POLICY: MANAGEMENTA core part of the third sector chief executive’s job is internal management – managing the organisation’s resources and its people. In carrying out that management role, chief executives come across a number of issues, and we work to represent and support our members as they address them. ACEVO’s vision is one of a modern, professional and enterprising third sector. Central to that vision is the highly-skilled, professional chief executive. That in turn requires chief executive pay to be sufficiently high to attract the best candidates for the role, and for CEOs to invest in their own professional development once in the job. We work to ensure that donors and funders understand the need for chief executive role to be suitably remunerated and for chief executives to continue to develop their skills in post. Chief executives also need to ensure that their organisations’ resources are managed in such a way as to be sustainable – both financially and environmentally. That requires chief executives to invest in their organisations as well as the direct costs of project work that their organisations undertake. In that context, we champion the need for third sector organisations to cover their overheads by achieving full cost recovery as a minimum from their funders – be they government commissioners or individual donors. But we also believe third sector chief executives should lead their organisations towards environmental sustainability, and support our members to do so. Third sector leaders also need to be excellent employers of high-quality staff. We support our members to invest in their staff's professional development, and seek to shape Government programmes for investing in staff to ensure that they reflect the needs of third sector chief executives. We also support our members in matters relating to employee engagement and relationships with trade unions. Many of the changes affecting third sector chief executives’ external relationships have significant implications for the way they manage their organisations. For instance, changes to Government commissioning and procurement or the introduction of individual budgets will impact on the way many third sector chief executives manage their organisations’ resources and personnel. The same is true of the recession. We therefore work to represent and support our members on the management issues these external drivers affect.
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