This webinar looked at the issues that charities continue to face, and provided meaningful ideas and guidance on tasks they should be doing now to help them.
Webinar transcript
Chris Riches
Hi, everyone, how are you all. Welcome to the ACNC's September webinar where we're going to be taking some time to look at things your charity should be doing right now. We hope you're all staying safe and well, wherever you may be. My name is Chris Riches and I'm from the ACNC's Education team. Joining me today is Louis.
Louis Hine
Hey, everyone.
Chris Riches
Now, before we start, we'll quickly run through some housekeeping points and bits and pieces. If you've got any troubles with the audio for the webinar, you can try listening through your phone. Call the number listed in the email you'll have received upon signup and put in the access code and you can listen to the webinar that way.
You can also type in a question at any time throughout the webinar. We've got our colleagues, Alana and Matt, helping us respond, so if there's any questions, feel free to zoom one through and we'll get back in touch. We'll try and answer them all but if we don't get round to it, feel free to send up an email via education@acnc.gov.au and we'll get back you as soon as we can.
The recording of this webinar as well as all the slides, it's going to be published on the ACNC website within a day or so. We've also included the slides and a little rundown of some of the sites and weblinks we're going to mention as handouts so you can access them via the GoToWebinar interface as well. We're going to also send out an email after we're done, too, and that'll have all those links, so you don't have to scribble all the stuff down as we go.
Last thing, we, as usual, value your feedback, so if you've got any suggestions for ways we can improve our webinars let us know in the short survey at the end of proceedings today.
So, first things first. And let's see if the arrow key works, he says hoping. There we go. Excellent. What we're going to cover today. Our aim today is to provide you with some short, practical ideas and tips that you can set in place in your charity to help your charity's work now and also into the future.
Some of these ideas might be right up your alley, things that suit you. Some might be ones that you might want to file away later for future reference. Some might be things that you're already doing. If so, double thumbs-up, great stuff. We all know we're working in a bit of a changed landscape at the moment.
Many charities are already altering how they work and what they do. We hope that some of what we go through today might spark a thought, an idea, some action in your mind and result in some practical improvements and some steps going forward.
Some of the things we're going to cover today are - let's see what we've got. We're going to have a bit of a look, take a bit of a step back and rethink meetings and how to engage your volunteers. What else are we going to look at, Louis?
Louis Hine
We're going to be taking proper and permanent steps towards diversifying your charity's fundraising as well as working to promote your charity and the work it does. We'll consider collaboration and we'll work our way through some of that dreaded paperwork, or at least think about some of the paperwork your charity may need to be doing. And we'll round things out with some quick tips and questions at the end.
Chris Riches
Indeed, that paperwork. Now look, first thing we're going to get into, we're going to look at some bits and pieces and aspects about rethinking meetings. Meetings are something that has changed. It's quite obviously and quite clearly over the past few months many charity meetings, for example, might have gone online this year out of necessity.
Louis Hine
Yeah, but this necessity or these circumstances can provide your charity with opportunity as well and that opportunity is to think about how you can have more effective remote or online meetings, and not just while we're affected by COVID too, into the future, as a permanent option, if you need it.
Chris Riches
Yeah, definitely. Now, we've got some points here, some little thought bubbles and things to think about. For current board members, there might be some challenges and some bits and pieces when it comes to meetings.
So, do existing board or committee members, are there existing board or committee members that simply can't attend in person meetings regularly or as they would like to?
These would be good people, they like to attend, they might not be able to. They might have family commitments. They might be a bit time poor. They might have issues getting to and from meetings. They might simply be having all manner of other commitments right now as well.
Question or a bit of a thought process here is whether these people are better able or more available to attend remote or online meetings and in turn be involved and provide more for your charity.
Louis Hine
And also what about new or prospective board members that haven't joined the board due to the challenge of attending meetings because some of the reasons we've already mentioned? If meetings are online, maybe they will and that's a benefit for your charity.
Chris Riches
Yeah, definitely. There's also perhaps benefits here for volunteers, for members, for supporters as well. Is there an ability there for them to be more involved in your organisation, in the organisation they support, if you stage meetings online?
Could this involvement result in better engagement in your charity and maybe a higher likelihood that people will be willing to get involved in its activities, help fundraising whatever way, shape or form, donate, ask questions of the board or committee, stay on as part of your organisation, and as we mentioned here, retention as members and volunteers.
Some things to think about, about how you can perhaps integrate online meetings into your charity's usual schedule. When you're thinking about this, you probably should consider making sure that your online meeting platform is easy to use and accessible.
Now, there's plenty of these platforms around. A lot of them have free versions that can be used and they will have limited capabilities but those limited capabilities might suit your meetings absolutely perfectly. So, have a bit of a scope around and a bit of a look around at some of these platforms, find the one that's good for your that works, is easy to use for people as well.
Ensure meetings agendas are available before your online meeting. Now, that's a big one. They can be distributed if you're having remote meetings, maybe electronically or as a file in a share drive for people who need to access it so that they can access it.
And also in this way to ensure that your governing document is clear on allowing online meetings and that they're staged in accordance with your governing document and also with best practice and to align with your charity's obligations, ongoing obligations to the ACNC's governance standards.
Louis Hine
That's all right and we've got a lot more information on our website. We've got a great guide to online or remote meetings at our website.
You can just go to, as it's got on the screen here, acnc.gov.au/remotemeetings and you can also have a look at the AICD, that's the Australian Institute of Company Directors. They have a good piece of guidance on virtual meetings for not-for-profits and you search for it on their website, which is just aicd.companydirectors.com.au.
Chris Riches
Yeah and what we'll do too with some of these links as we go through today, we'll ensure Matt, who's working with Alana in the background here, is going to send some of these links through the chat so that you've got them handy. You can cut and paste whatever you need to do. Again, they'll also be included in the email that we send out later on. So, just keep an eye on the chat for that information as we go through.
Next topic, next issue we want to broach a little bit is engaging volunteers.
Now look, we know traditional volunteering has been, at the very least, affected, but in some ways curtailed in recent times. For some charities, it's seen a loss in their ability to engage with volunteers or their ability to use their expertise and most importantly utilise their willingness to help the charity they believe in at this time but also into the future.
Louis Hine
That's right and again charities have been thinking about ways they can engage their volunteers differently. It's something that has obvious benefits for your charity now but also very real rewards and benefits into the future.
Chris Riches
Yeah. Now, some thoughts along these lines. The first thing to think about: is virtual volunteering an option for you? And really perhaps it should be. Virtual volunteering, it sounds pretty fancy, it's just another way for thinking of ways your volunteers can help you without actually being able to be where they would normally be, physically I suppose.
That might be onsite, it might be at your charity's premises. So, when you're thinking about the term virtual volunteering, that's a pretty down to earth way of looking at it.
Louis Hine
And so how can people who want to donate their time and expertise continue to do so virtually? There'll be many charities that already have had volunteers answering calls and responding to enquiries from home and of course this can continue.
And this is especially true for smaller charities. Can you empower your volunteers to do other things virtually? Can they maintain and build your website, do your accounts, coordinate applications for funding or grants, marketing, communications, meeting with supporters or sponsors electronically?
They could do tax support or other volunteering tasks that don't require them to be literally present at the premises or can they do tasks or use their skills and talents to help fundraise for you, like making items or creating things along those lines? You can really be inventive in this sort of way and just think creatively for this.
Chris Riches
And on this, too, having volunteers doing some of these things, that may help you save money as well. Now, we're going to look at fundraising in a second and we've looked at fundraising in a couple of other recent webinars, but during times like this saving money is just as important as generating income.
And for every penny saved through adapting, through having volunteer support you in different ways, using them in these ways, even collaborating with others, which is another topic we'll come to later, saving a penny that way. A penny saved is a penny earned and it's a penny that you don't have to generate through fundraising.
Moving forward, is it worth thinking about how you can integrate, say, traditional volunteering, with quote marks around it, with virtual volunteering?
Do you need to alter the way that you look to attract volunteers? Do you need to better promote options and opportunities for them to volunteer virtually or from anywhere? Getting the word that you would accept and welcome virtual volunteers and some of the things they can volunteer to do in order to help you or raise funds for you?If people are going to create items to raise funds for you through their virtual volunteering creative efforts, how will they get these items to you - post, courier, cost considerations, all those? They're some of those things that you can think about as well.
Do you need to update your volunteering policies, procedures, inductions, those types of things, to ensure that virtual volunteering is covered inside those policies?
If people are going to be volunteering virtually, how are you going to support them? Will they need certain IT equipment? Will they need access to share drives, files, applications etc? How will this be done? How will it be managed? Are there other considerations you need to think of?
One last thing: keeping your volunteers engaged virtually can be a challenge, especially if you're a charity that has volunteers working together or gathering in groups to catch up or work on a semi-regular basis.
Consider how you can adapt if people aren't catching up in person, if people aren't gathering in the normal volunteering ways that they do. How can you adapt? Can you hold virtual catchups via online applications, those meeting applications that we might have mentioned before? They can also be used to do catchups as well.
Can you communicate with them directly via email updates or newsletters specifically aimed at your volunteers to keep them engaged and to keep them involved? Again, think outside the box, think creatively as well.
Louis Hine
The ACNC also has a short guide on engaging volunteers, which might help you out. You can see a link on the screen right here to that. There's a great bit of information on virtual volunteering on the Our Community website s well.
If you go to the Our Community homepage and just search online volunteering, as it says there, you'll find the resource they have available. And so it is also worth visiting the websites of state, territory or the national volunteering organisations and peaks for information, guidance and resources.
Chris Riches
Definitely. Cast your net wide when you're looking around the web here. There's definitely a number of places you can go and have a bit of a look to get some ideas and some resources.
Diversifying fundraising is our next item on the agenda and no just playing lipservice to it too. Perhaps consider the ways that charities can look at properly, permanently diversifying fundraising.
A diverse menu - we'll call it a menu - of fundraising options, it should always be the aim of any charity. Don't always put all your eggs in one basket. You should spread the loads, spread the burden a little bit.
Having a narrow range of options or, again, being entirely reliant on one single stream or style of fundraising, that's a recipe for serious trouble at any time but particularly now as some charities have observed, as some charities have experience as well.
Louis Hine
Yeah, that's right and a number of the challenges that charities have faced during the 2020 have resulted directly because of the restrictions in place in the current climate, putting a dent in fundraising.
Is it things like not being able to stage their usual fundraising, not being able to have any sort of fundraising events, not being able to fundraise face to face, or not being able to engage with existing donors as you normally would, nor cultivate new donors and supporters.
Chris Riches
Yeah and look, many charities have adapted, either beforehand or even by necessity. Online donations have been the most obvious and noteworthy of those adaptions but what about real, permanent, sustainable change in fundraising methods, in streams of fundraising, in those types of details, which can see your charity step onwards with more confidence and maybe in a way that's better prepared to see your charity make the most of any opportunities that might come up.
Now, what are some of the things that we should be thinking about here, Louis?
Louis Hine
Some of the thoughts here include virtual events, so like talks, sales, auctions, tours, speaking events, walks or runs, so like where you can all go out and run on your own.
Galas, raffles. The list here is long and varied, with so many spots on the internet providing ideas for the types of things you can stage online with fundraising occurring through people paying to attend virtually or purchasing items or simply just bidding on things.
There are plenty of online platforms your charity can use to organise and present these events, as well as to accept donations or funds.
Chris Riches
Even the simple act of paying for things now in many ways has changed again. Cash has, in some circumstances, made way for electronic payments and that sort of stuff. Have you spoken with your bank?
Have you spoken with your financial institution to organise proper electronic payment facilities - tap and go, those sorts of things - so people can donate electronically rather than in cash.
If you're holding things online and people need to donate, have you got all that sort of stuff set out where they can put in their credit card details in a safe and secure way and all of those bits and pieces.
Providing these types of opportunities and these types of options can open up chances for more people to donate.
Another thing to think about is, what is your actual mix of in-person fundraisers, your events, your tin rattles, your sales, your stalls that you might have held.
What's your mix of those and electronic fundraisers? How can you diversify and share the burden more evenly? Have you gone too far or have you got all your eggs in one basket and not in a shared sort of more even way.
Online fundraisers are, a number of charities have found, they're not the instant answer to everything, nor are they going to make up for the entire absence of what we might say is normal fundraising. So, more than ever, sharing the burden and diversifying fundraising, those sorts of things are vital.
Louis Hine
Another thing to consider is, do you draw from only two to three sources of fundraising or do you cast your net wider than that? A diverse fundraising menu, so to speak, keeps fundraising balanced and ensures your charity's not putting all its fundraising eggs into one basket.
How can your volunteers and supporters help as well? Can they make things to sell or can they raise money through their expertise, such as IT knowledge or other services? Into the future, can you collaborate with other organisations or charities and likeminded types to raise funds? Can you jointly stage an event? Can you work together on a fundraiser? Can you submit joint grants or funding applications? These are a couple of things that you can consider outside of that.
Chris Riches
Definitely. And look, if you're investigating your more diverse ways to fundraise and looking to follow some of those into the future, again another thing to have a bit of a think about is whether your current fundraising policies keep pace with these changes or is there a need for you to perhaps sit down and update to take in the process link to virtual events, electronic donations and money handling in that sense, chances to increase contact with vulnerable people, if that's relevant. Those sorts of things.
Again, keep in mind that if you're making a change to something that you do, part of going through those processes is to have a look at what policies, what procedures you have in place and make sure that they are keeping up with the changes that you're making as well.
Now look, our ACNC Fundraising Hub, that has plenty of great information about fundraising, as well as the links to various state and territory regulators who look after fundraising regulation. It is important that when you're looking at fundraising you need to ensure that you've got the proper permits in place and you're seeking them out from the relevant state and territory fundraising authorities.
The second link here is to Our Community. Now, they've long talked about what they call the seven pillars of fundraising and they've also long talked about the importance of diversity in fundraising sources and the opportunities that this type of diversity can bring.
If you go to their home page, which is listed there, if you search fundraising pillars, their information, their article on the seven pillars of fundraising will come out. We'll again also zoom that link through to you all via the chat so that you've got that there as well. Have a look at those two spots and have a bit of a think about the diversification of your fundraising.
Louis Hine
When it comes to promoting your charity, fundraising in person and staging those so-called traditional events often serves the secondary purpose of promotion, getting your name out there and increasing your profile.
Again, changed circumstances might see your charity's profile and visibility take a bit of dip. If you aren't out there, if your name isn't on a fundraising poster or at the bottom of raffle tickets or on a chalkboard at a Bunnings sausage sizzle, for example.
Chris Riches
Definitely. There are ways that you can compensate for this. These are some things that your charity should perhaps be aware of look at doing.
First thing to have a look at is web presence, your charity's web presence. How does your organisation's website look? It's always important to keep your website and your online presence up to date, but right now in the absence of maybe a number of other direct ways to promote your charity and get your name out there, get your work out there, it's probably even more important.
Ensure your website looks good. That's a good starting point. But also again ensure that it's updated and kept up to date. This might be something again a volunteer can do. It doesn't mean that your website has to be some masterpiece work of art, but it should be functional, it should look good, it should be updated, it should be vibrant and look like it's active and lived in.
Your website homepage can maybe quite easily include a nice little section of the latest news or information, which is again kept updated. There might be some good, relevant visuals, if possible, links to other ways that you're promoting your work, some of your reports, your past events, fundraisers, calls to action, promotions of your work documents, links to where people can donate and support you. That is an important one.
You've got to make it easy. If people do come across your webpage, make sure that they know if they're impressed and they want to, that they can donate to you. Most of the stuff you'll probably already have, let's be honest, but make sure it's up to date. Your latest news shouldn't be something from 2018, for example. Your fundraising and your support-us or donate-to-us links should of course work, all that sort of stuff.
If you're displaying the ACNC Registered Charity Tick, ensure that it's displayed prominently, just ensure that it's displayed in the right way. If you're able to display it you may as well put it up there.
Louis Hine
Yeah, that's right. Social media presence is another thing you can also be looking at too. What's your Facebook page like? Are you keeping it updated and posting semiregularly or are you interacting with people? Social media, when used well, can be invaluable in times like these to keep supporters, members, donors, volunteers and others in the loop and involved.
We've got a handy page on our website in the Small Charities Library that looks at small charities and social media and has some handy tips and information, so if you're looking for that just search up Small Charities Library on the ACNC website.
Chris Riches
Yeah, definitely. And again, we'll get that link through to you, I think, in the chat as well. If that's not the case, we'll have it in our follow-up email and all that sort of stuff.
And just on the social media side of things is, as many of might know, you might not have a website. Social media might be your website. Your Facebook page might be your website.
Charities often use social media pages as websites in that sort of default de facto way, so if that applies to your charity, no problems, no issues at all, but just ensure that your website, be it a website or be it a social media page, is kept updated, kept monitored and it's active, and again, it looks lived in, people come and know that there's stuff happening. So make sure that that's the case.
Another thing that you can do to promote your charity, and this one relates directly to the ACNC, is that there's some work link to the 2020 Annual Information Statement. In the 2020 AIS, charities have the chance to provide information about their programs, the work that they do. Not only the work that they do but who you help, all those sorts of things.
When you provide this information via the 2020 AIS, that information will appear on your charity's page in the ACNC Charity Register.
Louis Hine
Yeah and because your Charity Register page can be viewed by anyone, having more information about the work you do on it can help your charity attract volunteers and supporters, members or even donors.
This is the whole idea behind us asking these questions about your charity's programs. We at the ACNC are encouraging charities to do this so that your charity register page can be another tool that you can use to attract support.
Chris Riches
And that's a bottom-line message here, that we want the charity register page that you have on the ACNC website to be something that is obvious to you as a charity, that draws people in, that informs people, that can get them interested in what you do and can get them involved in what you do as well.
The questions in the AIS surrounding programs, they're pretty straightforward. Even better, we've got a spot on the ACNC website where it's like a little practice sandbox, almost.
What you can do in that is you can read the questions that we're asking before you actually get into your AIS and you can have a bit of a look around at how to answer them and have a little bit of a practise run of some of your responses.
It's called the Program Previewer. The link's there on the site. Again, we'll get that link through to you as well. Before you jump in and do your proper AIS, what you should perhaps do: jump into the Program Previewer, practise filling in this part of the form that relates to programs, relates to your programs and do so in a way that really classifies and promotes the work that you do so that people are very clear on what you do, what areas you work in, that sort of stuff.
Go through this page via the Program Previewer, take your time, read the instructions and practise the questions.
Once you've done it, you can print out the information that you've entered in as part of your practise run. And what you can do, if you can have it on hand, so when you go in and do the 2020 AIS, when your charity does that, you can just replicate it. You can type out what you've done, you can have a look at it as a draft and maybe you can modify what you've put forward.
Providing this sort of detail is a great way to, again, use the ACNC website, the AIS and your Charity Register page. These things that are there anyway that you need to - you need to do an AIS, obviously, you're going to have a listing on the Charity Register.
So, if that's the case, why not use them to your benefit? Doing this is a great way to get the word out about your programs, about your work, and it costs your charity nothing in terms of finances. It might cost a little bit of time and thought, but it's something that, for that little bit of time and thought, the returns can be pretty decent. So, go have a look, program previewer.
Collaboration, I think might be the next thing on the agenda, Louis.
Louis Hine
That's right. Collaboration can be a challenging topic to approach but sometimes there can be some apprehension for charities to consider collaboration as a whole.
There might be a mindset that doing so would be seen as a loss of control or a loss of your charity's independence; that it might be a first step towards merging even.
Chris Riches
Yeah and that's all fair and reasonable. They're fair and reasonable thoughts. But collaboration isn't really any of those things. It really shouldn't be any of those things.
What collaboration should be is it should be just a willingness to work with others towards the best outcome for your beneficiaries - those people or those things that you help or support. That's how you should be viewing collaboration.
Louis Hine
And some things to think about here. Just have a think about specific program or project that might benefit from collaboration with a likeminded organisation or an organisation that can complement what you do with some qualities of their own.
Would any collaboration be just for one project or program or could it be for more things in the future? What steps would you need to take to make the collaboration work, such as meetings or policies and agreements, things like that?
Chris Riches
When you're thinking about collaboration it's also worthwhile thinking about perhaps the very simple ways you and another charity or another organisation could work together.
Some of these things you might already be doing. Some of these things might not be a hundred percent relevant now. They might be in the future. But some of these things might be, say sharing premises, particularly right now, if you found that you maybe don't need all of your premises, because there's a lot of people working remotely or when things get back to some level of normal, you will perhaps not have to have as many people in your premises at the one time.
Is there an opportunity to share premises? Is there an opportunity to share resources or equipment, IT equipment for example? Supplies, all those sorts of things. Can you and another organisation or another charity, can you organise to have bulk orders of items or supplies that both of you need? Maybe by doing so you can save money buying in bulk, as they say.
These sorts of things are practical, they can save charities money, they can help you keep ticking along.
Collaboration also might mean you just sitting down with other organisations, other charities, for a talk, either virtual or in person, when that's able to be done, if that's able to be done. A bit of knowledge sharing, a bit of problem-solving, those sorts of things. Having a cuppa, having a bit of a chat, be it virtual or otherwise, it's always a good thing and that can be of use as well. But with this, at least think about how your collaboration might help your charity or what areas of your charity's work could perhaps benefit from working with others.
Be aware of it as an option, be aware of it as something that you can take up. It's something that's out there and it's an option that you can perhaps pursue.
Louis Hine
Last one here and obviously it's not the most exciting thing, we definitely know that, I've heard that firsthand, but really your charity should be and should already be ensuring that key documents and that type of important stuff is not only up to date but reflective of any changes in the charity's work or methods that have occurred due to, say, COVID or other changed circumstances that are in place.
Chris Riches
And we touched on this before, if the way your charity is working is changing, then your policies and processes need to reflect these changes.
For the most part, it might just mean that it's a tweak or two, to some of your documents. In other cases, it might mean that there's larger revisions required or you may need to sit down and actually do a new policy or a new procedure.
But what is vital is that your charity's paperwork reflect any changes in your methods or in your work.
Louis Hine
And so here are some thoughts and prompts to consider. Has your fundraising changed? Are you fundraising or generating income online now or are more people using electronic methods of donations than before? These are things we mentioned earlier in the webinar. And, if so, does your fundraising policy need reviewing and updating?
Similarly, your meetings. Are you meeting virtually now? Are you planning on making this an ongoing thing? And if so, review your meeting and decision-making policy or at least be clear on the processes and procedures that go with your meetings.
Decision-making or declaration of conflicts of interest, voting agenda and meeting minute availability. These should just all be things that are cleared up around virtual meetings. All those sorts of things. Having clear procedure on this will help virtual meetings maintain their productivity.
Chris Riches
There's some bits and pieces in there with meetings and obviously you all hold meetings so you know your own processes about that sort of stuff. So, if there's things that perhaps might not fit what you're doing now, go back and have a look at them.
A couple more things to have a think about is your policies and your processes around volunteers and staff, if you have them, for dealing with certain issues, for setting up activities.
It's likely they might need reviewing or perhaps altering as well. Say a volunteer's induction policy. Your inductions might be a little bit more challenging in times like this. You may need to update it or you may need to have a look at it and review it.
The other thing, do you need any new policies to help govern some of the altered ways you do your work?
Do you need, for example, a policy that might specifically relate to how your charity will address - again, we'll use COVID-19 here - among its people or volunteers or programs or projects.
There's a number of organisations out there that have put together some sample COVID-19 policies that cover some of these things. Again, go and surf the web and have a bit of a look and see if there's some stuff out there that you might be able to use or adapt.
Louis Hine
And one final thought here. As a charity, you operate for purpose and a change in a not-for-profit's purpose can have implications on its charitable or tax-deductible status, so like its DGR status.
Reviewing your purpose is an important part of your charity's governance and it should be undertaken annually.
Chris Riches
There's plenty of good policy templates for that sort of thing on the web. The ACNC has some, as you can see by the link there. Our Community, we mention again, has got a number of good templates there. NFP Law has some as well. State and territory authorities might have some too. So, again, get online, have a bit of a look round.
A lot of these policies are sample policies; they can be adapted to suit what you might need them to do or they can just simply be a basis upon which you build to have a policy of your own.
Now, we'll wander on. We've got three or four summing-up, helpful tips. Let's see what we've got. What have we got, Louis? What's our first couple?
Louis Hine
We've covered and discussed some key points and we hope what we've presented sparks some discussions and some thought at your charities and perhaps provide a bit of guidance about things you can do, actions you can take and tasks that you can get into and work on now.
We hope we offered up some things that your charity, that you can act on. And we're just starting off with point number one here, is just to jump back and have a look at our July webinar and managing money in the time of COVID-19.
Chris Riches
And we don't often go back and say to people to refer to our previous webinars overtly in another webinar like this, but we'll perhaps make an exception here because that webinar that we staged back in July has got a lot of really good information and details about financial considerations that you should have in mind.
Particularly in there, there's an extended section on financial forecasting and some concepts and tips towards perhaps charities thinking ahead from a financial perspective and planning and that sort of stuff. It's very practical. It's well worth watching the recording of it if you missed it back in July.
There's the address there: acnc.gov.au/webinars. If you click on the July session to view the recording. I've interrupted you, Louis, I do apologise. What's the second point that we've got here?
Louis Hine
That's all right, no stress. Point number two: think of things you can do to make it easier for people to be involved or stay involved or even to just get involved in the first place with your charity.
Make it easier to get to meetings and to participate. Does this mean changing your meeting arrangements and how that works? Make it easier to donate by providing options like electronic donations and online options, things like that.
And what about options to donate things that aren't money, things like goods or pro bono expertise, and also considering just what volunteering options there are, as in virtual volunteering is a good way, but there are other ways that they can do things for your charity.
Chris Riches
Number three: have a think about the cheap and effective ways you can perhaps use to promote your charity to keep its profile out there. We've highlighted a couple today, obviously, website/social media being among them.
But again, remember that you can use your page on the charity register to promote your work too when you go through, when you answer those questions in the 2020 AIS literature. Look at the programs that you have.
Again, use the Program Previewer to practise your responses to these questions and that way you can polish them up so they're lovely and shiny before you jump in and do your actual 2020 AIS. What have we got here for point four, Louis?
Louis Hine
Just another thing to consider here is are your policies, processes and procedures in a good place? Are they relevant not only for now but for any changed circumstances that your charity is looking at in the short-, medium- or long-term future?
If you need to review, tweak or edit policies, or if you need entirely new ones, get into it. Policies and procedures need to be reflective of and relevant to the work you do. Again, there are plenty of great policy templates and starting points around the web from a number of useful sources including the ACNC.
Chris Riches
Definitely including the ACNC. And again, we'll send through some of those sources and websites. We've done that throughout the session today and we'll continue to do that in the email that we do afterwards.
We've got a few minutes here. We won't hold you up because for most of you it might be getting around about lunchtime. We've reached the end of formal proceedings today.
Again, just a reminder we're recording what we're doing today. The recording presentation slides are going to be available on our website in the coming day or two. That email will go out to people in the coming day or so, as well, with the important links, references, links to the recording, all of those stuff.
We've managed to grab a couple of questions that have come through, through proceedings today. Louis, did you want to - what was the first one we had?
Louis Hine
I'll just lead into this one. It's a really common issue that I'm hearing a lot of people asking about: it's keeping things moving forward and driving what you do when you can't actually meet in person.
Chris Riches
Yeah, that is a challenge. You're right Louis, it's something that's been a commonly expressed thing. When you have a meeting, when you're in a room, you get things done in that office sense - motions and votes and decisions and all of that sort of thing, getting through agendas.
But there's also that informal discussion, there's some of that strategizing, there's that cooperative sense of getting things done, and there's that catchup and all those sorts of things. And it happens before the meeting, after the meeting, during the meeting as well.
Obviously, with some of the restrictions that are happening now, some of the issues, that's been a bit of challenge.
In some parts at the moment, some of these restrictions on gatherings are gradually loosening and when that happens there might be perhaps a chance for your charity's people to start meeting in person again. If you can and if its allowed, you should perhaps consider doing so, even if you maybe switch between in-person and remote meetings.
But look, if your charity is locked into remote meetings for now, it's work and decision-making. You can still further it even when you're not meeting in the same room. When you meet remotely, a key is that what you're going to be doing in the meeting that spelled out in the agenda, that agenda is available nice and early. It's not something that gets distributed or made available on the day of the meeting.
Get it out a little bit early and ensure that everyone who needs to be at that meeting is invited to the meeting, gets to the meeting, can access the technology required for the meeting.
It might mean that you need to borrow some equipment or the tech-savvy person in your organisation might need to offer a little bit of assistance here. The right apps might need to be downloaded and most of them are relatively easy to download and relatively easy to use. That sort of stuff might need to be done before meeting time.
On top of this sort of access and connectivity and stuff, when you meet remotely just make sure that some of the resolutions that you made, decisions you made, are clear. And most importantly that there's always a bit of follow through on them.
When you've made a decision or you've made a resolution, make sure they're clear, make sure there is a very clear sense of what needs to be done, make sure there are clear timelines in which it has to be done and make sure that there is someone who is responsible for either doing it or overseeing the task.
That will help drive forward. That will help drive your organisation forward and it'll help drive your work forward.
You can then go back and double check. During the meeting you can say - even maybe straight after it a decision is made - Joe Bloggs is responsible for this and we will check back in two weeks and then make sure that that's reflected in the minutes that are sent out rather promptly after the meeting as well.
So, have in place those timelines where people who are charged with certain tasks, they might need to report back as well.
Urge everyone in those decision-making positions in your charity to communicate, to report back, to stay in the loop. It's important that these timelines that you might have in place to get things done, emphasise how important that is and emphasise how important it is for the charity's operation and how it is driven forward.
Your charity's leaders, who are Responsible People, shouldn't be afraid of following up with each other and not in a nasty way, not in a I'm-checking-up-on-you type of way, but just a collaborative way where the way the charity works is paramount to what you're trying to do.
So, decisionmakers that you have should be, as a group, as a team, doing this sort of stuff, checking up, offering support where required. If something needs a little bit more clarity, let's work out what that clarity is and get back to it. Check in and report, communicate, do these sorts of things consistently and actively.
Again, we'll plug our remote meetings resource as well, that's acnc.gov.au/remote meetings. That has a whole heap of good information about the nitty-gritty of running remote meetings, before the meeting, during the meeting, after the meeting as well.
Now, have we got time for one more question? Yeah, all right, we'll throw one more. We do have another one that's come through. Something that we've touched on a little bit earlier too and how do I save money?
Rather than acknowledging the dip in fundraising dollars that may have occurred for a number of charities, how do I save money on the other side of the ledger? Louis, what do we perhaps look at here? What are some of the things that maybe charities could think about here?
Louis Hine
Quite a few people have asked that question, both before and during this webinar, about fundraising and the challenges that they've faced lately. Hopefully, some of today's webinar helps, but it is also timely to note that, on the other side of the coin, the capacity charities might have to save money during this time. Fundraising is harder these days and saving money can be just as important as that.
And in our July webinar, we discussed in detail charity financial forecasting with a bit of emphasis on forecasting conservatively and cutting expenditure to balance a fall in fundraising or revenue.
Some of the things that we discussed in that webinar included examining how changes in how you run or operate your charity could lead to savings, now and into the future.
For example, payments to hire meeting rooms or venues, even as far as any of the rent you pay on the premises. Continued examination of fixed costs, things like rent or mortgage payments, loan repayments, technology agreements, security, insurance. How all these might be managed to reduce or defer them.
So, having a conversation with banks and lenders or landlords, funders or others, to see what arrangements can be put in place or extended to reduce the amount of money you're paying on that front.
And also just have an informed discussion about your options as an organisation. Ultimately, you need to ask the questions about these things and have that conversation to make sure that you're taking the right steps towards financial viability. When carrying out this type of forecasting, it's vital the Responsible Persons are involved and are able to easily identify and outline core activities that the charities run. That way, it is a focus on how savings are linked to those core activities might drive the operations or ongoing viability of the charity.
Again, like mentioned earlier, you can visit the acnc.gov.au/webinars to view that recording of the July webinar.
Chris Riches
And those last couple of things you mentioned earlier, we again mentioned Responsible Persons or Responsible People here and again we can't underestimate the role that you have in this context to be able to, as was mentioned, to identify and really know what the core activities of a charity are and then have a look at some of the savings that you might have linked to those core activities and how that might drive what you do or how that might balance the other side of the coin on a reduction in fundraising, for example.
These things are vital so again it's very much time for your leaders, your charity's leaders, to be engaged, involved, communicating, collaborating, working together, but that probably goes without saying but we'll emphasise it anyway.
We're just about done. Our hour is just about up. What we'll do, as you can see up on the screen here's some of the ways you can stay in touch with us - website, our usual web guidance, Charitable Purpose e-monthly, another link to the webinars, another link.
Now, there's some good podcasts as well. I'll mention those as well. Definitely go and have a listen to some of our recent podcasts that deal with some of the challenges that are being faced at the moment, so definitely go and have a listen to some of those.
Beyond that, I think it might be time to say farewell. Thank you to everyone who's come along today. Thank you, Louis, too. Thanks for coming along. It's really good to catch up with you again. Thanks heaps.
Louis Hine
Yeah, absolutely, thanks for bearing with me and it's been a lot of fun.
Chris Riches
See you were getting back into it, by the end of it. It's a practice thing. That's all good.
Louis Hine
Yeah, absolutely!
Chris Riches
Thank you to Matt and thank you to Alana too for handling the questions in the background; also sending through some of those links to some of the websites that we mentioned through the webinar as well.
Before we go, just last thing. If you want to sign up to any of our future webinars, we've got, gee, one, two, I think three more for the rest of the year, so have a look, see if any of them pique your interest. If so, go to /webinars, take a look.
In the meantime, we look forward to catching up with you again some time in the future, he says dropping his pen.
Have a great day, stay safe and be well and we'll catch up soon. See you later.
Louis Hine
Bye.