Nominations open for Charity Governance Awards in the UK

Deadline: 12-Feb-2025

The Clothworkers’ Company is accepting nominations for the Charity Governance Awards, an exciting not-for-profit initiative created to celebrate outstanding governance and trusteeship in charities across the UK, allowing large and small not-for-profit organisations to inspire and learn from one another.

These are the only charity awards that are designed to celebrate trustees, free to enter (with a free awards ceremony), and do not generate profit for the sponsors or partners. The mission is to celebrate and reward exceptional charity governance, while sharing exemplary work that inspires and informs boards and trustees across the country.

Categories

• Board Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
  • This award is for organisations that can demonstrate diversity within their Board membership, an inclusive approach and a commitment to equity. They are looking for diversity in its broadest sense: diversity across protected characteristics like race, age, gender, disability; lived experience; socio-economic class; professional or sector background and other factors. They are looking for charities where the Board shows leadership on equity, through its approach to diversity and inclusion both internally and in the organisation’s work.
  • The judges will be looking for Boards that can demonstrate that they have attracted a broad range of trustees and supported all trustees to participate effectively. They will be looking for evidence of Board culture that welcomes different opinions, but is able to conclude discussions in a consensus for effective decision making and good governance. This award seeks to demonstrate the way in which truly diverse and inclusive Boards have a positive impact on their organisations, and how powerful it is when a Board takes the lead on promoting equity.
• Challenge to Change
  • This award is for Boards which show bold and generous leadership in addressing specific challenges to create lasting, meaningful change for the Charity and its mission. They want to hear from trustee Boards that are looking at the bigger picture and providing strategic leadership to their charities, navigating systemic issues, crises or emergencies, and making a sustainable impact
  • The charity could be operating on a local, regional or national level, and the Board has decided to look at a big issue more strategically.
  • For example, the Board might have decided to stop delivering some services in order to focus on tackling root causes of an issue; or it might be forging partnerships or building movements to address systemic problems such as poverty, racism or climate.
• Improving Impact (Two Options)
  • Small charities, big impact. Small charities are at the heart of communities, tackling inequalities daily and punching above their weight when it comes to impact.
  • Categories are:
    • Charities with 0-3 paid staff 
    • Charities with 4-30 paid staff
  • This award is for organisations that can demonstrate how the Board has contributed towards the increase of the charity’s impact in relation to its cause, mission and values. They are looking for examples of increasing social impact, not fundraising or increasing income.
  • The judges will be looking at the longer-term increase in impact that the Board helped achieve for its beneficiaries and mission. Alongside this, they are interested in how impact is described and measured, and how this has changed, as a result of the role that the Board played. The entry should look to create a compelling narrative throughout, which explains the organisation’s context, why you made the decisions you made and the role the Board played in supporting this.
• People in Governance
  • This award is for charities that can demonstrate how all aspects of the Board’s work have supported outstanding results in delivering the charity’s mission and objectives. They are looking for evidence of:
    • effective decision making,
    • engagement of all trustees on the Board, and
    • strong accountability and mutual challenge between the Board and the Executive.

Prize Information

• Shortlisted Charities: All shortlisted charities will receive a paid one-year membership to the Association of Chairs for the chair or vice chair of their Board and one training course via the Cause4 Trustee Leadership Programme for a new or inexperienced member of the Board.
• Runners-up: Runners-up will receive a £1,500 cash prize (unrestricted grant) and a certificate following the awards ceremony.
• Winners: Winners will receive a £6,000 cash prize (unrestricted grant), trophy and certificate following the awards ceremony.

Eligibility Criteria

• Entry to the Charity Governance Awards is FREE. Shortlisted charities will receive an invitation for three representatives to attend the awards ceremony (also for free). There are rewards and prizes for all shortlisted charities, runners-up and winners.
• Entries are welcome from any registered charity that meets the following criteria.
• Charities must:
  • be registered in the UK by the Charity Commission (or the equivalent in each devolved nation),
  • have been established before 31 December 2021,
  • enter no more than two categories,
  • only submit one entry per category (you may not have entries submitted by multiple stakeholders in the same category).
• Entries must:
  • cover activities undertaken in the past five years (2019-2024),
  • be submitted by a current trustee, employee or volunteer of the charity,
  • be submitted with the knowledge and consent of the charity’s Chair and/or CEO.

For more information, visit The Clothworkers’ Company.