Ready, set, NGO - article

A report on New Zealand’s NGO sector identifies governance training and support as critical to the success of charities, not for profits and community organisations.

New Zealand’s NGO governance capabilities need considerable investment if the organisations are to thrive in a disrupted future.

The report What is the Future for NGO Governance? produced by the Centre for Social Impact (CSI) in partnership with the Superdiversity Institute for Law, Policy and Business, released in September, identifies good governance as key to the success of local charities, not for profits and community organisations.

Citing digital disruption, new community expectations and changing patterns of giving and volunteering, it recommends NGO boards – often volunteers with little formal governance training – seek to upskill their members now in the basics of good governance practice.

It suggests a community of expert NGO directors is needed, and that NGO chairs need practical support to get the best from their boards. Those boards would benefit from access to tools (such as self-appraisal and stakeholder mapping) to enhance their performance.

“NGOs in New Zealand generate an estimated $20 billion in annual income,” says researcher and report author, CSI associate, Dr Jo Cribb.

“These NGOs touch the lives of New Zealanders in many ways. They provide services to the elderly, youth, and vulnerable families and whānau. They deliver much of what holds our communities together, such as sports, arts, environmental and cultural programmes. They employ around 100,000 people (nearly 5% of the workforce) and contribute nearly 3% to GDP.

If the work of volunteers is included the contribution to GDP rises to 6 percent each year. It is in all our interests that they are well-governed.

Cribb’s research identified board members as playing important roles in developing strategy and securing funding for the organisations they oversee. But it also found a lack of governance training and support was available to those board members.

“Few of them have had any formal governance training, and many receive limited support in these roles.”

Governance innovation at the Sisters of Mercy

One of New Zealand’s longest-serving NGOs, the Sisters of Mercy has an unusually long-term view of governance.

The organisation wants its ministries to continue doing good work for many generations.

“The Sisters are very mindful that there is a need to ensure that their ministries continue despite a declining Congregation of Sisters,” says Astrid Lambert, group administrator of Nga Whaea Atawhai o Aotearoa Tiaki Manatū, Sisters of Mercy Ministries New Zealand Trust.

“They want to ensure that they set up their ministries for as long as there is need.”

Tiaki Manatū Ministries NZ Trust is the single shareholder of all the incorporated societies of the Sisters of Mercy. The organisation has varied portfolio of interests that include schools, community development, spirituality support, healthcare and aged care facilities, and affordable accommodation. Each of its ministries is a limited liability company with its own board and chief executive.

“Most of our directors are volunteers,” Lambert says. “What people like is the opportunity to give something back to the community.”

Where possible a ministry board has a Sister of Mercy on it, but board composition is based on getting a balance of skills and honouring the treaty partnership, which means that boards are diverse and not all directors are necessarily Catholic. When directors come onto a board they undergo an introduction to “Whanau Mercy” and the principles that underpin the Sisters of Mercy’s work. Tiaki Manatū supports its boards to upskill through a planned programme of professional development supported by the Institute of Directors.

This is a “two-way street”, Lambert says. On the one hand it ensures that Mercy boards are as capable as they can be. On the other, it provides professional support for the volunteer directors, who can develop their governance experience and expertise with an eye to expanding their governance portfolio in the future.

National strategy for community governance

The Centre for Social Impact is working with a number of organisations including community trusts, service providers and umbrella groups to develop and implement a strategy for community governance that aims to enhance the value, and support best-practice governance, of New Zealand’s NGO organisations. The strategy will be formally launched at an event in December, hosted by the Institute of Directors.