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Making it count - a report into financial management in small charities
23/05/2013
This report, produced jointly with Small Charities Coalition, for the first time takes a wide-reaching look at the issues small charities face with financial management, and invites suggestions as to what CFG, SCC and others could do to make improvements in this area. It explores why good financial management is important in small charities and what it looks like, what the key challenges facing small charities are, and how they go about dealing with them.
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Protecting Data, Protecting People: A Guide for Charities
30/04/2013
Data protection matters for all charities. This guide, having taken into account the different ways in which the charity sector works, aims to help you understand what the law on data protection means for your charity. CFG has worked with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (the body responsible for ensuring data protection compliance in the UK) to bring their best practice notes to your attention, in addition to a number of other useful resources which will provide you with further information.
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Download the PDF (larger print)
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Banking for Charities
25/10/12
Banking for Charities is a short guide, produced in collaboration with the British Bankers' Association, aimed at those who manage the financial affairs of a charity or voluntary organisation. The guide provides information and practical advice on key aspects of charity banking, from selecting and opening a suitable bank account to understanding fees and charges.
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National Ethical Investment Week 2012 - Action Guide for Charities
14/10/2012
The Action Guide for Charities offers practical tips to help charities and foundations ensure their savings and investments best support their mission. It explores some of the latest thinking in the field, including the rise of social impact investing, and outlines how charities can get involved in National Ethical Investment Week. The Action Guide for Charities is produced by the UK Sustainable Investment & Finance Association (UKSIF) in association with Charity Finance Group (CFG) and sponsored by CCLA.
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The Practical Approach: A Handbook on How Skilled Volunteers Can Help Charities Measure Their Impact
11/09/2012
The Practical Approach is a workable and practical handbook to guide a volunteer from business to help a charity measure its impact. Developed by the Coalition for Efficiency in collaboration with ICAEW and Charity Finance Group.
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To read some case studies please visit the Coalition for Efficiency website.
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Beyond Reserves
22/06/2012
Beyond Reserves has been produced by CFG, ACEVO, the Institute of Fundraising and Sayer Vincent, and looks at the strategic management of charity reserves. The publication includes insights and case studies from chief executives, finance and fundraising directors from a range of organisations.
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Charity Fraud: A guide for the trustees and managers of charities
01/06/2012
Charity Fraud: A guide for the trustees and managers of charities is written to help charities prevent and detect fraud, and also provides information on what to do and where to report it if fraud has occurred. This publication has been produced by 15 public, law enforcement and charity sector organisations as part of the Charity Fraud Project.
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Download the summary document (web version)
Download the summary document (printable)
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Socially Responsible Investment: A Practical Introduction for Charity Trustees
01/11/2011
Trustees have many important responsibilities ‐ perhaps none more so than deciding how and where to invest their organisation’s assets. CFDG is therefore delighted to be jointly publishing this practical toolkit on Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) with the EIRIS Foundation.
Download our guide here.
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Principles of Good Impact Reporting
15/03/2012
The Principles of Good Impact Reporting have been created for the sector, by the sector. These principles are intended to be universal and will be useful to organisations of any size that are looking to improve the way they communicate their achievements to their donors, beneficiaries and other key stakeholders. These principles are also a useful tool for donors, grant makers and policy makers when thinking about the questions they are asking of charities and social enterprises and the types of communication they should be looking for.
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Principles into Practice: How charities and social enterprises communicate impact
15/03/2012
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Writing your charity's investment policy
09/03/2012
A guide by Charity Investor's Group and CFG to help you consider what is covered in your charity's written investment policy. It includes a model template and good practice examples.
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Better FX
08/02/2011
CFDG has collaborated with Stamp Out Poverty to produce Better FX, a best practice publication aimed at helping charities save money through improving procurement practices.
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The Tax Implications of Charity Trading
28/04/2011
This book is not intended to be a technical treatise on the tax, legal and accounting implications of charity trading. Instead it aims to provide guidance for lay users on the tax aspects of the main areas of trading activity that charities get involved in. If a more detailed knowledge is required you should take professional advice.
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CRM Implementation
16/02/2011
Drawing on the knowledge and experiences of professional experts across related industries, ‘CRM Implementation’ looks at the important considerations for any charity looking to invest or improve in this area. Articles include the very basics of what CRM is and getting started, covered by contributions from Peter Flory, Athena Consultants, and Iain Pritchard from Sayer Vincent; and more specific legal issues surrounding data protection, looked at by Mairead O’Reilly, of Bates Wells and Braithwaite, amongst others.
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Anti-Bribery Principles and Guidance for NGOs
27/06/2011
This publication is the first place for any NGO looking at implementing anti-bribery and corruption procedures within their organisation. In recognition that international organisations are at particular risk of bribery, Bond set up an anti-bribery NGO working group to look at developing a set of high level principles and guidance. This group was co-ordinated and chaired by Mango and Transparency International UK and attended by CFDG.
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National Ethical Investment Week Action Guide for Charities
21/10/2011
This action guide for National Ethical Investment Week builds on the guide ‘Socially Responsible Investment: A practical introduction for charity trustees’ which CFDG published with EIRIS Foundation in June 2010.
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Unlocking Socially Responsible Investment
01/03/2010
Unlocking Socially Responsible Investment seeks to support socially responsible investment (SRI) amongst charities by demonstrating the advantages, challenging perceived barriers and providing practical insights and guidance. We believe that SRI is a positive, forward-looking strategy for charity investment, and one that can reap significant mission-related, reputational and even financial benefits.
This publication starts by setting out the current state of SRI and its relevance to charities. In subsequent chapters guides readers through the types of investment available, the legal environment and how to put SRI into practice.
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Sustainability in Practice
01/05/2009
'Sustainability in Practice: monitoring and reporting' is CFDG's best practice publication on environmental and social sustainability. It looks at how and why charities can act and report on their environmental and social sustainability.
At CFDG we believe this is becoming a key issue for charities, and we also believe tackling this issue strategically can significantly benefit charities. It can improve accountability, efficiency and core charitable work, as well as boosting office morale. Our publication aims to make this as easy as possible for charities by defining the main issues and giving frameworks and suggestions for both management plans and reporting.
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Relocation: a Charity Finance Professional's Guide
01/06/2010
Whilst most charities occupy property, many do not regard it as an asset, nor does it always receive the attention it requires. Unfortunately, excluding property issues from the agenda can lead to expensive, and in some instances traumatic, consequences. Relocation is complex, multi-faceted and stressful. Based on the experiences of CFDG members and subscribers, this publication provides guidance on the issues that charities are likely to encounter in the relocation process. It is designed to help ease the process.
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The 2008 Charity Pension Maze
01/04/2008
'The 2008 Charity Pensions Maze', produced in association with Barclays, identifies pensions as a significant area of risk management for charities and reveals the need to act now to address pension scheme issues in order to meet the challenges created by a less stable economic environment and continuing regulatory change. This publication is an essential guide for any charity trustee, finance director or pension scheme trustee.
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International Financial Reporting Standards and Charities
01/03/2010
International Financial Reporting Standards and Charities
Charity accounting and reporting is facing significant change as a result of new international standards, and a debate between other sectors on public benefit accounting. This document sets out the main issues for finance directors and audit committees.
The document explains the important differences between IFRS for SMEs and:
• the Charity SORP
• the other SORPs covering housing and the HE/FE sectors
• UK GAAP and full IFRS.
It explains how the existing SORP’s requirements are likely to change either to comply with the IFRS for SMEs, or as a result of the three not-for-profit SORPs being under pressure to harmonise. It encourages charities to understand the implications for their own accounts, and be ready to influence the debate and to prepare their own systems. The document provides a summary of the issues of most significance. Each section sets out the differences between the IFRS for SMEs and current guidance, with a scoring of the significance.
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Know Your Cost Base
06/06/2007
A good practice guide that provides finance teams with a robust framework in which to consider their costs.
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