The event sponsored by Quilter Cheviot and Finegan Gibson featured an impressive line-up of speakers who covered a range of crucial financial topics including reserves, financial reporting and banking.
Denise Hayward, NICVA board member and CEO of Volunteer Now, opened the conference with a warm welcome to the trustees and sector leaders in attendance. She emphasised the importance of good financial governance and highlighted the potential risks to reputation and funding if best practice is not followed.
Denise Hayward speaking at the conference
Economic Update
Paul Gibbons, Investment Manager with Quilter Cheviot, provided an economic update, discussing inflation rates and the impact of various factors such as the UK budget, global market policies, and geopolitical uncertainties.
Charity Reserves
Paul and Conor Dolan, directors at Finegan Gibson, gave an insightful overview of charity reserves. They defined different types of reserves, explained the CCNI guidance, and stressed the importance of having a reserves policy and setting realistic targets. They also underscored the need for regular monitoring and review of the reserves policy to ensure efficient use of funds. They recommended that charities need to be consistent about their definition and calculation of reserves and that the actual amount of free reserves should be monitored so that reflects the target amount in the policy.
Conor Dolan speaking at the conference
Maximizing Reserves
Charles Mesquita, Charities Director at Quilter Cheviot, presented on making the most of reserves. He emphasized the importance of clear short, medium, and long-term purposes for reserves and the need to invest wisely to combat inflation. He also discussed responsible investing, highlighting situations where non-financial considerations might influence investment decisions.
Charles Mesquita speaking at the conference
Public Trust and Financial Practices
Frances McCandless, CEO of the Charity Commission NI, reinforced the significance of sound financial practices for maintaining public trust and confidence. She shared statistics showing that 86% of people believe donations should be used properly, and 74% value transparency in how funds are spent. Encouragingly, 81% of annual reports for October 2024 were submitted on time, though common issues in the past included missing public benefit statements and incorrect formats.
Frances McCandless speaking at the conference
Banking Challenges
Denise Copeland, Governance and Charity Advice Manager at NICVA, discussed banking challenges such as issues with updating the bank mandate both digitally and in person, banks not understanding charity structures and governing documents, charities not understanding the bank's terminology and bank accounts being frozen. She updated attendees on her work with the UK-wide Civil Society Group on Charity Banking issues as well as the work of the Charity Finance Group's Banking Forum and the Minister for Finance’s roundtable on banking. She advised trustees to never ignore communication from their banks and understand banking terminology so that you can supply what is being requested.
Conference speakers taking part in a Q&A discussion
This conference underscored the critical role of financial governance in the charity sector and provided valuable insights and practical advice for trustees and leaders.
Resources and additional information
Reserves
- Charity reserves: building resilience (CC19) - GOV.UK
- SV_reserves_03
- Internal financial controls for charities (CC8) - GOV.UK
- Developing a reserves policy | The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
Banking
- Voluntary Organisation Banking Guide | UK Finance
- Bank account availability for voluntary organisations | NICVA
- Consumer Duty | FCA
- Financial Ombudsman Service: our homepage
Investments
Writing your statement of investment policy, Quilter Cheviot charity knowledge guide
General
