Budget, Cash Flow, Reserves & Investment for Charities Seminar

ENSURE YOUR CHARITY’S LONG TERM SUSTAINABILITY

From understanding the board and senior management as a charity’s financial stewards, to tips and insights on budgeting and cash flow management for charities, learn how to develop a comprehensive action plan to address accounting gaps in your charity.

Venue: Face-to-face at ILC Training Hub

25 & 26 April 2024
Day 1: 9:00 am to 5:00 pmDay 2: 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

ABOUT THE SEMINAR

The COVID-19 battered economy has led to a fall in donations as citizens and businesses alike shift their immediate concerns to personal livelihoods and economic survival. How do you ensure sustainable operations during these difficult times? To preserve public trust, charities are held to high standards of accountability and transparency. How do you ensure accountability to your stakeholders?

Therefore, charities’ governance and financial stewardship are necessary for charities to manage their financial resources while preserving public trust strategically. Only when the charity’s board, management and finance staff work closely together to ensure proper governance, compliance and processes will they then be able to survive and thrive in this economic environment.

The seminar will shed light on 5 fundamental questions that all board members and senior management must ask to understand the importance of financial management for charities:

Do we have the right size, right team, and right resources for our charity to succeed in its mission?

Are we applying fund accounting and full cost recovery accounting best practices to not fall into the ‘starvation cycle’?

Where are we underinvesting, and what are our risks in underinvesting in these areas?

Do our reserves and investment meet the long-term needs of our beneficiaries and not just our organisational budget?

Is our annual report just beautiful pictures and stories? Does it give a full and accurate reflection of our charity’s work?

This seminar is part of the two-part Governance and Financial Stewardship for Charities seminar series in collaboration with Usha Menon Management Consultancy.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

By the end of the seminar, participants will be able to:

  1. Understand the board and senior management’s role and responsibility as the charity’s financial stewards, exploring practical issues that boards and senior management face in managing charity’s financial resources.
  2. Enhancing accountability to stakeholders by developing an effective and efficient charity financial management system, evaluating your charity’s financial system at the governance and policy level so your board and senior management can utilise it for efficient and effective decision making.
  3. Understand how charities prepare budgets and manage cash flow, using charity examples to explore the different approaches to budgeting and cash flow management, and to manage charity’s budget realistically to weather the unexpected changes.
  4. Understand the importance of forward financial planning by setting the appropriate level of reserve and its implication on charity’s long-term financial sustainability, using charity examples to compare reserve and investment policy as well as disclosure practices.
  5. Identify gaps in their current operations and policies in  budget, cash flow, reserves and investment management, coached by Dr Isabel Sim on developing a plan of action to address these gaps.

SEMINAR HIGHLIGHTS

Led by Dr Isabel Sim, editor of the series of Accounting and Finance Handbooks for Charities, and lead author for Accounting for Good – Helping Charities Do Good Better, a project in collaboration with NUS and ISCA.

Examine the role your board and senior management plays as the charity’s financial stewards.

Develop a plan of action that you can bring back to your charity after the seminar.

Pre-approved VCF funding of up to 80% available for charities.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Management team, board members and finance staff.

DATES AND TIMES

25 & 26 April 2024Day 1: 9:00 am to 5:00 pmDay 2: 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

SEMINAR FEES & FUNDING

Group Discount: Sign up 3 or more pax and receive additional $100 discount off Early Bird fee per pax (before GST)​.

New Item
AFTER EARLY BIRD
  • Standard Fee$1,962
    VWOs-Charities Capability Fund Training Grant$962.00*
    Community Care Training Grant$196.20**

All prices include prevailing GST.

*Up to 80% seminar fee funding for NCSS member agencies(CCF Subsidy is capped at $1000 per pax)

**Up to 90% seminar fee funding for AIC approved organisations to be claimed directly from AIC. (Full payment is required from participants at the time of registration.)

For details and funding eligibility, please consult with your HR department. Kindly note that we, as the training provider, are unable to assist with inquiries related to this funding.

ABOUT THE FACILITATORS

Dr Isabel Sim

Dr Isabel Sim is the principal consultant at Integrative CSR Consulting. She was formerly Senior Research Fellow, Department of Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore as well as Director (Projects), Centre for Social Development (Asia). She served as Head of Corporate Governance Practice, Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations (CGIO) and Senior Lecturer, Department of Strategy and Policy, NUS Business School from 2012 to 2014.

She obtained her PhD in finance from The University of Western Australia in 2011. She is the editor of the series Accounting and Finance Handbooks for Charities including Budgeting and Cash Flow Management, Fund Accounting for Charities, Full Cost Recovery for Charities and Cost-Effective Audit for Charities. She is also the lead author for Accounting for Good – Helping Charities Do Good Better, a project in collaboration with NUS and ISCA. Besides extensive experience in applied research in the charity sector, Dr Sim has more than 15 years of experience in teaching working adults. She has taught accounting, corporate governance, finance, and economics subjects in MBA, EMBA, and other professional programmes.