Charity Talks 2017/18

The New Economy of Free Work - the role charities in a post-employment world

Charles Handy CBE, Humanitarian thinker and author

Dr Justin Davis Smith, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Charity Effectiveness, Cass Business School, City, University of London

Known for his radical, humanistic analysis, Charles Handy will be looking to the near future. We heard predictions of unemployment in the 1980s, but the rapid expansion of the application of AI (artificial intelligence) and robotisation in the last five years means this era will be with us sooner than we think. For many, work gives meaning to life. How do charities prepare for this? What can we offer the workless population? How do we re-organise?

Putting the current position and charities’ plans for the future into perspective is Justin Davis Smith, immediate past Chief Executive of Volunteering England (now part of NCVO) and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Charity Effectiveness, Cass Business School.

Good Practice Now: What have been the effective changes to running charities over the last 25 years

Professor Ian Bruce CBE, President, Centre for Charity Effectiveness, Cass Business School, City University London

Professor Paul Palmer, Director, Centre for Charity Effectiveness, Cass Business School, City University London

As chair or speaker at every Charity Talk, Prof Ian Bruce has heard over 150 charity chief executives and responders present and has gained a unique knowledge of changes and progression in nonprofit management and leadership over the past 25 years. In addition, he has lectured on the Charities Masters programme for 22 years. During this Charity Talk he will share lessons learned and conclusions on trends which are and should be directing charities today.

Managing and leading inside nonprofits

Juliet Bouverie, Chief Executive, Stroke Association

Professor Marianne Lewis, Dean and Professor of Management, Cass Business School

Managing and leading in a charity is a tough job, not just at the top but at all levels. The theory is fine but often it doesn’t take account of the competing demands placed on us. Our two speakers have a wealth of experience to share. Juliet Bouverie, for two years CEO of the Stroke Association was previously a senior manager at Macmillan. She has also worked at the British Red Cross in strategy and service evaluation, the Community Development Foundation in fundraising and in a political consultancy firm.

Marianne Lewis is Dean of Cass Business School and Professor of Management. She is an international thought leader in the field of leadership and organisational paradoxes. Change and complexity accentuate tensions – competing demands, contradictory pressures and challenging double-binds. Her research applies a provocative paradox lens to such domains as organisational change, governance, and innovation. This relatively new way at looking at organisation and leadership has a lot to tell us about how to be successful in charities and other nonprofits.

Leading an organisation through change

Helen Stephenson CBE, Chief Executive, Charity Commission

Caroline Copeman, Consultant and Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for Charity Effectiveness, Cass Business School, City, University of London

The Charity Commission is the regulator and registrar of charities in England and Wales. There are over 167,000 charities on the register and the Commission faces significant challenges: increasing demand for its core services, growing public scrutiny of charities, and pressures on its own resources. In her talk, Helen Stephenson set out how she and her team are responding to these challenges to focus on the Commission's core aim of promoting public trusts in charities - including by harnessing digital and becoming a more risk-led regulator. The response, putting the case into a broader context, came from Caroline Copeman.

Helen Stephenson joined the Charity Commission as CEO in July 2017. She has extensive experience of senior leadership across the public and voluntary sectors including being Director of the Office for Civil Society and holding senior roles at the Big Lottery Fund and the Shaftesbury Society. She has been chair of the National Childbirth Trust and a member of the Advisory Council of NCVO.

Caroline Copeman is a Senior Visiting Fellow at Cass Business School and Principal Consultant for Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness. Her consultancy and teaching focuses on her areas of interest: strategy development, governance and change management. Her focus is on building ownership through engagement, and using mental models and systems thinking to design optimum approaches.