Achill ManagementAchill Management

A small local children’s charity was looking to develop its site to provide new buildings and services in a very deprived area in South East England. A development study was commissioned to evaluate the demand for services and the feasibility of taking them forward.
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A major charitable Foundation required two surveys to help develop a new business plan: the first was to understand how it was perceived by its clients, and the second aimed to help its trustees to develop a new Vision and set of values to underpin the new plan. Both surveys used structured, confidential one-to-one interviews.
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This study was for a second-tier capacity building organisation which, after a period of expansion, needed to develop a forward-looking business plan which also identified priorities for new activity and funding opportunities.
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Why do we need Strategic Business Plans?

Strategic Business Plans are essential these days in order to demonstrate to funders and other stakeholders that your organisation has:

• Engaged in an internal process to examine your position and determined your plans for the future
• A clear vision and grasp of the issues you face and your operating environment
• Created a feasible and manageable road map for all staff and Trustees to follow

Charities face challenging times and the surviving and successful organisations will be those which move forward positively and with imagination, building on their strengths and seeking out successful partnerships with others where goals and objectives are shared.

Any successful planning process will incorporate and connect an organisation’s values, vision and mission statements to its strategic aims and operational outcomes. We believe that the best plans are ones where the guiding concepts are ‘inquire’, ‘imagine’, ‘innovate’, and ‘inspire’.

Your business plan not only outlines your strategy, but highlights how you intend to implement it and what resources you need. A robust business plan needs to demonstrate your capacity to translate social goals, aspirations and good intentions into effective and efficient delivery of services for beneficiaries and be able to measure the impact of those services in the short medium and longer term.

Strategic Business Plans need not be long and complicated: they should be dynamic, continuous and living!

Strategic Business Plans are essential these days in order to demonstrate to funders and other stakeholders that your organisation has:

• Engaged in an internal process to examine your position and determined your plans for the future
• A clear vision and grasp of the issues you face and your operating environment
• Created a feasible and manageable road map for all staff and Trustees to follow

Charities face challenging times and the surviving and successful organisations will be those which move forward positively and with imagination, building on their strengths and seeking out successful partnerships with others where goals and objectives are shared.

Any successful planning process will incorporate and connect an organisation’s values, vision and mission statements to its strategic aims and operational outcomes. We believe that the best plans are ones where the guiding concepts are ‘inquire’, ‘imagine’, ‘innovate’, and ‘inspire’.

Your business plan not only outlines your strategy, but highlights how you intend to implement it and what resources you need. A robust business plan needs to demonstrate your capacity to translate social goals, aspirations and good intentions into effective and efficient delivery of services for beneficiaries and be able to measure the impact of those services in the short medium and longer term.

Strategic Business Plans need not be long and complicated: they should be dynamic, continuous and living!

Things I hate about Finance

This could almost be a mantra from many of the charities we work with.

Much of this attitude stems from the fact that charities give a higher priority to delivering the work they were set up to do than to managing the funds they have had to raise to enable them to do that work.

In these increasingly difficult times for charities it is paramount that they manage and are seen to manage money effectively and efficiently.

The ability to record faithfully all financial transactions, whether for income raised or for funds spent, is important for number of reasons:

• The charity itself fully understands its own financial position and can pinpoint weaknesses and future possible difficulties
• The charity can inform its public (beneficiaries and donors alike ) how it spends their donations and how it gives good value for money
• The charity satisfies its accounting requirements to the Charity Commission, Companies House ( if limited by guarantee) and the tax authorities e.g. for VAT and GiftAid

We have noticed how many charities do not invest in an appropriate accounting/bookkeeping system. We have also discovered that many do not invest in skilled personnel to operate the systems often leaving it anyone who has spare time, rather than an appropriately skilled person. This is a risky approach.

Most funders we know now demand transparent and timely financial reports as an integral part of the evidence that the charity is fit for purpose.

Of equal concern is the lack of skills at board level. Frequently trustee boards do not have a Treasurer with a finance background, or someone who is not only fully conversant with Charity Accounting requirements (SORPS 2005 etc) but also is prepared to ensure that checks and balances are in place and implemented. This has often proven to cause major problems and conflicts within the charity.

Achill Management now provides a bespoke service that can help to eliminate such risks.

• We can conduct a financial review looking at policies, practices and processes. Based on our findings we can provide suggestions for change
• We can research, test and assist in the process of installing an appropriate accounting software package if none exists or the present system is failing.
• Since most charities now raise their funds from a variety of sources, their ability to differentiate how these funds are allocated to the various projects and how they are actually spent is essential.
• Achill Management can review current arrangements to help the charity avoid the risk of “ robbing Peter to pay Paul” –or leaving it to the auditor or independent examiner to sort out at the year -end accounts stage. This is often too late and the damage to reputation will be difficult to repair.
• We can also assist charities to ensure that they try and fully recover the real costs of a project when they make funding submissions to potential donors. Clear presentation of budgets will help a donor in making a positive funding decision.

This could almost be a mantra from many of the charities we work with.

Much of this attitude stems from the fact that charities give a higher priority to delivering the work they were set up to do than to managing the funds they have had to raise to enable them to do that work.

In these increasingly difficult times for charities it is paramount that they manage and are seen to manage money effectively and efficiently.

The ability to record faithfully all financial transactions, whether for income raised or for funds spent, is important for number of reasons:

• The charity itself fully understands its own financial position and can pinpoint weaknesses and future possible difficulties
• The charity can inform its public (beneficiaries and donors alike ) how it spends their donations and how it gives good value for money
• The charity satisfies its accounting requirements to the Charity Commission, Companies House ( if limited by guarantee) and the tax authorities e.g. for VAT and GiftAid

We have noticed how many charities do not invest in an appropriate accounting/bookkeeping system. We have also discovered that many do not invest in skilled personnel to operate the systems often leaving it anyone who has spare time, rather than an appropriately skilled person. This is a risky approach.

Most funders we know now demand transparent and timely financial reports as an integral part of the evidence that the charity is fit for purpose.

Of equal concern is the lack of skills at board level. Frequently trustee boards do not have a Treasurer with a finance background, or someone who is not only fully conversant with Charity Accounting requirements (SORPS 2005 etc) but also is prepared to ensure that checks and balances are in place and implemented. This has often proven to cause major problems and conflicts within the charity.

Achill Management now provides a bespoke service that can help to eliminate such risks.

• We can conduct a financial review looking at policies, practices and processes. Based on our findings we can provide suggestions for change
• We can research, test and assist in the process of installing an appropriate accounting software package if none exists or the present system is failing.
• Since most charities now raise their funds from a variety of sources, their ability to differentiate how these funds are allocated to the various projects and how they are actually spent is essential.
• Achill Management can review current arrangements to help the charity avoid the risk of “ robbing Peter to pay Paul” –or leaving it to the auditor or independent examiner to sort out at the year -end accounts stage. This is often too late and the damage to reputation will be difficult to repair.
• We can also assist charities to ensure that they try and fully recover the real costs of a project when they make funding submissions to potential donors. Clear presentation of budgets will help a donor in making a positive funding decision.