What does FATF Recommendation 8 mean for our NGO?
I've been seeing a lot about FATF and the 2024 legislative changes in newsletters from sector bodies but I honestly don't understand what it means for us on the ground. We're a small community organisation — after-school programmes, community events, nothing that sounds remotely like money laundering. Does FATF Recommendation 8 actually affect small organisations […]
How do we maintain accountability to our donors without drowning in reporting?
We currently have four active grants and the reporting requirements are honestly overwhelming. Between narrative reports, financial reports, mid-term reviews and site visits I feel like I spend half my time reporting and not enough time doing actual work. I know donor accountability matters and I'm not trying to avoid it — but there has […]
What are the key elements of a beneficiary feedback mechanism?
We do a survey at the end of each programme cycle and it gives us some useful data, but by the time we have the results the programme is over and we can't act on the feedback until the next round. I want something more real-time — a way for beneficiaries to give us feedback […]
How do we involve beneficiaries in programme design and evaluation?
We design all our programmes internally and then consult with communities once things are pretty much finalised. I know that's the wrong way round but we're always working to tight funder timelines. We did a focus group at the end of our last project and got really useful feedback that would have changed how we […]
Do we have to publish our financial information to the public?
Someone on our board raised the question of whether we're legally required to make our finances public. We currently share financial reports with our donors but we've never published them anywhere publicly. A local journalist once asked to see our accounts and we genuinely weren't sure whether we had to share them. What does the […]
What is a Fund Accounting System and does our CSO need one?
We manage all our finances in a single Excel spreadsheet right now. We have about four different funders and each one gave us money for specific activities — it's getting really messy trying to track which money has been spent on what. Someone mentioned we need a 'fund accounting system' but I'm not sure what […]
What documents do I need to submit when registering an NPO with the Registrar General?
We've finally decided to register our organisation properly. We've been operating informally for about two years and now a potential donor is asking for our registration certificate before they'll consider us for funding. I went to the Registrar General's website and honestly it's not very clear about exactly what we need to bring. Do we […]
What are Annual Returns and are CSOs required to submit them?
I keep seeing 'Annual Returns' mentioned in things I read about NPO compliance but I honestly don't know what they are or whether we're supposed to be filing them. We've been registered for three years and nobody has ever contacted us about it. Are these the same as tax returns? Do we have to pay […]
How do we manage conflicts of interest on our board?
We've got a situation where one of our board members runs a printing business and we regularly use that business for our publications and event materials. It's been going on for years and nobody ever raised it as an issue. Now we're trying to tighten up our governance and I'm wondering if we need to […]
How do we recruit new board members effectively?
We have two board members stepping down at our next AGM and we really need to bring in some fresh faces. Our usual approach is to ask people we know but that's resulted in a pretty homogeneous board and we're missing key skills — especially around finance and legal matters. Has anyone done a more […]