health checkAs we are heading towards the end of the year it is always a good time to do a health check of your organisation.  While the committee of management as part of their governance duties and responsibilities may do formal reviews in relation to the financial performance, compliance with policies and procedures  and achievement against strategic objectives there are a many other areas that may be overlooked.

While many of these may relate to the above governance issues they are worth considering because they can help identify some warning signs.

For example, some issues to consider may include:

  • Do you have enough cash on hand to pay accounts as they fall due.  It is one to have a strong balance sheet where assets are greater than liabilities but if you don’t have enough actual cash to pay current outstanding debts you may be facing a liquidity problem.
  • If you organisation relies on members, enrolments or participants in events, has there been an increase over the last 12 months.  The importance of this is that if there is a decrease your revenue base may also be decreasing.  Therefore, if you are considering expanding or investing in new activities for the future then you may need to reconsider these initiatives.
  • If you receive donations from the general public have they increased or decreased over the last 12 months.  If they are decreasing then maybe donors are suffering from donor fatigue or the way you promote your organisation to obtain donations needs to be reviewed.
  • If your organisations runs programs or activities consider seeking feedback or input from the people who participate that may identify ways to make improvements that result in greater levels of participation and an increase in revenue.
  • Has there been a higher turnover of staff that is more than usual?  While a turnover of staff can be a healthy sign, it can also indicate that there are management issues, ineffective professional development programs or even poor moral.  Consider undertaking a staff survey to review if there are any issues as well as to identify ways to make improvements.
  • Assess the performance of the committee of management and whether there is a need to recruit people with different set of skills to fill any potential gaps.

These issues are just some areas to consider as part of the health check of your organisation but the main issue this information is trying to highlight is to look at your organisation from a slightly different perspective than the traditional governance view because you may pick up critical warning signs that otherwise may have been missed.