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Charity accounts

4th Jul 2014
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I finally finished the trustees report yesterday, to be added to the annual accounts of the small charity of which I am trustee.

What made a refreshing change, for me, was the extensive descriptive content we usually add. This covers all the projects we have worked on during the year, how we gained all our funding, a detailed 'thank you' list to all our major donors - together with plans for the future.

The eventual report ran to three pages.

So much more interesting to put together than a generic, and minimalist, comment for a standard company set of limited accounts.

I guess this is because the reports are actually used and circulated to a wide range of parties - from the local authority to the lottery - in support of new fundraising bids. There is therefore a need to give a bit of life to the document, as it is also very much the public face of the charity in these circumstances.

After many years of disclosing the bare minimum to comply, without actually giving away anything, this made a refreshing change.

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
07th Jul 2014 20:50

Oh so true

I've often said that if I had my time again I'd only deal with charities & voluntary organisations.

It's not just that they are dealing with public or donated funds that they want to make full disclosure it's because the majority of people in the 3rd sector care about what they do, the impact they have and want to demonstrate it.

This ethos also covers the day to day financial management of the organisation.  I don't think I've seen or helped build a profit/cash flow forecast or even a formal budget, for more than say three of my commercial business clients in the past 10 years, yet charities just see it as part of what they have to do for the proper management of the organisation.

 

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