The Charity Governance Awards recognise the work of UK charities that demonstrate outstanding governance and trusteeship. Effective governance makes a big difference to the non-profit sector and the awarders want to hear about charities that can share examples of excellent trustees and boards. There are seven award categories and it is free to enter.

Categories include:

• Board diversity and inclusivity
• Embracing digital
• Embracing opportunity and harnessing risk
• Improving impact – charities with 3 paid staff or fewer (including charities with purely voluntary staff)
• Improving impact - charities with 4-25 paid staff 
• Improving impact – charities with 26 or more paid staff
• Managing turnaround

Visit the Charity Governance Awards website to find the detailed breakdown of what judges are expecting to see in entries for each category.

There will be 19 judges in total, including:

• Tesse Akpeki – Lead Consultant at Bates Wells Braithwaite
• Michele Acton – Chief Executive of Fight for Sight
• Stephen Greene – Co-founder of RockCorps
• James Cochrane – former Chairman of the British Red Cross

The website contains helpful resources and advice to help charities submit a successful entry. Charities are advised to tell a compelling story through their entries that show why certain decisions were made and how major changes were implemented. Real evidence to back up claims is expected and charities are encouraged to discuss failures and how these have facilitated learning, improvement and growth.

Entries must be received by 22 January 2020 and cover activities undertaken by the main board and within the last five years. Previous winners can enter again this year, but must be submitting entries for a different category. Winning entries will receive an unrestricted grant of £5,000.

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