In brief

• Employees need easy access to the charity’s policies
• Employees need to have trust in the policies they find
• Policy approval process needs to consider board & committees
• Ultimately, trustees bear responsibility for the good governance

Prefer to speak to us about our approach to Policy Management? Book a short call with one of our team to get answers to your questions.

Policy management

For charities, trustees bear the responsibility for ensuring the good governance of the organisation. Effective governance involves:

• Maintaining up-to-date, well-managed policies with audit-ready approval and review processes

• Ensuring employee accessibility to policies to minimise the risk of lack of awareness and promote compliance

Achieving this requires a balance between governance requirements and the financial constraints that charities often face. Policy Express offers a centralised, cost-effective Policy Management System specifically designed for charities, making it easier for those in operations and governance roles to maintain compliance efficiently.

We work with charities across the UK and USA in a range of fields, from hospice care and environmental protection to missionary work. Our clients vary in size, ranging from 50 to over 300 employees.

In this article, we will consider the six stages of the policy life cycle and any specific considerations that apply to charities.

Step 1: Policy creation process

Before implementing a policy management solution, policies are often grouped by department. While this approach may simplify management, it doesn’t necessarily benefit employees who need quick and easy access to relevant policies.  

We recommend centralising policies in a policy hub to enhance accessibility.

• Multi-National Charities: Create separate policy hubs for each jurisdiction, allowing employees to access country- or state-specific policies easily.

• Large Charities: Use a single policy hub with security permissions, ensuring each department can only author and amend policies aligned with its responsibilities.

• Midsize or Small Charities: Provide all approved authors access to all policy documents. This approach supports cross-functional collaboration, which is often key in smaller charities.

This centralised approach simplifies access, improves adoption and helps maintain consistency across the organisation.

Step 2: Policy approval processes for charities

When we compare a charity to businesses with a similar number of employees, charities often face more complex approval processes. Policies may require review and sign-off from multiple stakeholders and from a committee for final approval.

For committees, it’s unrealistic for every member to log into a policy approval system for sign-off, this is where the value of a delegated authority comes into play.

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Policy Express supports delegated approvals, allowing a designated signatory to sign off on behalf of the committee. Key fields capture essential details like the approval date, decision-makers, and notes, ensuring a clear, auditable record.

Step 3: Publishing and finding policies

Charity employees and volunteers often work outside traditional hours, so quick access to reliable policy content is essential, especially when policy owners aren’t immediately available to answer questions.

• Trusted Content: Research shows that policies in PDF format build trust, as they’re viewed as “formally published.” Policy Express automatically converts approved policies to PDF, providing an official, reliable source.

• Single Source of Truth: A dedicated Policy Library, separate from working documents, serves as the central authoritative source, benefiting employees and enhancing search and AI indexing.

• Ease of Access: People have different ways of finding information, so multiple access routes to policies are key:

• SharePoint Search: Policies in SharePoint, even as PDFs, are indexed based on security permissions.

• News Articles: Highlight new policies through SharePoint News posts, embedding relevant content.

• SharePoint Pages: Tag policies for specific needs, such as a new joiner’s page.
• AI Search: Policy Bot offers a ChatGPT interface to navigate the Policy Library.

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These approaches give employees confidence they’re using the latest policies with a search method that fits their working style, empowering them to make informed decisions and maintain high standards, regardless of their working hours.

Step 4: Attestation

In many charities, employees and volunteers may be required to formally acknowledge policies to confirm they have read and understood essential information. This attestation process is crucial for compliance tracking and accountability.

• Compliance Assurance: Recording acknowledgments provides a clear audit trail, demonstrating that staff members have been informed of key policies.

• Tracking and Reporting: Policy Express allows organisations to easily track who has and hasn’t acknowledged specific policies, simplifying reporting for audits or governance reviews.

• Reminder Notifications: Automated reminders can prompt employees who have yet to acknowledge required policies, helping maintain high compliance rates.
• Centralised Record-Keeping: All attestations are stored centrally, making it easy to retrieve records if needed for regulatory checks or internal reviews.

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This process strengthens governance by ensuring that employees are aware of and aligned with the organisation’s policies, fostering a culture of compliance and responsibility.

Step 5: Feedback

A robust feedback process builds trust in the policy management system, making employees and stakeholders feel engaged and valued in shaping organisational policies. Feedback often focuses on:

• Governance Changes: Policies may require updates to reflect shifts in the charity’s governance approach, ensuring they remain relevant and effective.

• Regulatory Updates: Input from team members can highlight necessary adjustments to meet new legal or regulatory standards.

• Clarifications: Employees may seek clearer language or examples in policies to enhance their understanding.

Policy Express offers a user-friendly interface to simplify feedback capture, compiling a centralised log of all submitted feedback. Policy owners are automatically notified whenever new feedback is received, which allows for policies to be kept current.

Step 6: Review

In many charities, the policy review process often only begins after the review date has passed, exposing the organisation to compliance risks.

Policy Express supports timely policy reviews in three key ways:

• Alerts for Employees: Clearly highlights when a policy is overdue, ensuring awareness across the team.

• Automated Notifications: Sends a sequence of reminder emails to policy owners ahead of the renewal date.
• Proactive Reporting: Provides policy administrators with a report of upcoming or overdue policies for review.

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By centralising policy ownership, review schedules, and feedback, Policy Express helps charities stay aligned with compliance requirements and avoid lapses.

Cost-effective policy management solution

While all organisations need to manage budgets carefully, this is particularly crucial for charities. An effective policy management system drives cost savings in three key ways:

1. End-User Self-Service: Enables employees to find answers independently, reducing interruptions to policy owners. ‍
2. Efficient Administration: Policy administrators can focus on exceptions and escalations, with daily management handled through automation.
3. ‍Streamlined Audits: Quick and easy audits, with all necessary data accessible in one place.

On the platform side, Microsoft offers low- and no-cost Microsoft 365 licences to charities, providing a familiar, financially sensible productivity platform.

Policy Express – a SharePoint solution

Policy Express offers a competitive, non-subscription-based solution that is deployed directly into your SharePoint environment with a one-time fee, which includes:

• Lifetime Licensing

• Deployment

• Training

• Go-Live Support

Our ongoing Success Service is available to enhance support and includes:

• Solution updates

• Unlimited support tickets

• Additional training sessions

• And other benefits too

Success Service is only required for the first year; after that, continued support is optional, providing flexibility for charities to manage costs effectively.

View pricing in GBP or USD.

Not for profit - charity SharePoint offering

Policy Express requires SharePoint Online; Microsoft licensing details are as follows:

Charities Up to 300 users

End users can access Policy Express with a Business Basic licence, available at no cost from Microsoft.

For Policy Authors, the best experience is achieved using Microsoft Office on the desktop, which is included with the Business Standard licence:

• UK Microsoft 365– Small Non-Profit / Charity Pricing

• USA Microsoft 365 – Small Non-Profit Pricing

Charities Over 300 Users

For larger organisations, F3 or E1 licences are typically recommended for SharePoint access.  

The Microsoft 365 E3 licence offers the best experience for Policy Authors, providing desktop access to Microsoft Office:

• UK Microsoft 365– Large Non-Profit / Charity Pricing

• USA Microsoft 365 – Large Non-Profit Pricing