The CEO Jigsaw

Most (if not all) charities are founded by people who have a real passion and drive to address an inequality and/or make a difference through action. Some of the best charities are founded by those who have lived experience of their cause, with up to 38% of charities with a turnover of under £1m* being founded by those who have first hand experience of the causes they are supporting. ‘Place Based’ charities, i.e. those with founders living within the communities they work in make up 82% of small charities in this bracket*. Basically, all charity founders set up their charities because they have a need to change what they perceive as a cause where they can make a difference.

From my own experience, when you set up a charity on your own the focus is on ensuring that you are hands on, growing the charity and working closely with those you are looking to support. For me, this meant working with care providers, people with additional needs and their families as well as sourcing housing through local estate agents and private landlords. Mine was the face they saw, it was my name on all the letters and the company voicemail (i.e. my personal mobile!) My focus was on the users of the service I was providing and the business kind of grew around me. This focus on the end users of the charity was pretty much my only priority at that time.

When the charity grew to a point where however hard I tried I could not find more than 24 hours in a day, I had to then look at employing a team. First two volunteers, before they changed to paid staff. They were the ones whose primary focus was on those we were supporting and the stakeholders we were working with. My job became more removed, and I did not have the face to face contact with those I supported, something that I did struggle a lot with (but that’s for another blog!) This meant that THEY were the names and faces that people went to when there was a problem, THEY were the ones visiting the tenants and supporting them in the way that I wanted to.

As time went on and the work grew, I recruited my first manager. Her role was to manage the staff team and ensure that they in turn were supporting the tenants. I was even further removed from the front line, but at the same time I had an increasing focus on the charity as a whole as it grew, ensuring that its infrastructure, governance and financial security were in place to ensure its longer term future. I’m not going to lie, I struggled with this. I set up Hollywell to support people and be the one that watched them develop and thrive in their homes. However, I grew to understand that my role as leader and CEO was to focus on the BUSINESS and trust that my team were doing their jobs in line with our mission and vision. I had a responsibility to focus on the nuts and bolts, I had to learn more about accounts, about legislation and about having the more strategic conversations with stakeholders. My role changed.

For a charity leader, there is a jigsaw of three overarching things you need to worry about – the service user, the staff and the business. For operational staff, it’s just the service user that is their focus. For managers, it is the service user AND the staff team but for you as CEO, you need to oversee both of these things PLUS be focused on the business – these three pieces of the jigsaw of your charity are what makes it strong. The word ‘business’ seems to be a dirty word within the VCSE sector – truth is, charities ARE businesses. They offer a service that is paid for (by the user or by external funding) and that comes with a lot of responsibly and a need for CEOs to look away from the day to day front line work, however hard this is (and I think for a founder, this is especially hard) and focus on the structure and governance of your charity.

For some help and support for CEOs to develop their business mindset and ensure that their charities are growing sustainability, fit for the future and have strong governance, coaching is a fantastic tool to utilise. For a free initial consultation on whether coaching might help you, give me a call today on 07989 518142 or email katie@thecharityspecialist.com.

* Charity Digital Skills Report 2025

* NCVO 2024