Top Resources: Governance and Policies
Helping build strong boards to build strong organizations.
With the increasing complexity of regulations, demand for accountability, and sophistication of donors and gifting vehicles, community foundations must not only be professional in their approaches to all of their work but also ready and able to handle any situations that arise.
This factsheet outlines some key concepts and provides some clear first steps to building inclusive boards and teams. It provides a brief overview of trust-based philanthropy and unconscious bias, elaborates on actions that community foundations can take to promote inclusion in their current teams and efforts to build inclusive teams through recruitment.
Why succession planning? What would happen to your community foundation if your ED/CEO is unable to be at work for 3 months? What would happen to your community foundation if your ED/CEO, who had led your organization for many years, decides to retire or move on to another organization.
Board recruitment for a community Foundation is a fundamental process that must be undertaken to ensure that the vision and mission are adhered to, that the assets of the Foundation are protected and used appropriately, and that the reputation of the Foundation is upheld.
For many smaller community foundations, the Treasurer often assumes both a governance role related to their membership on the Board, as well as an operations role, especially if there is no staff to take care of bookkeeping and other financial matters.
Choosing a way to take care of business is an important decision for your foundation and one to revisit from time to time as your foundation evolves. Small foundations use volunteers, consultants, paid staff — and, quite often, a combination of the three. Which arrangement is right for your foundation right now?
This resource is an overview for community foundations and other community-minded organizations that are experiencing a crisis or want to be proactive and ready when their community faces one.
It’s everyone’s responsibility to create a workplace where everyone belongs and everyday interactions can make a big difference. Advancing inclusion in the workplace must be a continuous effort with support from leaders across different levels within an organization. How can leaders share the responsibility to foster inclusivity with management, the board and other team members?
Evaluation is an important tool that your foundation can use to demonstrate its accountability, improve its performance, increase its abilities to obtain funds or future planning and fulfill the organizational objectives.
One of the key roles of the board of a community foundation relates to their fiduciary responsibility, which is the duty to exercise reasonable care when he or she makes a decision as a steward of the organization. Failure to do so could, among other things, jeopardize the foundation’s charitable status or be in contravention of provincial employment and labour standards – both of which run the risk of negatively impacting the foundation’s reputation in their community.
Committees – you can love ‘em or leave ‘em, especially if they are not serving any useful purpose and wasting people’s time. Committees are often viewed as inefficient and unproductive but are still one of the main tools for making decisions in most organizations.
Decent work specifically ties together the goals of social protection, economic security, thriving businesses and community well-being. It is not just about meeting minimum requirements, but that good work is important for everyone in our communities to thrive.
A number of you have called CFC over the years asking a variety of questions about Directors and Officers Liability insurance: Should we have it? If so, how much coverage should we have? Is there a “group plan” available for CFC members? And what kind of coverage do other CFC members have? This document will look at some general aspects of liability insurance.
Defining the role of the Executive Director/ Chief Executive Officer (ED/CEO) can be challenging, given the wide variety of shapes and sizes of community foundations in Canada.