A step change in conducting a governance review
Digi-Board was born out of the need for a better way to conduct a review of governance effectiveness..
Governance is complex subject. Charities and not-for-profits are known to struggle to carry out governance reviews due to the complexity, expense and time devoted. Digi-Board offers a solution that overcomes these challenges and is affordable!
Let us show you the Digi-Board way!
The Digi-Board Story
Meeting on the Financial Times Non-Executive Director diploma course, the founders gained a deep understanding of the importance of good governance in organisations. Initially we targeted the charity sector and recognised that its governance practices would benefit from a modern approach and decided to do something about it!
Scrutiny of the charity sector is intense and governance is in the spotlight. High-profile media attention with the failure of Kids Company, the sad case of Olive Cooke, scandals at Oxfam and Save the Children all highlighted poor governance as a common theme. This lead us to look at how we could improve governance in the sector – with a modern solution using digital technology.
In July 2017 a revised code of governance was launched with the support of The Charity Commission. The code recognised the importance to society of having a strong, sustainable and well run third sector. The Digi-Board team used the code as the basis for our innovative solution to good governance. In partnership with a specialist governance firm in the City of London, we developed an affordable digital solution. Concurrently, The Charity Commission encouraged the adoption of digital services and Digi-Board delivered!
With governance often being a challenging discussion for those involved, our goal was to find a way to support charity boards and not-for-profit organisations to become accomplished and confident in governance. We wanted to make it easier to understand and so designed an online questionnaire that shows how to put good governance into practice. Our approach is educational and sets the scene for thinking about governance as a process for improvement that everyone can be part to.
Digi-Board was born! An online service that supports boards to learn and develop their capability to improve governance for their charity or not-for-profit organisation.
Our Values & Purpose
Our Purpose
Our Values
Creative
Caring
We work to nurture positive relationships that reinforce the importance of good governance to the sector.
Collaborative
Considerate
Giving Back
We give back in innovative ways to those we serve.
Helen Michaels
CEO & Co-Founder
Helen has over 25 years experience as a board level adviser and coach, both nationally and internationally for charities, not-for-profits, SME’s and FTSE 100 companies. Specialisms include transformational and cultural change and third sector governance.
Helen graduated with the FT non-executive director diploma, before co-founding Digi-Board delivering online governance and board effectiveness reviews to charities and third sector organisations.
Her experience includes executive roles in Customer Experience, Marketing, HR & Finance (British Airways, Monarch Airlines, Price Waterhouse Coopers and Baker Tilly).
Helen has an Accounting & Financial Analysis degree (Warwick University) and executive diplomas from INSEAD and the Institute for Applied Behavioural Science (USA). She is also an accredited practitioner of several psychometric instruments and a fellow of the RSA.
She is the Chair of Trustees at The Sleep Charity and has previously served as trustee and Vice-Chair of a transport charity. In addition Helen has been a coach and mentor to individuals in the third sector to support their personal growth and development.
Helen loves to travel, entertain family and friends and is an armchair sports enthusiast.
The late Frank Bennett
Co-Founder
Frank has experience of serving on charity and not-for profit boards and one thing that always bugged him was the challenge of engaging his fellow board members in a discussion about governance. It bugged him enough that he wanted to fix that. With Digi-Board he wanted to take the groan (it is so hard!) out of governance.
As the co-founder of Digi-Board, his work is about how to make it easy for those responsible for governance to be actively involved, whether experienced or novice. It is a collective responsibility and there is no ducking it, as pointed out by the Charity Commission in ‘The Essential Trustee: what you need to know, what you need to do. (CC3)’.
Governance is not glamorous and you won’t get applauded as you would for a magnificent fundraising success. However, love it or loathe it, attention to governance will keep your organisation focussed on its aims and purposes.
No more excuses – Digi-Board has taken the groan out of governance!
Frank is our digital guru, he has authored books for Microsoft and Google. A keen cyclist, he is a supporter of Cycling UK a registered charity.
Fellow of The RSA: Financial Times NED Alumni: Member of EY Independent Director Programme:
Get your Governance Review started today!