Kemi Olafare shares practical ways finance teams can bridge the gap between numbers and mission - making financial principles accessible, actionable, and empowering for everyone in your charity.
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Accountants can often be seen as being blockers, the ones who always say no and using too much terminology. I can hold my hands up to many of these during my career. As accountants, we do have responsibilities arising from our professional qualification and various regulatory bodies, including the Charity Commission, Fundraising Regulator and HMRC. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it helps to keep on the right side of the rules and maintain stakeholder confidence.

However, us finance professionals also have a duty to you and the charity to ensure that you understand key finance principles and use this to assist in making optimal decisions. Here are some tips if you’re unsure where to start:

Ditch the pen, paper and laptop

Invest time in understanding what the charity does, including seeing some of the work in action. I’m a firm believer that if you can grasp how the charity works, the numbers will complement this and have more relevance. Attend meetings where finance isn’t on the agenda; speak to beneficiaries about their experience. You will learn a lot and colleagues will appreciate your interest and be more likely to involve you in decision making.

Drop the terminology

Whilst certain words and phrases will have been drummed into us, they will likely be unfamiliar to many outside of finance. Aim to explain what it is you’re trying to achieve and why rather than using finance based terminology. I recall once inwardly flinching when my manager, upon being asked what was needed for reconciliations, included in her answer that the end result should be a row of zeros. You can imagine what the returns looked like. When asking colleagues to complete finance tasks such as budgeting or external reporting, see if you can run a separate session to explain in more detail as to what’s required. Which leads me to…

Offer surgery sessions

Human nature often means that people don’t ask questions in group settings for fear of embarrassment or thinking it’s specific to them, when in reality it’s usually the query on everyone’s mind. We don’t want these colleagues to be suffering in silence, or worse, guessing what’s needed and sending this in two minutes before a deadline.

Blocking times out to offer surgery style sessions where people can ask any questions helps with this, both in providing reassurance and potentially the need for further clarity. Offer a range of times if possible to accommodate varied work arrangements. If necessary, a live frequently asked questions document can be created and shared as new queries arise.

Celebrate success

The above measures should result in tangible impact and benefits for your organisation, which is important to communicate to show the fruits of everyone’s labour. Better budgeting can result in utilising charitable funds in a more efficient manner and in doing so, improving
sustainability and the experience of beneficiaries. One of my memorable achievements was identifying available funding through a robust budgeting process which I was able to suggest be used to give small prizes to a pool of volunteers who always went above and beyond to help others. Funders may comment on the enhanced reporting quality, which can in turn facilitate better strategic and operational discussions. Even receiving positive feedback from senior leadership on the improved quality of finance information shouldn’t be underestimated.

Yes, some finance concepts can be difficult to understand, but we can help to make both our lives and that of the charity's much easier.

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