Improving the capacity of not-for-profit organisations with our Governance Health Checks
11 Apr 2022
From providing specialist legal supports for not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises for over 10 years through our Not-for-profit Law program, we know how difficult it can be for organisations to create and maintain good governance frameworks. Through our free Governance Health Checks, we help organisations stay on top of their legal and governance obligations so they can focus on delivering more vital services to the community.
Through the service, our lawyers personally assess an organisation’s governance and legal processes and obligations, and provide recommendations for any areas of improvement. By providing one-on-one support, our lawyers help organisations manage risk and embed good governance practices, as well as improve their skills and knowledge to identify and deal with legal issues and avoid penalties.
Supporting Council for Intellectual Disability (CID) with their legal obligations
The New South Wales Council for Intellectual Disability (CID) is a disability rights organisation led by people with intellectual disability. As part of CID’s commitment to continual improvement and making sure the organisation stays on top of the their legal obligations, CID’s Senior Manager Linda Blair and CEO Justine O’Neill registered and completed our Governance Health Check questionnaire after reading about the service in our Not-for-profit Law monthly newsletter.
Using all of the information provided by Linda and Justine, we drafted a tailored assessment which identified key areas where CID demonstrated high levels of governance, and provided specific recommendations for improvement.
Based on our recommendations, CID has decided to focus on addressing the organisation’s additional constitutional requirements as a Deductible Gift Recipient, as well as ensuring that their committee and members meetings can be held remotely using technology.
CID will also focus on developing an IT access and management policy to protect the organisation from the risk of becoming over reliant on a key individuals (also known as key-person risk).
As an organisation that advocates and campaigns on inclusivity and accessibility issues, Linda and Justine appreciated that our lawyers provided recommendations in a non-legalistic and easy-to-understand way, and “were really pleased that [they] had gone through this process.”
Linda said, “We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend [Justice Connect’s] Governance Health Check service to other organisations.”
Strong governance practices ensure people run charities with transparent, accountable and sound management. By supporting and improving the capacity of not-for-profit organisations to embed good governance frameworks, Justice Connect helps free up and direct their limited resources towards their benevolent purpose.
Our Governance Health Checks, funded by the NSW Government’s Social Sector Transformation Fund, are available to eligible not-for-profit organisations in the social services and health sectors and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations delivering services in New South Wales.
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