Managing Relations with Charities

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The Programme

Managing Relations with Charities - Regulation, Funding and Oversight

Relationships between the Irish public sector and the not for profit sector (NPOs) has largely evolved over the last 20 years, reflecting the growing role of NPOs in designing and delivering public services of behalf of the state.  This evolution has generated its own set of challenges for both the public sector and NPOs and has durably affected the nature of their relationships, increasingly dominated by contracting, measurement and performance management. Yet, given the role of civil society as well as the wide diversity in capacity, scale and resources among Irish Charities and NPOs, there is a clear need to identify the right balance between the need to preserve NPOs “uniqueness” and the minimum standards of management expected of publicly-funded organisations as well as assist Trustees and staff in facing their growing responsibilities in terms of governance and accountability requirements.

Managing Relations with Charities will examine current regulation and best practices in terms of reporting and oversight relationship between funders and charities and ways to foster mutual confidence in sound management and good governance.

Who is this for?

This half-day course is designed for public sector employees who have direct responsibilities in managing relationships between their Department or Public Sector Agencies and Charities entrusted with the delivery of specific services. It equally caters for both Board Member/Trustee and staff of Charities in receipt of public funds and those who feel they would benefit from further or formal training.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this half-day course, participants will:

• Fully appreciate the current legal and socio-economic environment of Charities and NPOs in Ireland.
• Understand the rationale that underpin relationships between funders/recipients and its historical evolution.
• Learn more about good practices and live experiences which can be introduced to improve funder/recipient relationships, both from the IPA trainers and participants.

Course Content

Managing Relations with Charities will cover the following areas:

• Regulatory, legal and economic context of Irish Charities and NPOs and their growing roles in public policy and public services delivery.
• What are the main models of relationships between recipients and funders and key elements of funder/recipient relationships (oversight, service level agreements, pay, performance management, risk management, monitoring evaluation).
• How to establish bespoke relationships based on mutual confidence and provision of support/assistance.

Course Leader

This half-day course will be delivered by members of our experienced Governance Team, which has first-hand experience of the governance framework and challenges among Irish Charities and Not-for-Profit organisations.  The Course Leader is Dr. Nicolas Marcoux and Team members include Noreen Fahy, Kate O’Donnell and Dr. Tom Ward.

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