You can’t fire a cannon from a canoe: Why governance foundations matter

In endurance sports, there’s an old adage that coaches love to throw at eager athletes attempting heavy lifts or explosive sprints without the requisite core work: “You can’t fire a cannon from a canoe.” 

It’s a vivid visual. Imagine mounting a heavy artillery piece onto a lightweight, unstable kayak. You might line up the shot, light the fuse, and aim for your target, but the moment the cannon fires, the recoil doesn’t send the cannonball soaring to victory. It flips the canoe upside down and sinks the entire enterprise. 

In the charity sector, we see boards trying to fire cannons from canoes all the time. 

Ambition without stability 

It’s entirely understandable why this happens. Trustees and senior leaders don’t join charities to sit in rooms discussing standing orders, conflicts of interest registers, or safeguarding policy reviews. They join because they care passionately about a cause. They want to fire cannons: launch ambitious new services, scale up funding, advocate for systemic change, or deliver vital community support. 

Targeting big impact is essential. But if your charity’s governance framework, its policies, procedures, and core practices are shaky, your craft won’t withstand the recoil when life inevitably gets chaotic. 

When does the recoil happen? It happens during: 

• A unexpected crisis: A sudden safeguarding allegation, financial shock, or reputational threat. 
• A major opportunity: A sudden influx of grant or contract income, grant application or partnership opportunity with a tight deadline. 
• Internal conflict or change: Key founder departure, board disagreement over strategy, or a change in executive leadership. 

In these moments, a board that lacks solid foundations spends all its energy trying to keep the boat afloat. Instead of making swift, confident, strategic decisions, trustees end up arguing over who has the authority to sign off documents, scrambling to find out what the whistleblowing policy actually says, or realizing nobody ever formally recorded the delegated authorities. 

Good Governance as core strength 

We often hear governance described as “admin,” “compliance,” or “red tape.” That does governance a massive disservice. 

Think of solid policies and clear procedures as your charity’s core strength. Planks, deadlifts, and stability exercises aren’t the main event in athletics, but without them, top performance is impossible. 

When a board has clear, up-to-date policies in place governing everything from financial controls and delegation to board conduct and risk management, it creates a stable platform. When a crisis strikes or a high-stakes opportunity appears, you aren’t reinventing the wheel under extreme pressure. You already know how you make decisions, who is responsible for what, and where your boundaries lie. 

A sturdy governance platform doesn’t slow you down; it actually allows you to move faster and hit harder because you know the boat won’t flip under the strain. 

Building your platform 

Building solid foundations doesn’t mean spending months writing 80-page policy documents from scratch or getting bogged down in legalistic jargon. It means putting simple, robust, well-understood templates and frameworks in place that your trustees can easily navigate and uphold. 

If your board’s foundations feel a little wobbly—or if you suspect your policies haven’t been reviewed since the turn of the decade—you don’t have to start from a blank page. 

At DSC, we’ve designed practical resources specifically to take the guesswork out of this process. Check out our publication, Charity Governance Tools and Templates, which provides ready-to-use, adaptable frameworks covering board roles, risk management, codes of conduct, and core policies. 

Get your core strong, stabilise the boat, and give your board the solid platform it needs to fire its cannons with confidence!