Culture under the spotlight: what it means for NFP boards and leaders
Every time a new story breaks about a not-for-profit in trouble, my first thought is rarely “how could they?” It is usually, “what was really happening inside the culture that people felt they could not speak up earlier?”
Over the past few years, culture has moved from the “nice to have” column to the front page. It is no longer something we talk about only in staff surveys or strategy days. For boards and leadership teams in the not-for-profit and charitable sector, culture is now clearly part of the duty of care, stewardship of purpose and accountability to communities.
And the scrutiny is only increasing.
In Australia, the ACNC is clear that part of a charity’s responsibility is to maintain public trust and confidence in the sector. Governance guidance emphasises responsible people setting the tone, managing conflicts, and creating conditions in which harm is addressed rather than hidden. When things go wrong, consequences can include loss of charity status, regulatory action and long-lasting reputational damage.
Those decisions are not abstract. They affect real communities, donors and staff who are simply asking: “Can we still trust you?”
ESo what does that mean for boards and leaders who genuinely want to do better?
When the mission is strong, but the culture is strained
One of the hardest truths for the NFP sector is this: doing important, impactful and often life-saving work does not protect us from having difficult or even harmful cultures.
Talk to people who have left certain organisations in the aid and development sector, and you hear similar themes: deep commitment to the mission and, at the same time, experiences of conflict, cliques, burnout or bullying that no one quite knew how to address. Some Australian commentary has described staff in parts of the sector as being surrounded by “constant conflict and bullying”, with low morale and high turnover. It is confronting because so many have entered this line of work with the best intentions and a positive heart. But there is also another side to the story.
However, some not-for-profits are quietly doing culture well and treating it as core business, not a side project.
A positive example: One Door Mental Health and values in action
One example that often flies under the radar is One Door Mental Health, a NSW-based not-for-profit that has been supporting people living with mental illness and their families for nearly forty years.
From the beginning, One Door was founded as a partnership between people with lived experience, families, advocates and professionals. That DNA still shows up in how they talk about themselves today: an inclusive community offering innovative services and advocacy support, with lived experience at the heart of their work.
What stands out from their public story and sector case studies is not a single silver bullet, but a set of deliberate choices:
Lived experience as a strength, not a secret
One Door has invested in a lived-experience workforce and developed a Lived Experience Framework that intentionally places people with lived experience in visible roles, from service design to peer work. That sends a strong signal about whose voices matter and what kind of honesty is welcome.
Co-production and shared learning
Programs such as their recovery college are co-produced, with education designed and delivered alongside people with lived experience and carers. This model emphasises mutual learning and softens the traditional “expert–client” hierarchy.
Values that show up in partnerships
One Door works with PHNs, local services and other mental health organisations on projects that reduce stigma and improve access to care, including for people from CALD communities. It is culture expressed in relationships: collaboration, humility and a focus on what is best for people using services.
Is it perfect? Probably not. No organisation is. But it is a live Australian NFP example of culture being treated as part of the core work: values, structures and everyday practices all pointing in the same direction.
For boards and leaders elsewhere in the sector, the lesson is encouraging: you do not need to wait for a crisis. You can choose to make culture visible now, to name what “good” looks like, and to back it with real decisions.
Trust and culture are now inseparable
There was a time when a strong brand and a compelling mission could carry an organisation a long way. That time has passed. Today, donors, regulators, staff and communities are looking not only at what organisations do, but how they do it. They are asking:
Are funds being used as promised?
Are people, especially vulnerable people, safe?
Do leaders live by the same standards they expect from others?
What happens when something goes wrong?
In that environment, culture and trust are inseparable. When culture is healthy, it reinforces trust: people see alignment between values, behaviour and decisions. When culture is poor, trust is fragile, no matter how powerful the mission or the brand.
For boards and executives, this means culture can no longer be confined to Human Resources. It is central to risk, performance and legitimacy. The way power is used, how concerns are handled and how people are treated are now squarely governance issues.
Psychological safety: the culture ingredient we can’t skip
Underlying all of this is one concept that keeps coming up in research and practice: psychological safety.
Psychological safety is a climate in which people feel safe speaking up candidly without fear of punishment or humiliation. It is not just “allowed” to raise ideas, concerns and mistakes, it is expected.
In an NFP setting, psychological safety is not a luxury. It is essential if we want:
staff to raise safeguarding concerns early
volunteers to speak up when something feels off
people with lived experience to bring their full insight, not just what feels “safe” to say
managers and boards to hear the truth, not a carefully edited version
Practically, psychological safety is built (or eroded) in very ordinary moments:
how a manager, leader or colleague responds when someone makes a mistake
whether a junior staff member is thanked or sidelined for naming a risk
how leaders handle disagreement in meetings
whether people see consequences when values are breached
Boards have a role here too. When directors ask open, non-defensive questions and demonstrate genuine interest in the realities on the ground, they give management greater permission to be honest. When they react only with blame, they encourage people to hide problems.
Culture is not the posters on the wall
In Elevate’s work with executives and NFP leaders, we come back to a simple definition: culture is “how things are really done around here”, especially when no one is watching.
In practice, it shows up in:
how decisions are made when time and money are tight
how people talk about affected populations, clients, communities and donors when they are off the record
who gets promoted, whose behaviour is quietly excused, and who is pushed out
what happens when someone raises a concern or says “This feels wrong”
In some of the more difficult NFP stories, internal reviews have found patterns that will be familiar to many leaders:
a culture of silence or “not rocking the boat”
blurred boundaries between personal power and organisational role
staff who felt unsafe to challenge senior people
an over-focus on external reputation at the expense of honest internal conversations
These are not only HR issues. They are cultural and governance issues.‧It is not about changing the name of the Human Resources department to People and Culture and hoping this will help with culture, it is about the whole organisation’s culture, and this comes from the top.
Tone from the top, responsibility everywhere
If you sit on a board or executive team, your role in culture is not optional.
Your behaviour, and the behaviour you tolerate in others, sets the tone. People watch what you do far more than they read what is written in the code of conduct.
In the not-for-profit and humanitarian world, this can be especially tricky. Leaders are often stretched, wearing multiple hats and working in emotionally demanding contexts. Many are volunteer directors juggling governance duties with day jobs. Yet the expectations are rising, not falling.
What Elevate sees in healthier NFP cultures is not perfection, but alignment:
The board regularly discusses culture in the same breath as risk, strategy, and impact.
Directors ask for more than an annual engagement score. They want to hear qualitative stories, see turnover patterns and understand what is really happening on the ground.
Executives and managers are clear on what “living our values” means in everyday decisions and what happens when those values are breached.
People who raise concerns are taken seriously, protected from retaliation and kept in the loop.
At the same time, culture does not belong only to the board or the CEO. Every manager, coordinator and team leader is a culture carrier. The way they give feedback, handle conflict, allocate opportunities and respond when something goes wrong all shape how safe and respected people feel.
Small stories, strong signals
You do not need a Royal Commission or a front-page scandal to see culture at work. Often, it reveals itself in small stories. A staff member raises a concern about the treatment of a vulnerable client. Does their manager thank them for speaking up and look into it, or advise them to “leave it alone”?
A high-performing manager repeatedly breaches boundaries with colleagues. Does the organisation protect them because they “deliver”, or quietly decide that no level of effort in delivery justifies harm? A community member complains about the tone of a staff member’s email. Does the team become defensive, or do they use it as an opportunity to check their assumptions about power and respect?
These moments accumulate. Over time, they tell people whether the culture matches the mission.
What boards and leaders can do from here
For boards and senior leaders in NFPs and charities, especially in Australia, the question is less “do we have a culture issue?” and more “are we paying close enough attention to see what is really happening?”
Some starting points Elevate often suggests:
1. Bring culture into regular board conversations
Schedule culture as a standing item on the agenda. Ask for a mix of indicators: staff turnover, exit interview themes, serious incident reports, whistleblower activity, complaints from service users, and good-news stories of values lived well.
2. Listen beyond the executive layer
When appropriate, hear directly from staff, volunteers and partners, not only the CEO. This can be through structured sessions, site visits or safe channels for feedback. The goal is not to bypass management, but to broaden perspective by asking: what do we need to know and see that does not appear in reports? What would staff at any level like to share that doesn’t reach our board?
3. Pay attention to power, safeguards and psychological safety
Ask explicit questions about where power sits in the organisation and how it is checked. How are conflicts of interest handled? How easy is it for a junior staff member or community member to raise a concern? Do people feel safe to speak up without fear of punishment or humiliation?
4. Model the culture you want to see
Boards that admit mistakes, ask hard questions of themselves and respond thoughtfully when things go wrong send a powerful signal. In both corporate and NFP sectors, leaders who take responsibility and commit to transparent reform are better placed to rebuild trust over time.
5. Make culture part of strategy, risk and impact
Treat culture as an enabler (or barrier) to your mission, not a separate stream. When you discuss strategy, ask, “What cultural shifts do we need to make this real?” When you discuss risk, include cultural and behavioural risks, not only financial or operational ones.
A closing thought
Most people who choose to work or govern in the not-for-profit and humanitarian sector do so because they care. They want to contribute to something bigger than themselves.
That is exactly why culture matters so much. When cultures are healthy, they honour that commitment and make it sustainable. When cultures are harmful, they erode trust, burn people out, and ultimately harm the very communities we are here to serve.
Culture will remain under the spotlight for NFPs in Australia and globally. That can feel confronting. It is also an invitation: to slow down enough to listen, to align our internal practices with our external purpose, and to build organisations where dignity, psychological safety and accountability are not slogans, but daily practice.
Edmondson, A.C. (2018) The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.