EDITORIAL – CAP’s Quarterly Newsmag Philanthropy (Q1 April June 2017)
This issue of CAP’s Quarterly Newsmag Philanthropy (Q1 April June 2017) had a Guest Editor. In the coming weeks we will post articles from the newsmagazine on this blog. We begin with the editorial. Stay connected for the articles to follow.
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| Editor – Noshir Dadrawala |
Financial reporting is fundamental to
effectiveness and ensuring transparency and accountability. For an
NGO it can be a critical communication tool with donors,
beneficiaries and other stakeholders. More importantly it is
important that the organization tells its financial story clearly,
concisely and authentically. While financial statements do need to
comply with the relevant Accounting Standards and other regulations,
one also need to ensure that financial statements are an effective
part of the NGO’s wider communication with all stakeholders! It
should clearly and effectively provide a snapshot of the financial
health of the organization.
The critical areas of concern are
always judicious use of the funds. How much is spent on the actual
program, how much on overheads and admin, how much on travel and the
all important ‘cost per beneficiary’? But, does all this emerge
clearly in the financial reports? More often than not, the answer is
no! We tend to tuck certain incomes and expenses under
‘miscellaneous’ income or expenditure without justification or
explanation. Sometimes we take refundable deposits which we
rightly (under accounting standards) reflect as liability and
not income. We do the same with certain grants. While all this is
within the framework of law and financial accounting, who does the
onus of providing clarity for all this fall upon? should grant makers
insist on “receipt & payment” statements also along
with “income &expenditure” statements. Maybe they
should, unless NGOs pull up their socks and take these and other
issues seriously.
In our view sound financial reporting is not
just a statutory requirement but essential to financial fitness and
long term sustainability.
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| Editor – Meher Gandevia |
Financial reporting could only be the
topic of the newsmagazine because I was not editing it. Finance and
me have an aversion as many do. However, as I get older and senior in
this sector I realise not its importance but also its relevance. Last
year when we had a changeover of staff and in the interim, I had to
report for certain grants, I had no choice but to start understanding
it & today I would urge every non-finance person to try to
understand it with an open mind.
Our Highlight of last quarter was our
successful second CAP Compliance-Complete Conference in the last
quarter in March. What made me happy was to see 70 participants
engaged through the day, but what made me happier was to see so many
of them from the previous year back again this year. The only
finance we had in that conference was adapting the number game of Housie to 50 favourite words of NGOs, a game well played &
enjoyed.
successful second CAP Compliance-Complete Conference in the last
quarter in March. What made me happy was to see 70 participants
engaged through the day, but what made me happier was to see so many
of them from the previous year back again this year. The only
finance we had in that conference was adapting the number game of Housie to 50 favourite words of NGOs, a game well played &
enjoyed.
The conference also felicitated our CAP
compliance Complete Certificate achievers. After an entire year of
working hard at their compliance documents and polices, it was a sigh
of relief and sense of pride for all of them. As starts the new year,
we start with our next 5 NGOs in the Compliance programme. We wish
them perseverance to not give up, determination to do their best and
of course all good wishes.
compliance Complete Certificate achievers. After an entire year of
working hard at their compliance documents and polices, it was a sigh
of relief and sense of pride for all of them. As starts the new year,
we start with our next 5 NGOs in the Compliance programme. We wish
them perseverance to not give up, determination to do their best and
of course all good wishes.
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| The Compliance Certificate achievers with the CAP Team |
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Our
guest editor Pradeep
Mahtani is
a Chartered Accountant. He was CEO at HelpYourNGO.com (Feb 2013-Apr
2017), a portal that shows standardised and comparable financials of
650 NGOs. Prior to that, he was a well recognised equity analyst with
Citi, J.P. Morgan, Jardine Fleming and ASK-Raymond James.
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| Guest Editor – Pradeep Mahtani |
“When
Meher asked me to be Guest Editor and focus on the theme of Finance
for this quarter’s issue, I wasn’t sure what it entailed. Frankly
I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off.
Finance
is certainly important for NGOs, but except for the large and well
established ones, most struggle with it.
is certainly important for NGOs, but except for the large and well
established ones, most struggle with it.
I
analysed more than 600 Audit Reports at HelpYourNGO and in a vast
majority of cases the Audit Reports gave rows of data that had to be
sifted through, and categorised, to make them coherent. At the other
end of the spectrum were NGOs that did not provide any financial
data, not in the Annual Report, nor on their websites. Queries we
sought, especially from the smaller NGOs, had to be clarified with
their Auditors.
analysed more than 600 Audit Reports at HelpYourNGO and in a vast
majority of cases the Audit Reports gave rows of data that had to be
sifted through, and categorised, to make them coherent. At the other
end of the spectrum were NGOs that did not provide any financial
data, not in the Annual Report, nor on their websites. Queries we
sought, especially from the smaller NGOs, had to be clarified with
their Auditors.
To
achieve the aim
of this issue to cover many aspects of our theme ‘finance’, we
reached out to grantmakers, NGOs, and Intermediaries to get various
perspectives. We are grateful to those who responded, and their
insightful views. Some interesting aspects come to the fore – NGOs
and Corporates need to speak the same language; Corporates should
treat the relationship as an equal partnership, support NGOs in being
more financially transparent, and connect with each other more to
share their learnings.
achieve the aim
of this issue to cover many aspects of our theme ‘finance’, we
reached out to grantmakers, NGOs, and Intermediaries to get various
perspectives. We are grateful to those who responded, and their
insightful views. Some interesting aspects come to the fore – NGOs
and Corporates need to speak the same language; Corporates should
treat the relationship as an equal partnership, support NGOs in being
more financially transparent, and connect with each other more to
share their learnings.
I
am grateful to Noshir and Meher for their constant support, and
guidance in helping me plan, reach out, and edit this theme. It
turned out to be a little more work than I thought, but it was fun.
The enjoyable part was reading and editing the insights of the
experts who sent in their contributions. We hope you enjoy reading
the issue.“
am grateful to Noshir and Meher for their constant support, and
guidance in helping me plan, reach out, and edit this theme. It
turned out to be a little more work than I thought, but it was fun.
The enjoyable part was reading and editing the insights of the
experts who sent in their contributions. We hope you enjoy reading
the issue.“
Above is the editorial of the latest newsmgazine, If you have requested a print copy it has been posted to you. Alternately all copies are available on The CAP Website .