New tools to improve NGO accountability

On 6 April, Dóchas hosted a meeting for Irish NGOs interested in improving their accountability, risk management and effectiveness. At the meeting, we presented the findings of the survey on members’ audit reports and corporate governance.

At the meeting, a number of draft tools to improve NGO accountability, risk management and effectiveness, were presented for discussion with Dóchas member organisations:

• Check-list for Board self-evaluation
• Board meeting evaluation sheet
• Corporate Governance Assessment tool
• Templates for NGO annual reports/financial statements (for Medium, Small or Large Organisations)

All staff and directors of Irish NGOs are invited to comment on those documents before 30 June 2011, after which some of those tools will become obligatory for Dóchas members.

On a separate note, The Wheel has taken the Dóchas Code of Corporate Governance as a basis for a future Governance Code for community, voluntary and charity organisations in Ireland to establish a similar Code of Corporate Governance for the voluntary and community sectors.