Monitoring and Reporting
A charity's resources must only ever be used to meet its own objectives. Monitoring is essential for trustees to know where and how their charity's resources are being used overseas. Plus evaluation of work done can help an organisation to improve in the future. This section looks at why reporting procedures are needed, what form they can take, and what records to keep.
Why bother with monitoring and evaluation?
Evaluation can help an organisation to learn from its experiences and to be more accountable. An effective charity will have processes for monitoring the course of a project or use of a grant, to examine:
- how efficiently the resources were used
- how successful it was in achieving its aims
- the procedures used to select beneficiaries and projects
Look at Hallmarks of an Effective Charity for more information.
Case study: monitoring and evaluating
After a major earthquake, a group of charities commissioned an independent report to assess how effective their aid had been. The report identified what activities had been successful and where there had been difficulties. Some problems were identified. While much valuable work had been done, at first too many goods had been imported by the charities, there were unnecessary expenses and foreign staff had been employed where local nationals would have been more knowledgeable and effective.
The report also indicated that aid had not been distributed fairly, for example according to social grouping rather than need. This was because some charities had not been sufficiently aware that the NGOs who they were working with were linked to specific groups within the community.
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Should I, as a trustee of a charity working internationally, make a personal visit to the charity's projects overseas to supervise?
You should decide what is in the best interests of the charity, weighing up the costs and the benefits.
You should consider using other organisations working in the area for monitoring and reporting back, if possible. If you do decide that it is necessary to travel, you should make sure that expenses are reasonable in relation to the income of the charity. It would not be appropriate for a large proportion of the charity's funds to be spent on trustees' visits.
Why does my organisation need reporting procedures?
Charity trustees have overall responsibility for how the charity's funds are spent. However, they may delegate administrative duties connected with the day-to-day running of projects to local representatives. Trustees need to receive timely and accurate reports from local representatives. This will give them the information they need to make decisions. It will also help them to demonstrate that they are fulfilling their legal duties.
Trustees may also need to allow the local representatives to make decisions and to authorise expenditure of funds without prior reference to the charity. It's necessary to have checks to make sure that representatives are carrying out their duties properly, according to the trustees' instructions.
What checks should be in place if the trustees are delegating some responsibility to local representatives?
Trustees may delegate some day-to-day duties and responsibilities to local representatives. For example, the charity trustees may authorise local representatives to spend up to a certain amount without prior permission. Trustees should ensure that:
- the scope and extent of duties and responsibilities delegated to local representatives is documented
- local representatives have procedures manuals (translated where necessary), have read them and understand what is required
- local representatives can only spend up to a certain limit
- local representatives know what types of expenditure they have authority to make
We recognise that there may be circumstances where information is delayed because of difficult conditions in the country in which the charity is working. For example, local infrastructures may have broken down in a disaster zone. Plus in some countries there may be general communication problems such as unreliable telephone and internet access. It may be possible in these circumstances to collaborate with other local or international organisations working in the same area by sharing resources such as telephones, computers and vehicles.
Is there a set form of reporting which my charity should use?
No, there is no set form. Different charities choose to do this in different ways, depending on their circumstances. A lot of international work is based on collaboration between the UK charity and a local partner in another country. Procedures for reporting back can vary to suit the nature of the relationship and partnership arrangements.
Case studies: reporting
A charity is established to promote fair trade in West Africa and chooses not to require a central format for financial reports. It accepts whatever financial format the local partners normally use. It sees this both as a reduction in the administrative workload and as a means of empowering the local partner.
A medical charity, promoting family planning in Asia operates through several local partners. For consistency and to meet the requirements of the centralised accounting systems, budget and reporting formats are set out in a prescribed format for partners to use.
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What records does my charity need to keep?
All charities must keep sufficient accounting records that show and explain all transactions and prepare the statutory accounts. See section B5 of Internal Financial Controls for Charities (CC8) for further details.
There may be particular requirements at local level regarding how long records need to be kept for. The trustees should find out these details, particularly where they are linked with the assessment of local taxes and duties. They should keep duplicate records of important documents.
Can a charity's documents be written in another language?
Yes. However, where we ask to inspect a charity's records or any other foreign language documents, the charity should arrange for them to be translated into English (or Welsh if appropriate).
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