Written by Jonathan Taylor as part of the Clore Social Leadership Programme we've been supporting, this report looks at the role of charity directors and whether they can achieve a balance between leadership responsibilities and participating in their senior team. It summarises the views of 12 individuals, half of whom are ex-financial directors and half of whom are current senior members of charity management teams.

Between February 2011 and February 2013, we had a PAYE audit at nfpSynergy. If I live to be 100, I think it will still rank as one of the most painful, expensive, exasperating and protracted audits I experience. When we began the process, I could find virtually nothing in writing that prepared us for the compliance check that was randomly foisted on us by HMRC. Writing this is my attempt to help others be better prepared than we were.

After the Paralympics, Scope conducted a poll among 400 disabled people and the people caring for them. It showed 72% of them thought the Games had a positive effect on attitudes  towards disabled people. Lord Coe was hoping that ‘we would never look at disability in the same way again.’ But have the London Paralympic Games really helped to change attitudes among the public and are they now more knowledgeable about disability?

When I started my internship here last July, I didn't know much about the charity sector. Aside from a newspaper story I wrote for the British Heart Foundation and a week’s work experience there, I scarcely knew my Band Aid from my Gift Aid. It's been a fascinating learning curve over the last six months and although we are not a charity, we work solely for non-profits. So I thought while many of our bloggers reel off their last Auld Lang Syne at home, I’d muse on five things I learned about the charity sector in 2012.

1. A Hidden Gem - Resilience report from the Clore Social Leadership Programme

Introduction 

There are certain words which in the charity world have gained a completely different meaning from the one they do in the rest of the world. Independence is one of them.

As a researcher on Parliamentary matters, I am only too aware of the importance of the relationship between charities and MPs. But three separate events suggest a worrying new direction in the way MPs view charity lobbying.

It’s time the sector stopped huffing and puffing and bit the bullet. The public has no easy way of knowing whether a charity is spending enough of its income on its mission, nor whether that money is doing a good job.