Charity Finance Group has launched a new strategy, designed to provide more leadership skills to leaders such as CEOs, trustees and other senior managers.

As part of its annual report and accounts, CFG said the new strategy is designed to enable the body to become a ‘go-to’ for all charities on charity finance.

The body’s annual accounts showed its income has fallen by 7 per cent due to a one-off grant given to help support the small charities programme. Expenditure also rose by 9 per cent due to filling staff vacancies.

However, the accounts also revealed membership has increased by 2 per cent and the body has a surplus of £55,910, generated from activities.

CFG chief executive Caron Bradshaw said the new strategy “recognises that leadership is critical in turning skills and knowledge on finance into positive change”.

“Finance professionals should be the champions within their own charities. Alongside this, we will work more closely with CEOs, trustees and other senior leaders so they understand finance issues better and improve their performance,” she said.

“CFG will be doing more to show leadership by sharing its experiences as a charity in trying to tackle those tricky issues which other organisations have not been able to crack. I am excited about the potential of our new strategy for the charity sector.”

CFG said the new strategy aims to focus on three main strands:

- ‘Walking the walk, as well as talking the talk’ – ensuring it shares its own experiences of being a charity with its members
- Ensuring is brings finance skills to all leaders and build leadership skills in all levels of its finance professionals
- Building CFG as the ‘go-to’ brand on all things finance

“[This year] also marked the beginning of our 30th anniversary year. We are using this opportunity to shine a light on issues that require attention, such as fraud prevention, as well as celebrating past achievements and reflecting on continuing challenges,” Bradshaw said.

She added that the political environment has meant members have had to grapple with the increasing demand for services and “squeezed funding”.

“Our focus on putting financial skills at the heart of decision making remains crucial. Charities are facing uncertainty that can only be overcome by boldly seizing opportunities. We strongly believe that great financial leadership makes for agile, dynamic and impactful organisations which can better serve their beneficiaries and extract the maximum benefit from every pound given to their causes,” she said.

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