I also posted this in the careers and students' communities -  thought you might be interested in the comments posted in response there 

http://www.ion.icaew.com/studentcommunityforum/18424

http://www.ion.icaew.com/Careersforum/18425

 

 A colleague and I ran a workshop for a small/medium sized charity on understanding finance and in particular budgeting. Attendees were managers from across the charity. Two things struck me:

• The financial terms I took for granted as a trained accountant and the care needed not to slip into jargon if I wanted to communicate clearly. It was possible to cover most financial issues relevant to the audience without the use of technical terms.

• The accountants within the charity were not designing processes and reporting that supported financial decision making. For example cost centres, expense captions and groupings seemed to be for administrative convenience rather than on a meaningful business basis. On the budgeting side the finance team could also have done a lot more to remove administrative burdens by for example providing better templates and automating some calculations.

So it's not just a skills gap - I suspect many non-accountants in charities are financially savvy when it comes to key areas of their organisation. Sometimes charity staff just choose to avoid the frustrations of time wasted because of poor financial systems, listening to muddled communication and dealing with financial analysis unrelated to the key drivers of organisational performance

   

 

I thought I'd share a few related links:

An interesting article: How can I combat the skills gap I have in my organisation?

Key publications : Third Sector Skills Research 2008 and The UK Civil Society Almanac 2009

Voluntary sector group: Employment Practice Network

One of the most interesting things about charity management in general is that apart from ad hoc training courses, I have not been able to find any real formal skills training. Type 'nails', 'media', 'drums' on the UCAS website and you will get dozens of courses for beauticians, media studies and music. However, 'fundraising', and 'charities' did not get a single hit. This is further compounded by charities insisting (at least in the fundraising sector, where  I operate) that employees are supporters of the charity first and fundraisers second.

There does therefore seem to be a definite role for profession financial advisors ( i.e. the external accountant) to provide an un-emotional advisory role which may have to say  " I know that you would like to save that extra elephant, but doing so will create additional financial problems  in the long term which you may not be able to survive".

I do agree there is a vast need of improving financial skills in the sector especially now as the entire sector is moving forward to social enterprising. One of the solution is to develop pro bono work by big accounting firms. I think the accounting profession lags behind immensely in its commitment to its pro bono work compared to legal profession in U.K.

I'd have said that one of the SIGS objectives was to offer training via our conferences, newsletters and other publications!  The Charity Commission also have many helpful leaflets. 

Larger charities can look to CFDG and the Institute of Fundraising, although smaller charities probably couldn't afford their fees.  District Societies also offer quite a lot of short courses.

There are also excellent management and accounting courses specific to charities available at Cass Business School, Southbank University and a few others - increasingly people are realising the need for professional skills within the charity sector and for those to be learned specifically geared to it. Ways to gain the skills are out there just keep looking!

I assume you are talking about the skills gap at the most basic book-keeping level? Community Accountancy services provide financial management training for small charities throughout the UK. To find a service local to you try following this link;

http://www.communityaccounting.org/?q=revised_map_of_cas_locations

Both really -  entry level skills will deal with the mechanics -  but I think there is also a great need for strategic input -  members volunteering might be one way to offer assistance there. 

Interesting article in third sector about Critchleys -  one of our firms -  and the volunteering they are piloting with their students.

http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/channels/Finance/Article/979336/Money-Matters-Free-accounting-grants-social-enterprises-Scotland/+

thanks for the interest in this debate -  there are some interesting suggestions and comments.