The Change Foundation is an award-winning charity that uses sport to change the lives of marginalised young people. Since our founding in 1981 our 40-year history has seen us work with over 250,000 young people through sport development programmes.

Trustees

Vicky Lowe – Chair
Asha Haji
Jaya Handa
Helen Webster
Rachel Billsbery-Grass
Steve Wootten
Luke Southall
Dan Button
Tarun Patel
Becks Martin

Treasurer

Daniel Drury

Trustee Governance

The Change Foundation is governed by the Board of Trustees who are also directors of the charity. The board holds the charity in trust for current and future beneficiaries by acting in accordance with the principles set out in the document entitled ‘The Role of the Trustee Board’.  The trustee board is comprised of all elected trustees. The board elects one of the trustees to chair the Board of Trustees and the current Chair of the Board of Trustees is Vicky Lowe. The board also elects a Vice-Chair to support and be a sounding board for the Chair and to stand in for the Chair if and when required. A copy of the descriptions of the role of the Chair and the role of the Vice-Chair are available. Our Board of Trustees meets quarterly.

There is a detailed ‘Trustee Code of Conduct’ setting out how all TCF Representatives, including Trustees, must conduct themselves. The board regularly carries out audits of its skills, experience and diversity to inform trustee recruitment. When gaps are identified, a nominations sub-committee is established comprising of members of the trustee board to find, interview and recommend new trustees.  The nominations committee considers how best to attract a diverse pool of candidates. The Board of Trustees then considers the recommendations of the nominations sub-committee and elects new trustees once enhanced DBS checks have been carried out.

The trustee board is supported in its decision making by three sub-committees – Resources and Governance (RAG), Programme and Impact (PIC) and Fundraising and Marketing (FMC), all of which also meet quarterly in advance of the Board of Trustees meeting. There are governance documents which set out in detail what matters are reserved for the full board and that establish the terms of reference for each sub-committee The governance of the of the charity is vested in the trustee board which retains overall responsibility and provides strategic leadership in line with the Change Foundation’s aims and values. The sub-committees are authorised to consider in depth the matters designated in these documents as their areas of responsibility and report back to the board at the board meetings but it is the Board of Trustees that retains the final decision on the issues.

Each of the three sub-committees is made up of a number of trustees in accordance with their respective expertise and interests. However, any trustee can attend a sub-committee meeting even if they are not formally on the sub-committee in question, should they wish to do so. Members of the senior management team and from time to time appropriate experts attend the sub-committee meetings and trustee board meetings to provide their knowledge, input , expertise and experience to the trustees.  The board and the sub-committees also receive recommendations and regular presentations from the Young Ambassadors group, which is made up of current programme participants and programme graduates. This group is critical in tackling our goal of being at the cutting edge of the issues affecting young people and running programmes which are as effective as they can possibly be.

How Is Our Charity Managed and Governed?

Programme and Impact Committee (PIC)
This committee is made up of Trustees, members of staff, Ambassadors and young people from our programmes and their role is to review our programme design, programme delivery and impact and evaluation strategy and make reports and recommendations to the charity’s Board of Trustees. PIC meets quarterly in advance of each Change Foundation board meeting.

Fundraising and Marketing Committee (FMC)
This committee is made up of Trustees, members of staff and Ambassadors and their role is to review our fundraising initiatives and our marketing and communications across the charity and make reports and recommendations to the charity’s Board of Trustees. FMC meets quarterly in advance of each Change Foundation board meeting.

Resources and Governance Committee and Audit Management
This committee is made up of Trustees and members of staff including the finance director. It meets quarterly to consider financial issues, budgets and governance issues, which it reports on to the full Board of Trustees.

Management of the annual audit process is delegated by the Board of Trustees to the Resources and Governance (RAG) Committee, which in turn delegates it to management, and specifically to the Head of Finance.

Prior to each financial year-end, management has an audit planning meeting with the audit partner and manager. The meeting considers amongst others, significant developments and occurrences since the last audit and their financial/ reporting implications and the current financial status of the charity and its significant risks. The serves as basis for the two parties to scopes out that year’s audit framework. The resulting ‘Audit Planning Memorandum’ (APM) is presented to the RAG Committee at its May/June meeting each year for its approval ahead of the start of the audit fieldwork.

The Head of Finance oversees the two-week audit fieldwork by the auditors, at the end of which management and the audit managers convene for the ‘Audit Closing Meeting’. The ‘Audit Findings Report’ (AFR) is subsequently prepared by the auditors, detailing their key audit findings, recommendations and actions required for audit completion and sign off of the accounts. The auditor present their AFR to the RAG committee at its August/ September meeting.

Once all outstanding matters have been satisfactorily resolved, the financial statements are signed on behalf of the charity’s board by the Chair and the Treasurer, and is subsequently certified by the Audit Partner. As part of each year-end process the committee inputs into, and reviews the charity’s ‘Annual Executive Report’ and financial statements prepared by management.

Our Ambassadors For Change

The Change Foundation Ambassadors are a group of individuals who help the charity in a variety of ways, including introducing us to new networks of supporters, sourcing charity of the year opportunities, identifying work placements and job opportunities for our young people and supporting fundraising events and challenge.