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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.