I work for a small sized charity about 100 employees. The director has lost control and making some very rash decisions on the day to day running. Two colleages been made redundant this week (Acas spoken to already )
Top management have spoken to board of directors who are not paid and they re not interested in anyway,from what I gather some terrible decisions are going to be made.

A mutiny has been mentioned but some staff are way to scared.
The board of directors would surly have to listen then.
My project is also under scrutiny… Anxiety and sleepless nights are back !

Read the documents that say what the purpose of the charity is, who has overall control on decisions.

If what is beign done will conflict with purpose or you feel that board are not fulfilling their duties then contact charity commission.

A few years back we had a mutiny over a CEO who had lost it. The management team, including myself, went to the board and explained the situation. The CEO was replaced. However, this was a private company with active investors who have put a lot of money in, so they had a vested interest in seeing the company not implode….

Top management have spoken to board of directors who are not paid and they re not interested

Unfortunately…. this happens a lot. Any charity has to have an unpaid board to be a charity. There are lots and lots of charitable organisations all of who require a bunch of folk to turn up and look interested in a board meeting in their free time. And thats the best most can get – some people who turn up sometimes. If they happen to be people who can be helpful beyond that then you’re very lucky, but theres just not enough capable, free people to go around.

I used to be a chief exec with a volunteer board and our company secretary actually had to resort to making a special table top for board meetings with the board members’ duties, what they should be doing in a meeting and what a decision actually is (it isn’t spending the whole meeting telling the people who weren’t there last month what they missed) written on it.

It’s a horrible situation.

I was a trustee for a charity where the CEO went a bit mad. It started with some bullying of one of the staff and escalated from there to reclusiveness, evasiveness, aggression, lying and all sorts of stuff.

The CEO was ok as far as the Board was concerned – we had concerns over ability but were unaware of the mad stuff.

Eventually one of the staff collared the Chair informally and told her what was going on. The Chair said that in order to manage it properly and transparently, a grievance needed to be made.

Some of the staff got together and submitted a grievance as a group. This meant that the Board was duty-bound to investigate. We informed the CEO, then went round the charity taking witness statements from the employees. I led the grievance hearing which took into account the witness statements and the grievance.

We then brought the CEO in and invited her to respond to the grievance. She responded by submitting a grievance against the Chair for bullying her. Then it got nasty.

The employees’ grievance was upheld and we gave the CEO 3 months to improve based on a set of agreed criteria. The CEO was able to demonstrate some improvement and is clinging onto her job, though many of the Board are now looking forways to get rid. The grievance against the Chair was not upheld.

Working conditions have improved for the employees, though they don’t have any confidence in the CEO.

In all, it’s really hard to get rid of people from charities. The Board may be desperate to get rid, but will need your help.

Edit: This cost over £14k in legal advice too.

As above, the trustees (directors) should be getting hold of this – depending on how comprehensive your policies are (I know they vary in this sector) you may have something e.g. a grievance policy that says how a grievance raised against the CEO is dealt with (usually by the chair of trustees). If so, use this because then something has to happen – i.e. a formal grievance will have to formally investigated and a response given.

If no joy, then the recourse, as mentioned already, is to go to the Charity Commission. They have the power to remove the trustees and appoint a new board if necessary. However, this is very much the “nuclear” option and therefore a last resort – in this eventuality, the intervention of the CC will be very disruptive and the reputational damage (i.e. reduced confidence among your current / potential funders / donors) can be significant, or even fatal.

Good luck, it’s hard enough in the third sector at the moment without that kind of thing happening.

I know people who work in the charity sector and this approach seems quite common.

I know one example of a manager who has had countless official complaints put in about them over a very short period of employment, for all manner of things, but the directors have refused to take it seriously and do anything about it. Seems to me that they’re very well-intentioned people who are, unfortunately, utterly clueless as to their real responsibilities and obligations.

Good luck with it

In all, it’s really hard to get rid of people from charities. The Board may be desperate to get rid, but will need your help.

Depending on the financial circumstances of the charity, this is often where the “compromise agreement” (aka reward for failure) come in. In a difficult situation it can be the least bad option if it eliminates the potentially greater risk / cost of an employment tribunal.

btw, I’d quibble with “from charities” – exactly the same problems occur in the commercial sector, and trust me, directors don’t necessarily become more dynamic, courageous or sensible just because they own some equity in a business.

Another thing to consider is the CEO – trustee dynamic, e.g. is the CEO long standing friends with some / all the trustees? Did the current trustees appoint the CEO originally? – they may not want to admit they made a poor call on that so will be inclined towards persistence, even in the face of obvious calamity.

edlong – Member

All good points.

why thank you!

I’ve been through three CEOs at this company, in each case they were paid off with a compromise agreement. Firing CEOs just doesn’t seem to happen, they just get given a large wedge of cash and asked to go quietly. Just seems to be the way things happen at the top……

I’m taking on board all coments
Thank you

I complained about a CEO once to the holding company. They said thanks for the information and then the CEO tried to sack me. It got very messy and I threatend to sue – he paid out of court and I left.

Then they sacked the CEO and closed down the company a few months later.

Basically you cant piss uphill. Start looking for another job whatever you decide to do. These things dont work out fair or as you expect.

Unfortunately…. this happens a lot. Any charity has to have an unpaid board to be a charity. There are lots and lots of charitable organisations all of who require a bunch of folk to turn up and look interested in a board meeting in their free time. And thats the best most can get – some people who turn up sometimes. If they happen to be people who can be helpful beyond that then you’re very lucky, but theres just not enough capable, free people to go around.

Seems to me that they’re very well-intentioned people who are, unfortunately, utterly clueless as to their real responsibilities and obligations.

Yup, it’s a real problem with the way charities operate IMO.

Commercial companies sometimes have the same or similar issues.

The words you really don’t want to hear are

“well they were the best from the applicantions we received”

Absolutely chronic, lets lower the threshold for entry as the first draft of applicants were crap.

The situation is then that the whole performance from team members to subordonates degrades and the best performers move on.

At least the OP & colleagues have approached this well with an on going performance issue being actively monitored. No doubt the CEO will see the writing on the wall and will exiting the business soon. Stick with it and they will move on.

No doubt the CEO will see the writing on the wall and will exiting the business soon. Stick with it and they will move on.

Disagree entirely.

People are often promoted to just above their level of capability, then get stuck. The worst ones know they’re crap and spend all their time digging themselves in as they have too much to lose to leave of their own accord.

That’s why, when there are rounds of voluntary redundancy, the good people often leave and the bad ones stay put.

Don’t expect anyone to voluntarily give up a well-paid position when they’re not good enough to get anything similar elsewhere.

There are lots and lots of charitable organisations all of who require a bunch of folk to turn up and look interested in a board meeting in their free time. And thats the best most can get – some people who turn up sometimes. If they happen to be people who can be helpful beyond that then you’re very lucky, but theres just not enough capable, free people to go around.

I don’t agree with you. I spent about 5 years as the Trustee of a fairly significant charity (around 200 employees and 10000 volunteers!). Every one of us went through a proper induction process and understood our role and responsibilities; we met quarterly if anyone missed two meetings in a row they got a letter inviting them to consider if they had the time, our senior management team would think nothing of calling any of us up for specific / expert advice.

I remember one newbie saying to me that they didn’t think they really needed to understand “the numbers”, and she had never seen a set of accounts in her life. She was their for very specific reasons. A quiet word was had and she got some training. I remember my last meeting well as the finance manager left looking somewhat drained after the grilling she had given him over the asset valuation on the balance sheet!

With 100 people on board I bet the OP’s charity have a staff management, induction, training and development process but the people on the board have been forgotten about because they are not “staff”.

There is also isn’t really a shortage of good people who would be willing to do it FOC if asked. The mistake is that very often charities put a lot less effort into finding their trustees / directors than they would into their senior management. People outside the organisation might even be interested in helping but rarely are charities as transparent or approachable as they could be.

send a letter to the charity commisioners voicing your concerns, a charity is not about one person, but about everyone it supports.

There will be a written grieveance procedure for the charity – follow it! If you don’t the CEO will have grounds for unfair dismissal if it gets that far.

The trustees as the employer of the staff have a legal responsibility to address any concerns that have gone through the organisation’s grievance procedure and have reached them.

One suggestion may be to consider mediation between the CEO and the staff with the grievance.

As a Chair of one charity and trustee of another I can vouch for the fact that there are some very good Boards and trustees around. As a management consultant working with charities I have also seen some shocking Boards and trustees (as well as some very good ones). Same as the private sector really – some good apples and some bad eggs!

Has the Peter Principle been mentioned yet?

I am a Director of a charity (exec, paid, and not a Trustee). This thread is fascinating, enthusing, upsetting and eye-opening all at once. Getting the right level of engagement and communication with Trustees is one of the hardest things to get right. We count ourselves very lucky. Advice for unfitgeezer? Record facts and share them with the board. They are duty bound to oversee the smooth running of your organisation, and they need the right information in order to do this.

This thread confirms my experiences of charitable organistaions and how they are run.Too many well paid and indeed over paid inept (and in many cases self serving)professionals all doing “great work ” in their minds/words on the back of the public’s well intentioned donation 😥
It’s usually the unpaid volunteers who are the real stars.

This thread confirms my experiences of charitable organistaions and how they are run.Too many well paid and indeed over paid inept (and in many cases self serving)professionals all doing “great work ” in their minds/words on the back of the public’s well intentioned donation
It’s usually the unpaid volunteers who are the real stars.

I don’t think this is really accurate TBH. Most charity work doesn’t pay well for the hours/level of qualifications/responsibility, and is very competitive to get into. There’s a lot of very dedicated people doing it.

And unpaid volunteers can be great but actually they generally require a lot of managing, and a sometimes can be a total liability!

This thread confirms my experiences of charitable organistaions and how they are run.Too many well paid and indeed over paid inept (and in many cases self serving)professionals all doing “great work ” in their minds/words on the back of the public’s well intentioned donation
It’s usually the unpaid volunteers who are the real stars.

The Director of the charity I am involved with manages a staff team of around 30 people and up to 80 volunteers. About 8,000 people (excluding those who get support and advice directly from our website) get help from the charity each year, many in desperate circumstances. She is paid less than £40k pa – hardly well paid or over-paid bearing in mind the responsibility she has (compare that to the private sector). The trustees put in a lot of time and effort and are anything but self-serving.

I think you need to broaden your experiences!