Annual Conference 2022

Welcome from Caron Bradshaw OBE, Chief Executive, CFG

Stevie Spring CBE, Chairman, British Council and Mind

There are three structural changes that will shape your investment portfolios in the coming years – Asia, digital transformation and energy transition. Join the speakers from HSBC Global Private Banking to find out how those key themes will impact your assets and what to look out for when considering your future investment portfolio. 

Sophie Ward, Head of Charities & Education and Jonathan Sparks, Chief Investment Officer UK & Channel Islands, HSBC Global Private Banking

During this session, Shelter will share and discuss how the approach to financial leadership has transformed. We are no longer “just accountants” but we are transforming into strategy-focussed support teams partnering with various business units to deliver the required impact. As the financial experts, we must be active members of the wider leadership group, helping lead all parts of an organisation. We need to ‘know our business’, ‘know the strategy’ (be strategic) and ‘know our audience’. We also lead the financial leaders of the future, therefore we must have the leadership skills necessary to develop and empower a complex team that meets the needs of the wider business.

Tim Gutteridge, Director of Strategy Enablement, Shelter

Over 25% of charities were hit by cybercrime in 2020. Even the best defences are not bulletproof. If your organisation suffered from an attack, how would you react? Do you have a process? Would you engage with the criminal? Would you pay the ransom?

These scenarios do happen and should be considered outside of the heat of the moment. Hear insight and best practice from Smartdesc's work with other charities on how to prepare and respond should the worst happen.

Andrew Coyle, Head of Information Security and James Field,
Customer Strategy Director, Smartdesc

In recent years there have been rapid changes to how charities are approaching their fundraising activities and how donors are behaving. For many organisations, what used to be considered as fringe or alternative sources of income have the potential to become a main revenue stream. Will these trends continue?

This session will cover the future of fundraising and funding in 2022 and beyond, including emerging and innovative fundraising sources.

Nick Allaway, Head of Finance and Procurement, Fundraising Regulator

As the pandemic winds down, and the levels of staff are returning to pre-pandemic levels, charities are experiencing some of the greatest recruitment issues in decades. Contributors such as shifting priorities, staff moving onto new roles, low pay and burnout are playing significant parts in the staff exodus. This session will cover how the charity recruitment landscape has changed over the past two years. We will also discuss which recruitment methods work best within the sector.

Steve Williams, Director of Corporate Services, I CAN

Charities are adapting the way they engage in projects and how they spend funds to maximise the impact on their charitable mission, but often alongside increasing their financial return. This may involve funding third parties, new projects with more commercial activity, working in joint ventures or investing in a subsidiary company. Adapting how you engage can have tax implications or potentially give rise to HMRC enquiries. In this session we will bring together recent HMRC enquiries into different types of charitable expenditure we have seen in one case study with the aim of highlighting common pitfalls in this area.

Luke Savvas, Charity Tax Partner, Buzzacott

Elizabeth Day, Assistant Manager, Buzzacott

The session would summarise Mencap's Big Plan and its approach to devolve decision making. Mencap has developed a philosophy of the 3F's (frameworks, fundamentals and freedom). Attendees would gain an understanding of the journey and the learning from giving colleagues greater financial freedom within a framework.

Richard Blakey, Chief Financial Officer, Royal Mencap Society

As we emerge from the pandemic, where charities continue to deal with uncertainty, financial resilience is particularly important. It is imperative that Trustees and management teams are able to identify the key warning signs for potential financial difficulties and have the governance and tools in place to respond to these. The session will consider how Trustees and management teams should consider financial risk and then walk through the options available to either restructure or deliver the best outcome in the circumstances, including where a turnaround is not possible. 

Daniel Chan, Director, PwC

David Baxendale, Partner, PwC

When the finance team at LIVES initially needed a finance system that was fit for purpose, they implemented a solution that would not only better fit their needs but would also provide important compliance and governance to their processes. 

The result has enabled them to make informed strategic decisions based on accurate, well presented and up-to-date data. During this session, m-hance’s Matt Peace and LIVES’ Head of Finance and Performance Stephanie Gibson will discuss the charity’s digital journey of implementing a new finance system and having gone through the process, how they better understand the technology stack available to them. This has generated wider business projects they are now working on as a result. This is a great opportunity for other charities to see what outcomes can be achieved with a charity specific, tailored finance system.

Stephanie Gibson, Head of Finance and Performance, LIVES

Matt Peace, Account Director, m-hance

From recruitment to ensuring a positive and inclusive organisational culture, many organisations grapple with the best ways of creating a diverse workplace. There are still many barriers, both on organisational and social level, that we need to overcome to achieve true diversity and inclusive workplaces. This session will cover some of those barriers, together with practical advises on how to overcome them.

Amanda Bennett, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association

Chair:

Carol Rudge, Partner, Head of Not for Profit, HW Fisher

Panellists:

Richard Bray, Finance Regulatory & Taxes Team, Cancer Research UK

Nigel Davies, Consultant and Charity Volunteer 

Pesh Framjee, Global Head of Social Purpose and Non Profits, Crowe

Christine Scott, Head of Charities and Pensions, ICAS

Amplify your intention, purpose and power with an experience that challenges you, changes you and elevates you to new peaks.

·       Clarify who you are at your very best

·       Discover your ‘WHY’ and the reason you’ve chosen your life/professional path

·       Gain a real understanding of yourself, your purpose and what’s most important to you right now

·       Uncover your strengths so you create the massive impact you’ve always imagined

·       Find the value you deliver most to yourself, your family, your team and the world

Unravel the steps to your ideal short, medium and long-term future, creating a living legacy you’re proud to leave behind

Craig Goldblatt, Transformational Speaker and Impact Coach

2022 will see further changes in taxation and legislation which will impact charities and their pension schemes. The session will provide an update on pension retirement age changes, governance requirements such as Chair Statements, annual benefit statements and quality assessing your scheme, as well as the impact of increased NI and what you should be doing to mitigate the effect of this. Pension scams also remain a huge threat to employees hard earned pension benefits. New legislation is in place, but employees still need to be wary and employers can help with this awareness.

David Davison, Owner & Head of Charity Pensions, Spence & Partners Limited

The pandemic meant that many organisations had to put their strategic plans on hold to put in place emergency response plans to survive. Now that we find ourselves re-emerging into a new world with new ways of working, it is important to reflect on what the pandemic has meant for your organisation, and to take the positives steps to develop your new strategic plan building on lessons learnt and the changing circumstances. Our session will explore hints and tips to help you with revisiting your plans.

Carol Rudge, Partner, Head of Not for Profit, HW Fisher

Paul Freedman, Partner, Head of Consulting, HW Fisher

As regulations and expectations change worldwide and ESG matters move centre stage, charities will need to be seen to be at the forefront by having the right policies and procedures. Charities will need to ensure that the right actions  are being taken, that relevant disclosures are made in the Trustees’ report and that reputation and operational risk is managed.  All of the three elements of ESG  need to be integrated in the strategy risk and reserves discussions. This session will discuss how to identify, record and report on important matters whilst ensuring that the elements are incorporated  the thinking at board and management level. 

Pesh Framjee, Global Head of Social Purpose & Non Profit Organisations, Crowe

Naziar Hashemi, National Head of Social Purpose & Non Profit Organisations, Crowe

The Covid-19 pandemic not only accelerated the shift toward digital and contactless payments but also led to a more mainstream acceptance of physical cash alternatives like cryptocurrency. These changes will likely stay.

This will have far-reaching implications for individuals, businesses, banks, governments and charities. This session will cover the ways in which the change to how we use money will impact on not-for-profit sector and what can we do to ensure charities are not left behind.

Daisy O'Reilly-Weinstock, Director of Big Bets, Good Innovation

The way we work, how we work and where we work has changed dramatically in the past couple of years. In this session we will pose the argument from two opposing sides of the workplace-debate. Neil will discuss why and how the physical workplace will continue to exist and evolve; whilst Katy and Kirsten will present a case study on why remote working offers chances for connection, collaboration and better transparency. 

Is "hybrid working" the future? Or will the physical workplace or 100% remote working prevail? Our speakers will tackle this ever salient question, whilst also considering the needs of people, the organisation and the planet. Perhaps there is a balance between the physical and digital workplace to be made...

Neil Usher, Chief Workplace & Change Strategist, GoSpace AI

Kirsten Buck, Chief Impact & Sustainability Officer, PTHR

Katy Stanley, Chief Operating Officer, PTHR

This session will outline Blind Veterans UK’s new procurement framework. A result of the desire to rethink the role that procurement plays within the charity and to extend the changing narrative about financial leadership to procurement specialists. We will cover a number of key areas that underpin our approach: rethinking procurement as a strategic enabler and not merely a transactional function; improving procurement within an empowered culture by appointing and upskilling champions within the wider business; raising the bar in terms of working practices, and taking a bold stance in engaging suppliers with the charity’s social mission beyond charity discounts.

Simon Hopkins, ex-Director of Resources and Vicki Hardman, Procurement Manager, Blind Veterans

This session will cover a case study from the leisure and culture charity: Magna Vitae. The speakers will discuss the importance of bringing a strong financial base to a situation quickly (Survive) and focusing on delivering charitable objectives to the community and innovation (Sustain). For Magna Vitae, Covid has meant a need for a ‘new’ delivery model within the charitable leisure / cultural trust sector, this model needs to allow us to (Thrive).

James Brindle, Executive Director and Aeneas Richardson, co-Executive Director, Magna Vitae

This session is aimed at Charities holding significant cash reserves, the value of which is being eroded by high levels of inflation in the UK. It would encourage charities to consider where the cash came from, what it is there for and when it may be required. The session would progress on to considering how the cash could be better deployed to protect the spending power and to improve on returns empowering the charity to consider operational resilience and using these assets to further charitable purposes.

Vicky Eastwood, Director, Brewin Dolphin

Why are banks and investors focusing on ESG now? What is behind the rapid increase in green, social and sustainable finance over the past couple of years? We will look at the key aspects of ESG financing, the principals that underpin it and how these impacts on the structure of funding documents.

We will also explore what this might mean for charities seeking to raise money from third parties and consider whether ESG finance will now rapidly move from a niche product to a mainstream approach.

Sarah Seed, Partner, Mills and Reeve

With hybrid working set to remain a key element of our post-COVID-19 future, employers need to understand how to help their employees maintain their wellbeing and work life balance, and ensure those who need support, receive it.

This session will cover some of the issues that employers and employees are dealing with while moving into a hybrid working environment and provide practical ideas on how to ensure support and wellbeing across the organisation.

Corinne Curtis, Head of HR ‑ Third Sector, WorkNest

Poppy Jaman OBE, CEO, City Mental Health Alliance