Good governance is what lets a mission-driven organisation keep its promises to donors, regulators, communities and its own staff. Resilience is what lets it keep them through leadership changes, funding shocks, audits and regulatory change.
This section brings the two together, as The Resilient Institution does: how Boards and leadership teams oversee strategy, risk, finance and people; how organisations avoid dependence on a single funder, build reserves and leadership depth; and how governance maturity can be measured with evidence rather than assumed.
Curated by CA Sunil Kumar, FCA — Chartered Accountant and social-sector CFO with 30+ years in NGO finance, audit and governance.
Lessons from two decades in governance, finance and institutional strengthening — on why the organisations that survive a crisis are the ones that built governance before they needed it.
On whether social-impact organisations are adopting AI and digital tools faster than they're developing the governance to manage them — accountability, data protection and Board oversight of technology risk.
A look at the eight areas under Pillar 1 — board skills, independence, composition, diversity, evaluation — and why "we have the skills" is different from "we have assessed whether we have the skills, and can demonstrate it."
On why funding concentration is a resilience risk that Boards should formally monitor — and when donor diversification should become a strategic priority.
A companion piece on why resilient institutions aren't simply the ones compliant today — they're the ones that have built the capability to remain compliant as circumstances change: assign responsibility → establish controls → monitor compliance → maintain evidence → escalate exceptions → provide oversight.
The first IGMA™ Governance Insights edition, on building more resilient, trusted institutions rather than treating governance as a box-ticking exercise.
"Mission without systems becomes fragile. Systems without mission become irrelevant. Sustainable institutions require both." Includes a practical Leadership Q&A section on institutional fragility, financial resilience and balancing mission ambition with financial reality.
A short story about leadership, finance, governance and the institution we leave behind — free to read online in full, from The Resilient Institution.
Read online free: The Architecture of Resilience → · also on Substack and Medium
The story behind starting the book series — the first two titles under a shared thesis on trust, governance and sustainable impact.
A checklist asks "do you have a policy?" A maturity assessment asks whether it's current, implemented, embedded in decision-making — and what evidence demonstrates that.
Five observations from implementing an evidence-based Governance Maturity Assessment — on why governance frameworks define governance, but governance behaviour determines maturity.
Peer benchmark data (directional, not representative — based on 14 NGO assessments) showing strong correlations between Financial Stewardship and both Stakeholder Trust (0.92) and Operational Excellence (0.91) — and why a weakness in one pillar can weaken the others.
Free videos and audiobook chapters. They load only when you press play.