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Answer:

Good risk management should not only avoid negative events but also improve decision making and enable your organisation to seize opportunities and innovate. A systematic approach to risk management can help to achieve your mission more effectively by identifying and addressing potential obstacles and uncertainties. Conversely, charities that have had poor risk management have experienced an impact on their reputation, finances and operations.

Categories of risk can include: governance, external, regulation and compliance, operational and financial. Financial risk might cover losing funding, not finding enough funding to carry out key projects, financial processes not being adequate, fraud, loss of key staff and cyber crime.

Guidance on risk management

Answer:

Annual accounts and return

All registered organisations must submit an annual report to the Charity Commission or CIC Regulator. Full details of how to do this are given here: Charity reporting and accounting: the essentials November 2016 (CC15d) - GOV.UK and here: CIC34: community interest company report - GOV.UK.

Audit and independent examination

All charitable incorporated organisations (whatever their income) and registered charities with an income greater than £25,000 must file their accounts and an annual report with the Charity Commission. The Charity Commission has a detailed guide to charity reporting and accounting.

If your annual income is less than £25,000 you do not usually need any form of examination or audit of your accounts. If your income is over £25,000 but under £1m you will need to get an independent examiner (‘IE’). If your income is over £1m (or more than £250,000 and with gross assets of more than £3.26 million) you will need your accounts to be audited.

Audit and independent examination resources

Answer:

When you start employing people then you need to have a basic understanding of employment law. ACAS is a good source of information about employment law, and they have a free telephone helpline for all employers: Contact us | Acas. You must also buy employers liability insurance, which is a legal requirement.

You will need to decide and/or determine whether the people you pay to work for your organisation are self-employed or employees. If you take on staff then you will be responsible for calculating and paying their tax and National Insurance contributions under PAYE (Pay As You Earn). You can find out more information about this here. There are penalties for dealing with tax obligations incorrectly or for paying someone ‘cash in hand’ without properly determining that they are paying their own tax and National Insurance. Many organisations therefore work with accountants and/or payroll providers to help them to manage the process of paying staff. You should always research providers and seek quotations to make sure you get a service that is suitable for your needs.

Answer:

All employers must offer a workplace pension scheme and make employer contributions. The Pensions Regulator gives information about setting one up: Choose a pension scheme | The Pensions Regulator. The government gives guidance here: Workplace pensions - what your employer can and cannot do - GOV.UK.

Answer:

There are very specific rules for charity accounting, set out in the charity SORP The Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) - GOV.UK. Unless you are a very small community group it is best to find someone who understands these rules to help you prepare your accounts. That person will also be able to advise on HMRC charity tax benefits. One example is Gift Aid, where you can claim 25p every time someone gives £1 to your charity or community amateur sports club (CASC). The Charity Commission gives more information and how to claim here: Claiming Gift Aid as a charity or CASC: Overview - GOV.UK.

Answer:
Insolvency occurs where your organisation’s liabilities are bigger than its assets or when it is unable to pay its bills when they become due. If your organisation is at risk of insolvency, it is essential to act early. The Charity Commission gives guidelines for managing difficulties responsibly: Managing a charity’s finances: planning, managing difficulties and insolvency.
Answer:

Write down the communications activities that you are going to deliver. You should add ‘key indicators’ that let you know if you are on track. For example, the organisation that runs football sessions for young people could have:

  • Strategic objective: We are friendly, accessible and inclusive.
  • Communications activities: Promote Wednesday football sessions by using short films.
  • Key indicators: The number of young people taking part in the Wednesday sessions increases to 15; you can demonstrate that the confidence of the young people has increased though your communications.
Answer:
This should include how your team will contribute to your external facing communications and who will be responsible for this. For example do you want them to take photos at events or post on social media? You might also want to set out how you will communicate decisions made by the board and management team, how you collect case studies for reports or how your team finds out about successes and celebrates project progress together. When your team are well-informed about your organisation’s goals, strategies and successes, they feel more connected and are more likely to be engaged and motivated.
Answer:

Think of an external communications strategy as your organisation’s plan for talking to everyone outside the company. It’s important because it helps people understand what you do and why you matter. This plan makes sure you share the right messages in the right way, so people trust you, want to work with you, and support what you’re doing. The strategy makes sure you’re saying the right things to the right people in the right way.

For organisations where one individual manages all communication, internal communication plans are crucial for each project. These plans help articulate key messages and objectives clearly before they are shared externally. An example communications plan template.

Answer:

Set out the current situation:

  • Do you use social media, and if so which platforms do you use and how many followers do you have? What kind of content do you put out on the different platforms?
  • Do you send out a newsletter, and to how many people? Do you know what the open rate is? What do the recipients think about it? What kind of content gets the most views?
  • Do you have a website? What kind of content do you put on it? How accessible is it? What kinds of feedback do you have from your stakeholders about it? How many page views does each page have, and what are the most visited pages?
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