I work part time as a teacher for a university (its only recently become a university, previously a FE college) that is not-for-profit and has charitable status. Although it’s hardly Oxfam/Amnesty/the BHF it does genuinely good work providing access to a decent level of education and resources to people who’d not otherwise be in a position to access this.

I am very committed to the work I and the other tutors/staff do, but the way it is run drives me nuts! The managerial/office staff two rungs down on the ladder could definitely run it without the two levels above them, and when I asked a friend who has worked for this place longer what the guy at the top actually does he said ‘he’s good at wearing scarfs’. With COVID the place is being put under significant pressure and the things the guy at the top does do are becoming more irrelevant in the new reality.

I have idle fantasies about a mutiny as my importance/role is increasing (pay/position isn’t) and I come up against more of the stupid ways the place is run, as well as hear more about the dumb ways the other staff are generally treated. I’m fairly sure 50% of the staff think the same as me.

The two at the top were put at the top before I’d arrived, its not their charity they don’t own it as far as I know. Annoyingly for me, for them it is a nice little earner (they get paid full time and quite well) in addition to their other good income streams. The rest of us scrape by. Then there is a board of six who we never see and don’t come to the day to day meetings but who are prominent in circles that are vaguely connected to what we do (but crucially none work in education).

My questions are, 1 how do these things generally work? (or is that too broad a question?) ie who actually has ultimate power? and 2 if I wanted to institute change in a more than piecemeal way (but not a mutiny) how would I go about it? I have to say, when I have pointed out flaws in my immediate area of work I have been listened to.

I would start by looking at the governance documents for your organisation on the charity commission website. That will give you an idea about the structure etc.

Yep look at the governance documents. Basically what you’re talking about is a vote of no confidence. Whilst 50% of the staff may support this I’d expect that they won’t be the people that count when trying to instigate it.

Most organisations look upon staff as a resource that ebbs and flows. As such their view may be that if staff don’t like it they can leave. Now if 50% of their staff upped sticks and walked out that would be a problem. But based on the current financial climate I’d be surprised if that happened.

I’ve worked for a few charities and generally the people at very top don’t seem to do that much day to day running or management stuff but they are often pretty decent at schmoozing and getting money out of people. Should be some kind of board of governors or trustees, too, who the boss should be answering to

This is brilliant, I’d never heard of governance documents, cheers very much

I think you’ll find most non-profit organizations are the same. Treat it as a job. If you can earn a better salary elsewhere, take it. If the boss has committed a serious offence, report it. If he’s just a useless twit, get drunk after work and moan about how shit everything is.

but they are often pretty decent at schmoozing and getting money out of people

I’d imagine they do this quite well, how do the monies come into this charity?

If you want to arrange a mutiny, you’ll need the support of the trustees. Probably tough as they often have very little to do with the day to day running of the charity and are friends with those at the top in paid positions.

Mot larger charities are virtually indistinguishable from large companies in reality with the same top heavy expensive leadership teams. I used to do work for Oxfam and the Board and directors were on huge salaries for doing relatively little compared with the staff. It was so bad it put me off donating to any large charity.

oikeith, as far as i know most income is based on the reduced-rate fees most of the students pay and the off-shoots that the place rustles up (auctions, night courses, renting spaces)

i should say thanks for the replies again too. I haven’t been on this forum for a good while and you replies have been super helpful

I think you’ll find most non-profit organizations are the same. Treat it as a job. If you can earn a better salary elsewhere, take it. If the boss has committed a serious offence, report it. If he’s just a useless twit, get drunk after work and moan about how shit everything is.

Sadly I have to agree, I know a lot of Charities, non-profits and 3rd industry pseudo charities. Some good, some bad the with the worst are terrible the front line staff are generally over worked, underpaid and in it to do good.

The middle managers are some of the worst I’ve ever met, callous almost. I once met one of the bean counters in an office that they were taking over from another organisation and some of the staff were being TUPE over, he’s a very loud speaking guy but generally but there’s 30 people in the room all worried what tomorrow (literally the next day) will mean for their jobs and he just swept his arm over half the office and said “yeah don’t worry about those, they’re going” quickly corrected himself by saying “of course I mean the desks not the people” but it was clear he meant the people. They ruthless when it comes to hiring and firing, much worse than the public sectors organisations I know.

The top people are almost mythical – there’s one organisation that I know with about 300 staff, I asked to meet the CEO once, I was told he “doesn’t really take meetings” I asked which building his office was “he doesn’t have one”. Ironically we had mutual friends and completely by chance we follow each other on Twitter, he tweets a lot about the cause they’re involved with (well couple of times a week) but mostly spends his time following his football team to away games. I’ve known the organisation for 5 years, I’ve still never seen, let alone met the CEO, most of their staff haven’t either.

Another in the same roll and same cause, but different organisation sacked a handful of staff for using their charity supplied mobiles for personal use to save costs. I happen to know that their group mobile contract has unlimited use, it cost them noting. However when they complained that their home broadband was slow and affecting their ability to work ordered a 4G WiFi dongle, their kids ran up a £3k bill on it playing online games. When they were informed blame was thrown in every direction but there’s but the bill was paid by the organisation the following month the same thing happened. Eventually the FD signed off an expensive expedited lease line for their home as the lessor of two evils.

Personally I’d say the ‘real’ charities and non-profits, ones you might have heard of and larger local ones are well run, some of the top people earn good money, but far less than they’d earn doing the same in the private sector and they do work for it. It’s the 3rd industry pseudo charities I seem to see the worst management, and people who ‘know the right people’ get handed the best job in the world, lots of money, little or no actual work. The worst part is they often can’t even see if for themselves. Their home and ‘work’ life are completely interwoven it’s take the kids to school, pop to the shops, long lunch with another one of their kind “aka meeting” on expenses, home for an hour to read the group emails they’re in they not really involved in, then out for dinner with the same sort of people they have lunch with, home at 10pm and if anyone complains it’s “I’ll have you know I work until 10 most nights!”

I know one charity run by a bloke that works 12 hours a day 6 days a week. I got involved because he’d been hospitalised with exhaustion and stress. He has 150 people under him, manages a massive budget that he stretches paper thin so more can be used to help people who need it and earns less than I do.

Most larger charities are virtually indistinguishable from large companies in reality with the same top heavy expensive leadership teams

It turns out that there are a lot fewer people that can run large organisations than you would imagine and that although the idea of replacing someone is nice, finding the person to replace them is quite tough.   But P-Jay seems to understand quite well.   It’s really easy to find problems, it’s not quite so easy to find solutions

The managerial/office staff two rungs down on the ladder could definitely run it without the two levels above them

They can run it as it is, not necessarily do the changes to keep it running over many many years

Unless it’s a very small organisation you wouldn’t expect the CEO to be that involved in day to day running, their job is to make sure the right people are in place to do that and then deal with strategic / longer term stuff. With a big charity that would involve a lot of smoozing with politicians to make sure they get the next big grant etc. If that involved playing Golf with the right people, then if that’s what it takes, so be it.

Some charities are pretty much solely funded by the state, effectively a quango social services arm, so hobnobbing with the right people to keep the funds coming in is probably the most crucial thing.