Introduction

Good governance can help your organisation run efficiently and successfully.

This toolkit focuses on governance and is designed to be an interactive and practical guide for small to medium sized refugee community organisations (RCOs).

The aim of the seven sections is to provide your organisation with the key information and guidance it requires in order to run an efficient and successful organisation. If this relates to your organisation, then read on!

We would strongly encourage that every member of your management committee reads this toolkit on governance and lets the Basis Project team know if there is anything that is not easy to understand. Please note that the law referred to in this toolkit is the law applicable to England and Wales.

Contents

Section one looks at what we mean by governance and how this relates to your organisation.

Section two looks at charities, focusing on charitable purposes, public benefit and charity registration.

Section three highlights and clarifies the different organisational structures that your RCO can adopt depending on its aims and aspirations.

Section four looks at the different types of governing documents that your RCO can use depending on what kind of organisational structure you have in place.

Section five focuses on MCs and the roles and responsibilities
of MC members. This section also looks at recruiting and keeping MC members.

Sections six is a glossary of frequently used governance terms

Section seven lists some useful contacts for further information.

Acknowledgements

Authors: The Basis Project

Thanks to colleagues from Refugee Council and Refugee Action who contributed to the development and production of this toolkit and to James Sinclair Taylor of the Charity Team at Russell-Cooke Solicitors for his input.

Much of the content in this toolkit has been taken from the influential Refugee Council publication, Doing it for Ourselves (2003) – a step by step guide to setting up and managing an RCO. Where appropriate, information and facts have been updated.

We would also like to thank the following organisations for giving us permission to reproduce their copyright materials.

• The Resource Centre, Charity registration information sheet (in Section two)
• London Voluntary Service Council, Voluntary but not amateur: a guide to the law for voluntary organisations and community groups (adapted information from this book is in Section three)

We would like to thank the Charity Commission for giving us permission to link to their website and reference their materials.

The Basis Project toolkits, while checked for accuracy, are for information and guidance only. The Basis Project cannot accept responsibility for loss to any organisation or individual as a result of action taken or not as a consequence of the content of the Basis Project toolkits.

We hope this resource tool will enable refugee community organisations to develop and to continue providing excellent services to their communities.

The Basis Project would like to thank the Big Lottery Fund for their generous support.

Articles on our blog

The following articles relating to governance can be found on the Basis Project blog: