when it comes to reporting back to your funder in the future.
Double check the application and ensure that you have submitted all the documents the funding panel need to make their decision.

That’s our top ten tips to start you off on your grant application journey. We wish you every success in your search for funding!

Cazpa Ltd provides support to smaller charities, so if you’d like to find out more about how we can help, visit us today.

The role of marketing in charities

pauldmills23@aol.com (Paul Mills) — Sun, 02 Aug 2020 10:37:08 GMT

The role of marketing in charities

The charity landscape is changing. The latest Social Landscape Report comments that almost one in five charities is now struggling to survive. Competition for income and the need to find a sustainable future is driving the importance of innovation in fundraising, and the way charities are delivering their messages and shaping their services.

Large and small charities are competing for the same market and the most innovative and proactive are emerging as the winners. As a result, survival is dependent upon clever and impactful marketing, coupled with impeccable financial decision making.

Marketing plays a crucial role in establishing relationships between supporters / beneficiaries and a charity offering in the market place. Marketing gives the assurance and confidence in its brand and provides salience and relevance to the cause. This makes the marketing function critical in every charity. Marketing also shapes the image of the charity brand, how people associate with the products or services, and constantly researches and monitors the effectiveness of all outputs and communications.

With an increasing need for income generation, Marketing teams play a key role in identifying, developing and executing new revenue streams through understanding consumer demand, and applying product development and product extension capabilities. This includes identifying and establishing corporate partnerships, which develop strategic long-term value.

Ensuring a charity brand is “front of mind” for the supporter is the skill that a marketer brings. This protects overall market-share too. Marketing is at the centre of creating loyalty and retention, and as a result, the marketing team carries out the more traditional promotions, campaigns and public relations activity, as well helping on long-tail public affairs.

Communications in general is set to become more personal in the future –supporters and wider stakeholders will expect it. The importance of brands will keep growing, and the messaging behind them will become even more pertinent.

With the marketing team at the hub, charities can be assured that they are keeping their eye on the horizon, whilst adapting to the changing landscape directly ahead.

Importance of a marketing strategy

pauldmills23@aol.com (Paul Mills) — Thu, 02 May 2019 10:10:09 GMT

Importance of a marketing strategy

Over the last year I have worked with a number of charities to develop their strategic plans. In most cases, it is about being very clear about what you want to achieve for your charity and how you are going to achieve it.

A good marketing strategy will help you generate income by reaching out to more people. But it’s not all just about fundraising. More and more charities are now thinking more broadly about their marketing activity in addition to fundraising, which is only one aspect. That means thinking about image, brand, values, supporter recruitment, volunteers, CRM, donor trends, market analysis, products, value and retention strategies to name just a few of the elements.

Developing a marketing strategy may sound daunting, especially to a smaller charity. But it can be very rewarding and provides structure and key performance measures for a growing third sector organisation.

The first step is to undertake an audit of where you are currently, ie: what works and what doesn’t in your marketing activity.

Aligning the outcome of a marketing audit with a set of clear organisational objectives provides an indication of whether the direction of travel for the charity is working or not. If it isn’t, then deeper analysis is a good next step. Identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in line with the internal and external factors the charity faces indicates where improvement and changes can be made.

Clear goal setting is a key requirement of strategic planning, and once agreed by an organisation it provides the journey for the next few years. From here, the ‘how we are going to reach our goals’ bit can be written. That’s the plan and mechanism that will deliver the result required. The marketing strategy is the supporting work that needs to be done to achieve those goals, and the measures that will be put in place to keep track.

Marketing strategy is not rocket science, but it does take clarity of thinking and commitment. Without a proper strategy it is easy to meander off course and put time and effort into activities that may well be costly or even draining of resource to deliver. Recovering from this position will be costly in the long term. For the sake of some investment and resource now, think about your marketing strategy and how it can really work for your charity.