The background
Climate Action Wendover (CLAW) is a community group of local residents who are concerned with the impact of climate change and want to focus on initiatives to help households and business to reduce their impact on the environment. With the increasing reach the charity has, it was decided to review the organisation’s governance to best support the ongoing activity and its future aspirations.
The challenge
CLAW wanted support from Community Impact Bucks to ensure that the route it took was the best one to take the organisation into the future as its impact increased.
The solution
The first step that CLAW took was to complete the Healthcheck tool to get an accurate picture of where the organisation was at in terms of its structure and management. This highlighted a number of points that the organisation wanted to focus on when deciding upon a governance structure:
- Is our Constitution strong enough and does it cover everything we need?
- What type of organisation should we be – charity, CIO, or another?
- Do we want our membership to make decisions or just the Trustees?
- What additional or stronger procedures do we need to have in place?
These points formed the basis of a tailored support session with Community Impact Bucks and ensured the group received relevant, bespoke guidance.
The result
Following the Healthcheck and the subsequent support session, CLAW decided to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). This new governance structure will provide a robust foundation on which CLAW can build upon its activity and continue to deliver on its mission.
“Before I contacted Community Impact Bucks I simply didn’t know what I didn’t know. Having completed their questionnaire I already had an idea of what I needed to know and once I’d spoken to them I had a direction, references to more research, some answers and most of all someone friendly to help. I found their service exceptional.” – Paul Frost – Climate Action Wendover
Further information
- Climate Action Wendover focuses on reducing the carbon footprint of the local area through the promotion of recycle & reuse initiatives and supporting; for more information, visit the Climate Action Wendover website.
- If your organisation would benefit from free one-to-one advice from one of Community Impact Bucks’ VCSE and Development officers, you can book a support session at a time that suits you via on our Training and events page.
- For more information on Running your organisation, go to our Charities and groups webpages for a range of online resources.
