Free training on charity governance issues

CHARITY GOVERNANCE

The ICAEW and the Charity Commission have recently completed a pilot project which offered free reviews of financial controls and risk awareness to charities. 

A summary of the findings throws up some interesting issues which are likely to impact on charities throughout Wales.  The twenty five charities involved in the pilot project were all relatively small charities with income of less than five million and many of them with income of less than a quarter of a million.  Currently ninety nine per cent of charities in Wales have income of less than £5m.  Their review found a number of interesting issues, many of which are likely to impact charities throughout Wales at present.  Some of their key findings were:- 

• Many charities rely on one main source of income and are currently looking to diversify their funding sources.  There are several cases where a charity was reliant on one donor and this potentially was causing independence issues.
   
• Many of the charities had found, in recent years, there was increasing competition on the high streets for charity shops meaning the income from this source was being eroded.
   
• Several charities had been forced to reduce staffing levels and replace them with volunteers in order to cut costs.  
   
• Many of the charities found that, trustees in particular, required additional training on financial management.

The review went on to assess the charities’ performance in the major governance topics.  The major topics are strategy and planning, risk awareness and management, internal financial controls, fraud and financial abuse management and information and communication of finances.  Their findings found out that 58% of the charities had some more significant gaps in these areas which could be improved.

We, at Bevan and Buckland, have now been working for a number of years with our charity clients to improve governance and offer free annual training on a number of governance issues.  If you would like to book free training sessions, please get in touch by either e-mailing charities@bevanbuckland.co.uk or calling Harri Lloyd Davies on 01792 410104

http://www.bevanbuckland.co.uk/sectors/charities