Knowledge Hub

Leading a charity today means juggling competing priorities: financial sustainability, organisational culture, and delivering meaningful impact. Some days this balancing act can feel relentless. How do leaders keep the mission alive while ensuring the numbers add up? This article explores practical ways to navigate these tensions and build strong foundations for the future.

With rising demand, resource pressures and a rapidly changing funding environment, many charities are exploring whether collaboration or merger could strengthen their resilience and impact. This article from Hugo Walford and Jean Tsang at Bates Wells, sets out key considerations for charities contemplating collaboration or merger, along with top tips and common pitfalls to avoid.

The charity sector is at a crossroads, particularly around finances and operations. The pace and scale of change your organisation needs will vary but standing still is not an option. Knowing how far to push, and how fast to move, is one of the hardest calls you’ll face. PwC’s Amy McEwan & Emily Beatty provide a practical framework to getting it right.

Moving from dialogue to true collaboration isn't always a straight path, but it's one worth travelling. CFG's Emma Abbott shares the lessons learned through recent collaboration with some of the UK's biggest banks, and invites you to be part of the conversation too.

March is when people across the world celebrate the achievements of women and the contributions they make. We therefore spoke to Kate Oprava, who oversees financial management and company secretarial responsibilities at Funds for Women Graduates (FfWG), a charity with over a century of history supporting women in higher education.

Psychological safety is not a ‘nice to have’. It is the foundation of how well any team performs, communicates, and recovers from difficulty. When it is present, people are more engaged, more honest, and more committed. When it is absent, problems are hidden until they escalate, mistakes go unreported, and people disengage quietly — or leave.

How can we embrace risk and get ready for whatever life throws at us? Caron Bradshaw and Nigel Kippax's recent conference presentation takes a fresh look at risk management through the lens of sport, history, business and religion.

We recently spoke to the new chair of CFG's Arts and Museums Special Interest Group (ARTSIG), Margaret Anderson, Chief Finance Officer at Inspire. Margaret shared her journey from music student to CFO, her passion for the arts sector, and her vision for building ARTSIG into a thriving community where finance professionals can share knowledge, tackle sector-specific challenges, and support one another.

As 2026 starts, there are many challenges facing finance leaders, but CFG's Finance Leaders' Group is helping to address these head on. We spoke to the group's Chair, Jon King, to find out more about how the group has helped finance leaders to support each other and what his hopes are for the group in the year ahead.

Welcome to 2026! There’s much to look forward to, but there’s no denying the pressures we all face. To kick off the year, CFG’s co-CEO's Clare Mills and Sarah Lomax share some thoughts on the charity sector landscape, and how CFG will be supporting charities in the year ahead.

What does the new Charity Governance Code mean for charities? Mark Abbott from Bates Wells takes a look at the changes and urges organisations to sign up to a special webinar on 13 November.

CFG’s Co-CEO, Sarah Lomax, describes her experiences attending a recent counter demonstration, and explains how her lived experience as someone with mixed heritage informs her view on the need for the sector to do more to defend against racism.