Customer Stories
St. Vincent de Paul Society Australia
This Catholic charity relies on efficient governance and secure information-sharing to effectively pursue its mission, leveraging OnBoard to meet these needs.
Customer Stories
This Catholic charity relies on efficient governance and secure information-sharing to effectively pursue its mission, leveraging OnBoard to meet these needs.
Industries: Not-for-profit
Headquarters: Deakin, Australia
Board Management Goals
Results
OnBoard Capabilities Utilised
St. Vincent de Paul Society in Australia governs itself using a federated model, through a national council, six state councils and two territory councils. The Society, which is also well-known to Australians as Vinnies, is a prominent Catholic charity serving communities across the country and has over 10,000 members and over 20,000 volunteers. The Society relies on efficient governance and secure information sharing to effectively pursue its mission, leveraging OnBoard to meet these needs
Karen Hutchinson, Executive Assistant at St. Vincent de Paul Society National Council, plays a pivotal role in ensuring the smooth operation of board activities for the Council Members. She prepares and distributes board meeting materials to 17 directors, including the National President, Deputy President, Secretary, Treasurer, and representatives from the six state councils and two territory councils.
Before OnBoard, the Society faced challenges in managing board materials through email and shared drives. This approach was time-consuming, lacked security, and made tracking document versions difficult.
Sometimes, the flow of vital information to the National Council was hindered by inefficient communication and distribution of board meeting materials. Since implementing OnBoard, the National Council has seen significant improvements in efficiency.
“I found it very easy to use,” Hutchinson says. Among the things Hutchinson says she enjoys about OnBoard is the straightforward process of preparing materials and documentation for each meeting’s agenda by simply adding document links within the platform.
“All the documents are then in there and available for the meeting, and all the director has to do is download the meeting pack and use that for the meeting,” Hutchinson says. This intuitive approach prioritises ease of use and convenient access, saving valuable time and ensuring directors have the most up-to-date information at their fingertips to make informed decisions.
— Karen Hutchinson, Executive Assistant, St. Vincent de Paul Society Australia
Compliance is paramount for board operations in a registered charitable organisation like St. Vincent de Paul. OnBoard’s capabilities help the Society maintain a secure and auditable record of board decisions and activities, including approvals obtained through electronic signatures.
“The sign-off feature in OnBoard is fantastic,” Hutchinson says. “Once an executive or board director signs a document, we have a record of it forever — it’s brilliant not having to rely on email or look in a dozen places to locate the signature.”
This digital paper trail ensures that the National Council Secretariat can easily demonstrate accountability to its stakeholders and auditors. “The auditors come in every year and review our books, and with OnBoard, they know exactly where to find all the meeting minutes and other documents,” Hutchinson says.
While most directors find OnBoard easy to use, Karen acknowledges that some of the directors initially experienced some hesitation in adopting a digital platform for board meetings and documentation.
However, she has found ways to support them and ensure they can more effectively participate in board meetings, including the Agenda Pacer Line feature, which graphically compares the meeting’s real-time chronological progress against scheduled agenda items. “The directors can follow that little red line all the way through the meeting, and they think it’s fantastic,” Hutchinson says.
Karen also appreciates the responsiveness of OnBoard’s customer success team. “They’re always very responsive, so if we ever encounter problems, they get sorted quickly.”
St. Vincent de Paul Society National Council continues to internally advocate across all jurisdictions for OnBoard’s benefits. It has recommended that all jurisdictions implement the platform to promote more consistent board meeting operations, highlighting its streamlined processes, enhanced security and compliance, and improved director experience.
“The National Council decided a few years ago that this would be the preferred platform, and we’re now almost fully on board,” Hutchinson says. “I believe we have all but three jurisdictions using OnBoard.”
When asked if she would recommend OnBoard to other organisations, Karen responded enthusiastically: “Absolutely. I’ve never had the chance to work with something like this application in all my previous corporate professional life. So, it was like, oh, wow, they actually have these kinds of systems that can do these things and make this work easier.”
By embracing OnBoard, St. Vincent de Paul Society in Australia has significantly enhanced its board operations, enabling its directors to focus more on their mission of assisting people in need and combating social injustice across Australia.
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