GovernApp

The Problem

Whether you’re a large $100m charity or a local sports club, not for profit board governance presents a complex challenge. We know that improving governance leads to better organisational outcomes, and poor governance can lead to poor organisational outcomes. However, many NFP Board members are volunteers who have little to no training or prior experience in governance.

How can volunteer NFP board members - and NFP Boards as a whole - grasp the fullness of their obligations, especially given the time and cost constraints they face?

Traditional solutions to solving governance issues include expensive, single-use surveys that require consultant-driven interpretation and remediation planning, and formal governance training that is individual-centric and prohibitively expensive.

In the face of this challenge, we see the need for a low cost, easily accessed, high functioning toolset that can help our well-intentioned, passionate and purpose driven Board volunteers to flourish in their roles.

Enter GovernApp

GovernApp is an online, super-easy to use system that will:

Assess your individual and Board governance practices
Generate a prioritised action plan for improving governance tailored to your organisation
Provide links to model solutions that can help you to rapidly implement governance improvements
Track your progress in making governance improvements
Provide evidence of intentionality and improvement in your governance to support funding and grant applications
Ensure your governance risk profile is mapped and mitigated
Provide board papers to support governance your improvement efforts

Critically, GovernApp is priced to make sure that organisations of all sizes can use the product. It is our core mission to democratise access to good governance, and our pricing reflects this inherent motivation.

Helping The Board

Multiple Frameworks

Most self-assessment-based tools use a single, one-size-fits-all questionnaire set. GovernApp offers multiple governance frameworks, allowing the organisation to select the most appropriate framework for assessment.

For example, GovernApp offers frameworks for Incorporated Associations, ACNC assessment, and proprietary limited NFPs. Future releases will also provide operational assessment frameworks to help Boards to understand their status regarding key issues such as cyber-security, Childsafe, and clinical governance (for health-oriented organisations).

Our frameworks range from very complex to relatively simple. Simple frameworks comprise multiple sections, each of which contains multiple questions. More complex frameworks are organised by domains, which break down into sections and questions.

Driving improvement

The assessment report and action plan provide a clear guide for Boards in how to improve their governance capabilities. Boards should review these artefacts together. The recommended action plan can be updated, actions assigned, timeframes determined.

GovernApp allows the action plan to be updated, and the status of actions tracked. GovernApp issues reminders to those to whom actions have been assigned to ensure these activities remain top of mind.

A standing agenda item of reviewing the GovernApp action plan at each Board meeting will ensure Boards remain focussed on the continual improvement of their governance practices.

The presence of an assessment and an action plan provides solid evidence for a Board’s focus on good governance and can be used in support of funding and grant applications.

Conducting assessments

Once an organisation has determined its preferred assessment framework, GovernApp presents an attractive, easy to use interface that guides Board members through their assessment process. Users are assisted with complex concepts through supplementary explanatory notes where needed. Users can complete their assessments over a number of days, being able to save and return to their assessments as time permits.

Assessment reports

Most assessment based tools provide little more than aggregated scores against the questions provided. GovernApp provides a comprehensive assessment report with:

Tailored report text providing qualitative analysis of the assessment results at domain and section level.
A risk profile of each domain and section assessed
A prioritised action plan with recommended timeframes for implementation
Links to template solutions such as policies, procedures, guidelines that can be used to guide rapid implementation of governance improvements

A virtuous loop

Most other assessment products are charged as one-off exercises. The action plan and progress tracking help keep governance firmly in a Board’s sights. By undertaking annual assessments, the Board can definitively track material improvements in governance behaviour over time. Trend analysis showing such improvements will be implemented in a future release of GovernApp.

Laying a foundation

New Board members should be inducted into their roles, and requiring a new Board member to undertake a GovernApp self-assessment as part of that induction is a great way to ensure that your new Board member is on a solid governance journey in line with the expectations and practices of their Board colleagues.

Helping Individual Board Members

Those who volunteer to serve on NFP Boards are our heroes, and GovernApp is here to help. Whether you are a subject matter enthusiast, an experienced leader who wants to give back, a staff representative on the Board, or a motivated professional seeking career experience, GovernApp will help you to identify your strengths and areas for development.

GovernApp will:

Allow you to conduct a private self-assessment that will identify the areas you need to improve on in your understanding and practice of governance
Provide you with links to artefacts and training that will help you rapidly close those gaps and build your governance skills and credibility
Give you the shared concepts and language that will maximise your contribution to Board meetings
Help you to demonstrate year-on-year improvements in your governance expertise as you conduct annual self-assessments
Build your expertise in governance without having to pay a cent

Helping CEOs

The practised reality for the CEOs of many smaller NFPs is that they play a key role in Board management through agenda planning, scheduling, and assembling and distributing papers. This is, of course, in addition to their role at Board meetings of demonstrating role accountability, assuring risks are managed and contributing to the strategic dialogue.

In some cases we see CEOs as the practical drivers of good governance behaviour. In these scenarios, GovernApp helps CEOs by:

Providing a trusted baseline of governance practice (through our assessment frameworks)
Generating an action plan that can be tracked
Delivering an updated report on the action plan status that can be included as a paper for each Board meeting
Creating a governance risk report that can also be included as a paper for each Board meeting
Providing operational frameworks that can provide both a guide and an assurance in areas such as cybersecurity, IT governance, risk management, procurement, clinical governance, childsafe, Covidsafe, and so on*

Optimise your board's compliance and effectiveness for greater impact.

The Problem

Enter GovernApp

How does it work?

Helping The Board

How can I try GovernApp?

Pricing

Support

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