Key points:
- Handovers are a vital way to ensure charity continuity, properly manage change, and prevent the loss of key charity knowledge.
- Handovers are especially important for small charities given that the loss of knowledge held by a single person can have a much bigger impact on the charity.
- Your charity should ensure vital information is passed on during the handover, then incorporated in the induction process for the newcomer to further clarify their role and responsibilities.
- This process should be carried out in a thoughtful, orderly way so new arrivals are equipped to do the job without suffering from information overload.
- A guide or checklist can help your charity through the handover process.
Newcomers can use our checklist for new Responsible and Authorised People, which outlines the steps they should take to ensure the charity’s details are up to date, understand ACNC obligations, and set up access to the ACNC Charity Portal.
Having a handover process for when Responsible People, volunteers, staff members or other key personnel leave your charity is important because it:
- allows you to complete a smooth transition through a period of change
- ensures valuable organisational knowledge is not lost, and is passed on effectively
- helps newcomers to hit the ground running.
Any role in your charity that involves some level of responsibility and institutional knowledge should be subject to a handover process.
For small charities, handovers are even more crucial.
Small charities are far more likely to have important knowledge or numerous roles shared among fewer people. If any of these people leave the organisation and handovers are not conducted properly, the impact of the lost knowledge can be devastating.
A handover can be viewed as a combined briefing and training session – a 'passing of the torch' which enables the newcomer to operate at maximum effectiveness from the start.
Key documents and information featured in your charity’s handover should be ready to go ahead of time. Handovers should involve both a conversation (either face-to-face or virtually) and a written document.
Your charity’s handover process should work hand-in-hand with its induction for incoming board members, staff or volunteers. This should include written notes detailing:
- key responsibilities of the outgoing person
- day-to-day tasks and duties
- key systems or applications they use, as well as major projects they look after
- contact numbers, passwords, access information (such as for bank accounts)
- how to sign up to and use the ACNC Charity Portal.
In fact, the handover can be viewed as a key introductory step in your charity’s induction process.
Of course, for small charities, where a smaller number of people are likely to carry a larger number of responsibilities, these written notes might be quite extensive and lengthy. If so, double-check them to ensure you haven't overlooked anything, even if it appears to be minor.
This information should be handed over in an orderly way – document the process or work through a checklist.
To ensure a smooth transition:
- start the handover process early
- add the new person as an Authorised or Responsible Person in the Charity Portal, then ask them to create their own account – you can follow our step-by-step Portal instructions
- inform the new person about your charity’s ongoing obligations, including reporting annually, updating charity details with the ACNC, and complying with the Governance and External Conduct Standards.
New starters should read our guide Governance for Good, which is designed to help your charity’s Responsible People understand good governance, their responsibilities and duties, and the obligations your charity has to the ACNC.
If no one is taking over the role of the outgoing person, make sure others at the charity have access to the Charity Portal, and are aware of the charity's ongoing obligations.
Once they have finished in their role, make sure someone else from the charity removes them from the Charity Portal. In the Portal, click on the charity name, then go to ‘Manage people’. In the list of Responsible and Authorised People, click the name of the person leaving and enter their end date.
This will remove Charity Portal access for this person – please make sure someone else at the charity has Portal access before removing the outgoing person.
It is important that the person leaving your charity knows that they will have a role to play in any handover process for their role.
That way, if someone from your organisation announces their exit, they can play an active role in the handover process.
Your charity shouldn’t have someone leave without ensuring the knowledge and vital information they have is passed on.