Financial Management for NGOs Archives

Bilateral Programme Budget Call for Proposals: Strengthening Peace, Security and Democracy in Ethiopia

Deadline: 10 April 2016

The British Embassy in Addis Ababa is currently inviting proposals for its Bilateral Programme Budget for the year 2016/17.

The Bilateral Programme Budget is one of the channels through which the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) supports projects that strengthen ties with the Ethiopian government and contribute to creating lasting peace, security and democracy in Ethiopia.

Bilateral Programme Budget is designed to support implementation of small and quick impact projects that Promote democratic values, good governance and culture of open debate in Ethiopia.

This is a one year project proposal call. The financial year of the BPB is 01 April 2016 – 31 March 2017.

Budget

The budget to be allocated to one project can fall under the following ranges:

£10,000 – £15,000
£15,000 – £20,00

The Bilateral Programme Budget fund does not authorise the purchase of capital goods. Minimal percentage of administrative costs may be allowed on case by case basis.

Eligibility Criteria

The proposals are requested from the following eligible bodies:

Government Institutions
Legally Constituted Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
Civil Society Organisations
Community-based Organisations
Universities and Research Centers

How to Apply

Proposals should be submitted on the Project form and sent via email.

For more information, please visit Bilateral Programme Budget Ethiopia.

Nuffic Fellowships for Development Professionals to Participate in The Hague Academy Short Courses

Deadline: 18 March 2015

The Netherlands organisation for international cooperation in higher education (NUFFIC) offers fellowships for training courses, as part of the Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP) for short courses and the MENA Scholarship Programme (MSP). The aim is to promote capacity building within organisations in eligible countries (51 for NFP & 7 for MSP) via training and education for professionals. This is initiated and fully funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the budget for development cooperation.

The Hague Academy for Local Governance is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that aims at strengthening good (local) governance, public service delivery and socio-economic development in developing and transitional countries by organising practice oriented training programmes.

Fellowships Programmes

Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP)
MENA Scholarship Programme (MSP)

Program/Courses and Duration under fellowship programmes

Local Economic Development (7 – 18 September, 2015)
Fiscal Decentralisation and Local Finance (28 September – 9 October, 2015)
Multilevel Water Governance (26 October – 6 November, 2015)
Security, Governance and Rule of Law in fragile states (2 November – 11 December, 2015)

Focus Countries

Afghanistan, Mali, Albania, Nepal, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Armenia, Nicaragua, Benin, Myanmar (Burma)Bolivia, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Peru, Burundi, Palestinian Territories, Cambodia, Philippines, Colombia, Rwanda, Cuba, Senegal, Djibouti, Somalia, DR Congo, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, South Africa, Egypt, Sudan, Ghana, South Sudan, Eritrea, Surinam, India, Tanzania, Georgia, Thailand, Indonesia, Uganda, Guatemala, Zambia, Kenya, Vietnam, Jordan, Zimbabwe, Yemen, Macedonia, Mongolia, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Syria, Tunisia.

Application procedure

The application procedure for a Nuffic scholarship consists of two stages.

The first stage is completing the online application form available on the website page.
In stage two you will be required to register in the Nuffic database (Atlas), motivate your application, and upload all the supporting documents as stated below-
- Copy passport
- Employer’s statement:
- Motivation your employer
- Government statement (if required)

Note: All documents should be attached in PDF format with size not exceeding 2 MB.

For more information about these fellowships, visit Nuffic Fellowships 2015.

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Fiscal Decentralisation and Local Finance Short Course to Understand Financial Management at Local Level

The way public finances are organised in a country forms the basis for how local authorities run their activities in cities, towns and villages. While national governments have the responsibility to design and supervise a system that works, local authorities are challenged to use their often limited resources for delivering better local services. During the course, various examples of financing public services, public-private partnerships and participatory budgeting will be discussed.

This course will give solutions to the questions such as:

How can spending responsibilities and revenue resources be best assigned to the different government layers?
How can financial management at the local level be improved?
What are sources for local income generating?
How can local authorities be held accountable in a transparant way?

Learning objectives

This course helps in:

Assess and monitor fiscal decentralisation practices in your country;
Optimise the different sources of revenue, e.g. taxes, user fees and intergovernmental transfers;
Find effective financing structures and partnerships to accomplish most with limited resources;
Be able to use revenue and expenditure tools.

For more information regarding this course, visit Fiscal Decentralisation and Local Finance.

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Applications are Invited for SAFE Trust Fund Grants 2015

Deadline: 27 February 2015

The Strengthening Accountability and the Fiduciary Environment (SAFE) is issuing call for applications for grants to support public financial management reform projects in countries that are intended beneficiaries under the SAFE Trust Fund. SAFE Trust Fund grants amoount ranging from $50,000 USD to $300,000 USD. The main objective of this grant is to improve understanding of PFM status in target beneficiaries.

SAFE is a Trust Fund group administered by the World Bank and established by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the European Commission with the aim of improving public financial management in the Europe and Central Asia region.

Eligibility Criteria

Applications are welcome only from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
Proposals must belong to any of the three pillars:
- Assessment of PFM status (Pillar 1) – Support to government-led reviews of PFM arrangements using standard international PEFA measurement framework or related diagnostic and analytical tools, Analysis of PFM status by skilled professionals using PEFA or related methodology, Preparation and dissemination of reports on financial management performance.
- Support for PFM reform management (Pillar 2) – Research, analysis and design of PFM reform action plan by government, in consultation with other development partners, developing networks within governments to implement reforms relating to one or more aspects of the PEFA framework, research to obtain deeper understanding of the results of diagnostic assessments, as well as identification and design of actions required to address weaknesses, detailed analysis of specific PFM areas of importance or concern and development of action plans to address concerns or build on achievements.
- Expanding PFM knowledge and capability (Pillar 3) – Analysis of progress and outcomes in specific beneficiaries as well as cross-cutting perspectives, Benchmarking and comparative analysis, involving studies of progress against specific indicators or groups of indicators, facilitation of working groups across beneficiaries to explore differences and identify practical actions to address weaknesses in one or more location, wider experience and knowledge sharing, including provision of forums for exchange of information and experience, and joint activities to address common development priorities in PFM across the region. The managers of long term PFM reform initiatives need access to ad hoc peer, impartial expert advice. SAFE TF can provide this for countries which do not have alternative access to this level of expertise (e.g. through a twinning arrangement).

How to Apply

Application form has to be duly filled and submitted before the deadline.

For more information, visit SAFE.

Ideas for Action: An International Youth Competition on Financial Management by the World Bank Group

Deadline: 31 January 2015

The World Bank Group and the Wharton School of Business are co-sponsoring “Ideas for Action,” a competition to mobilize youth across the development community to invent, foster, and inspire innovative solutions to financing development post-2015. Teams are invited to focus on one of the issues below and develop a creative solution that will increase the financing available and/or improve the efficiency and effectiveness of existing funds.

Thematic Areas/Issues

Domestic Resource Mobilization: improving the ability of countries to collect and direct public resources generated from taxes and/or improve efficiency of public spending. Areas of particular relevance are:
- tax policy and collection
- harnessing sustainable streams of revenue from natural resources
- subsidy reform
- improving public sector procurement practices.
Better and Smarter Aid: improving how aid is structured and disbursed in light of a rapidly changing donor environment. It include:
- improving aid disbursement models
- improving aid transparency and accountability
- integrating private philanthropy and global funds into the greater aid agenda.
International Private Finance: improving business environments to attract investment. Areas of particular relevance are:
- creating policies that encourage investment, particularly in long time infrastructure
- mainstreaming the use of guarantees and risk insurance.
Domestic Private Sector: mobilizing domestic private capital. Areas of particular relevance are:
- creating an enabling environment for business creation and growth
- increasing access to finance, greater financial inclusion for households and SMEs
- developing domestic capital markets.
Business and Development Innovations: improving business environments in developing economies via innovative private/public partnership models. Areas of particular relevance are:
- grafting and implementing business-led collective action initiatives
- innovative models of delivering aid using private sector capabilities and public sector resources.

Competition Timeline

Deadline for proposal submission: 31 January 2015
Announcement of submissions selected for final round: 22 February 2015
Deadline for final submissions of expanded proposals: 20 March 2015
Announcement of winner(s): 5 April 2015

Benefits

Winners of the competition will be given an opportunity to influence the post-2015 financing discussions and its implementation, including:

Present winning proposal at the IMF/World Bank Spring and/or Annual Meetings in April and October 2015, respectively.
Engagement with experts from development organizations, academia, and business on finance for development post-2015.
Participation in a boot camp, where the winners will visit a company, organization or university to take part in specific project implementation and get hands on experience.
Participation in the Wharton School of Business Executive Development Program and Knowledge Exchange.

Eligibility Criteria

Youth between the ages 18 and 35 from around the world can participate in the competition in a team.
Team Composition must be 2 to 5 people and may consist of multiple nationalities and individuals from different schools, institutions, companies, etc.
Applicant must register his/her team before submitting the proposal the competition.

How to Apply?

Applicant team must submit their proposals via email.
Proposal must be:
- Between 1,500 and 3,000 words, with proper citations and references.
- Teams should use the template in appendix 1 and include a 200-word abstract summarizing the key points of the proposal.
- The submission must be in Times New Roman, 12 pt font and must be sent in PDF or Microsoft Word format (in English, Arabic, French, Russian, Portuguese or Spanish).

For more information, visit Call for Proposals.

Watch Training Video on How to raise funds from European commission?

NGO’s from all over the world can seek grants from one of the largest funding organization of the world, the European Commission. Although the amount of money to be raised is a huge amount and they can easily provide it to your organization but the competition to get the grant is high too. So for your application to be successful, we present to you a Webinar which will help you with tips and tricks to get selected among thousands of applicants and receive those funds.

Despite investing a lot of hard-work and time in the making and structuring of their proposals and concept notes, most of the applicants get rejected at the concept note stage and are not able to successfully apply for the funding from the European Commission. This problem is generally caused because one if not aware of the issues and relevant material that makes your proposal stand out from the rest.

This webinar outlines a detailed description and guidance about NGO funding opportunities available with the European Commission, their identification and successful submission of the proposals.

The webinar provides you with the best guidelines about how to raise funds from European commission. The main agendas covered are:

European Commission Landscape – This area covers the funding instruments which amount to be around 51.4 billion which is to be provided to support NGO and civil societies of developing countries around the world.

It gives you the solution about how to apply for European commission grants if you not a legally registered NGO in a developing country and the mistakes which generally are made and will make you lose the grant.

Identifying and Applying for European Commission grants- one of the major problems with European Commission grants is that their website is very complex and to find the suitable funding for your organization a confusing process. This webinar guides you to easily identify the best opportunities and gives a detailed description about the eligibility criteria, PADOR database before your apply.

Tips and tricks to make your Proposal Count- Last but not the least, The experts give you a comprehensive study of the mistakes which one does while making a concept note and how to resolves those. Additionally they give meticulous tips to enhance your chances of getting selected and get the grant.

We all are aware that making of a proposal needs a lot of time, hard-work and even after investing all that, most of the proposals are not even seen as they are usually rejected at the concept note stage. Our experts brief you with the best tips which when incorporated will help you to successfully raise funds and more.

To watch this Webinar: “How to raise Funds from European Commission”, click here now.

Only premium members can view this video. Not a Premium Member? Sign up.

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Changing Perceptions And Realities For NGOs in Africa

Africa is a land of great contrast. On one hand it contains many of the most underdeveloped nations in the world. On the other, it’s one of the richest places for young workers and consumers. The later has propelled the continent into a path towards success, despite lingering perceptions of the regions fragility.

Consider for a moment, 6 out of 10 of the world’s fastest growing GDPs are located in Africa. Also consider the fact that the country is currently leap-frogging many traditional technological development patterns and quickly moving towards newer models which oddly enough resemble the direction many western countries are heading towards. An excellent example of this can be found in M-Pesa. A mobile payment system in Kenya that allows users to easily send funds via traditional cell phones. With a bank integration at roughly 9%, it’s quite remarkable that Africa has one of the world’s highest mobile banking populations.

Despite all of the rapid change and development in the continent, the mindset about the place seems dated by many consumers, companies, and executives. To them, it’s still about “saving the hungry kids in Ethiopia.” While this might be a powerful mantra to rally around, it misses the reality of the situation. In fact, when compared with other emerging economies a number of nations in Africa are doing quite well. A recent report from the World Bank recently reported that Ethiopia’s growth rate recently surpassed China’s. With this lens firmly affixed a new reality starts to emerge, one focused not on Western nations rushing to the aid of African nations but one of an Africa that can fend for itself given the right tools and resources.

This new shift in thinking was recently put on center stage during the U.S. – Africa Leadership Summit held in Washington D.C. last month. At the Summit, nearly $1 billion worth of deals were announced between the U.S. and African nations. It also brought together President Obama and the leaders of more than 40 African nations. A notable initiative discussed at the Summit was a new partnership titled “Women and the Web Alliance.” This new program aims to introduce more than 600,000 Kenyan and Nigerian women to the Internet and engage them in using it as a tool for social and economic empowerment.

The U.S. Africa Leadership Summit is part of a greater shift focused on promoting opportunities available in Africa. For NGOs this new reality creates a new challenge. Traditional models for funding and doing business are falling to the wayside as more direct initiatives begin to take root. One example to consider is Give Directly, a NGO which enables donors to directly donate money to households in Kenya and Uganda. For-profit organizations are also starting to enter the development space, intervening and solving problems once located in the realm of NGOs, i.e. connectivity, health, and education. A recent example of this trend can be witnessed in Facebook’s recent launch of the internet.org app, which provides free access to online resources like Wikipedia, weather updates, job listings, health information and Facebook’s own social network.

Read the original article at the Huffington Post.

How Can NGOs Meet the Challenges of Ethical Spending?

Worldwide humanitarian aid contributions in 2013 were at their highest level for five years, putting the sector’s aims and practices under the spotlight.

According to analysts Global Humanitarian Assistance, donations from government and private bodies totalled $22bn (about £13bn) – up nearly a third on the previous year.

With such large amounts of money involved, there is obviously a pressure for humanitarian and development NGOs to show transparency and accountability in their aid flows. This means demonstrating value for money in their procurement policies and, ideally, strengthening the communities involved.

“Any attempt to procure goods and services locally promotes self-reliance,” says Jason Baldaro, global procurement and facilities manager at Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). “Even if the goods are unavailable, it can highlight an opportunity and challenge local businesses. It could be argued that this is one of many tools in developing an economy – basic supply and demand,” he adds.

However, sourcing from local providers is not without its challenges. As Clea Kahn and Elena Lucchi from the Médecins Sans Frontièresoperational centre in Amsterdam have argued in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine, local procurement can risk neutrality, especially in conflict zones where opposing sides control vital goods and services.

NGO Responsibilities

Clare Battle, a policy analyst at Water Aid, believes the responsibility for getting it right lies with the NGOs involved. “When the quality of local procurement systems is poor, donors and NGOs should help strengthen these systems, rather than employing other practices that may even undermine attempts to move towards country-led processes,” she says.

However, many donors have policies that dictate the circumstances under which procurement can take place. Four years after the Haiti earthquake, for instance, a substantial proportion of US development funding in the country still goes via American, rather than Haiti-owned companies.

Rose Longhurst, funding policy adviser at NGO development membership agency Bond, acknowledges that this can be an issue. “Sometimes donors have specific procurement stipulations, saying that you may have to source certain goods or services from certain areas or organisations,” she says.

Clearly, there is a need for NGOs to balance ethical intervention with consistent funding. Conventional wisdom in this area suggests that the relationship between donors and NGOs creates a self-regulating mechanism against bad practice. An NGO’s spending is accountable to its donors through audits, which are presumed to be a sufficient safeguard against misspending and corruption.

Developments such as the International Aid Transparency Initiative also demonstrate a move toward a greater openness about how aid flows work.

That said, there are few legal frameworks to challenge malpractice, and the closeness of donors and NGOs remains unchallenged. In the case of Haiti, this has led to local aid organisations being largely ignored.

Longhurst, however, maintains that because many charities conform toISO 9000, their procurement practices are externally audited to prevent unethical behaviour.

Read the full article at the Guardian.

Free Mango Guide: Developing a Financing Strategy

The contents of this article are taken from Mango’s (Management Accounting for NGOs, www.mango.org.uk) website and publication,”Financial Management Essentials – Handbook for NGOs. Mango is an award winning UK based charity with a mission to “strengthen the financial management accountability of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and their partners”.

Introduction

A financing strategy is integral to an organisation’s strategic plan. It sets out how the organisation plans to finance its overall operations to meet its objectives now and in the future.

A financing strategy summarises targets, and the actions to be taken over a three to five year period to achieve the targets. It also clearly states key policies which will guide those actions.

A suggested structure and contents for a financing strategy are outlined below.

1. Where are we know?

This section summarises where the organisation is at the start of the strategy. This includes an assessment of the key risks facing the NGO and the opportunities and resources it has available.

2. Where would we like to be?

This section summarises key financial targets for three to five years’ time, and is informed by the risks and opportunities identified in the first section. It will include as a minimum:

The desired funding mix – the balance and sources of restricted and unrestricted funds.
Donor dependency – linked to the funding mix, this is the realistic and appropriate level of funding to accept from donor agencies (expressed as a percentage of overall income).
Level of general reserves – usually expressed as the number of days that the organisation could continue without external funding.

This is the ‘meat’ of the financing strategy. It describes what actions you will take each year to finance the strategic plan and achieve the financial targets identified in the second section.

3. How do we get there?

This might include sections on:

how to increase the mix and level of unrestricted funds
how to finance core costs
how to build up reserves
how to replace and maintain fixed assets
how to apply funds to achieve maximum benefit

For example, actions to increase the percentage of unrestricted income might include:

increasing or introducing fees for users of services to recover some or all of the costs of providing the service;
introducing income-generating activities;
making use of under-utilised resources (eg renting out office space, vehicles);
increasing the priority given to fundraising for unrestricted funds.

4. Key Policies

This section will include policies that guide the financing strategy. The examples given are for guidance only, and may not be appropriate or detailed enough for your organisation.

Reserves policy – what level of reserves you aim to build up, and how surpluses will be handled.

Example: It is our policy to maintain general reserves equivalent to 6 months of operating expenditure. This policy is reviewed by the Board every three years. General fund surpluses in a given year will be added to this reserve. If the reserve level exceeds the policy level, we will spend it on behalf of the beneficiaries in line with our strategy.

Core costs policy – what method will be used to recover programme support costs from projects and funders. It will also clarify the policy on subsidising ‘poorer’ projects and how that will be decided and managed.

Example: It is our policy to appoprtion overhead costs to projects on a monthly basis, in proportion to the direct costs incurred by each project. Each project should generate enough income to cover both its direct and apportioned indirect costs, unless the Board authorises otherwise for particular cases.

Pricing and cost recovery policy – where charges are to be made to service users, this will explain the basis and formula used for the charging, and the pricing structure.

Example: It is our policy to charge users of the clinic for consultation, drugs and lab tests. The basis for the charge is cost plus 10% to cover overhead. Patients unable to pay may apply to our ‘Special Scheme’ for assistance.

Ethical policy – this will explain who the NGO will or will not accept funds from and what funds may or may not be used for. This will be particularly relevant to NGOs involved in advocacy work.

Example: It is our policy to consider the ethical nature of all funds offered to us before accepting. For example, we will not accept funds derived from any illegal source, or from corporates engaged in arms dealing or child labour. We will not accept funds that create a conflict of interest. We consider each case in line with our values.

Access more great guides on financial sustainablity for NGOs at www.mango.org.uk

Free Mango Guide: Financial Governance – Senior Managers Responsibilities

All senior managers have important financial management responsibilities – because they are employed to use an NGO’s resources to achieve its goals.

This includes chief executive officers (CEOs), programme managers and fundraisers as well as finance managers.

This section provides a checklist of senior managers’ main financial management responsibilities. They focus on actively running the organisation:

Making sure that resources are used effectively
Matching resources and activities
Supporting field staff / managers
Ensuring that finance staff and programme staff work together
Supporting other stakeholders

In big NGOs, senior managers play a similar role to donors to their field offices: you may also find the donors section useful.

1. Making sure that resources are used effectively

Creating an organisational culture that takes financial management seriously (e.g. by inspiring staff to stay committed to an NGO’s values and leading by example).
Developing practical approaches that staff can use to analyse and respond to social problems.
Setting up internal controls that encourage staff to make good judgements and decentralise decision-making as much as possible.
Checking that internal controls are followed in practice.
Taking an active role in internal controls (e.g. signing off salary payments and authorising major payments).
Setting up structured approaches for ensuring dialogue with beneficiaries (e.g. regular financial reporting to beneficiaries) and checking to see that they are followed in practice
Monitoring the quality of the organisation’s work.
Approving realistic budgets for the organisation’s operational activities.
Monitoring financial reports, including income and expenditure accounts and the balance sheet.

The first golden rule of NGO field work is: NGOs have to maintain a respectful dialogue with the people they aim to help. Otherwise, you risk not helping them effectively.

2. Matching Resources and Activities

Leading the process of developing a realistic annual budget and making sure that it includes enough income to cover all planned expenditure.
Regularly reviewing financial reports, including budget monitoring reports and the balance sheet (e.g. most NGOs review these every month).
Regularly forecasting cash flow, making sure that all parts of the organisation have enough cash to pay for their activities and investing any cash reserves.
Implementing the financing strategy approved by the board.

3. Supporting field staff and managers

Recruiting staff with the right skills, experience and commitment for key field roles.

Making sure the right number of staff are employed to carry out all of the organisation’s activities.

Ensuring that all staff understand their financial management responsibilities.

Communicating strategies, policies and procedures effectively to staff (in simple ways that make it easier for them to do their jobs).

Ensuring that staff have the right incentives, time, skills and support to carry out their financial management responsibilities.

Providing training and learning opportunities – and making sure that staff have the time to make use of them.

Holding staff to account for the decisions they take and the results of their actions.

The second golden rule of NGO field work is: NGOs depend on their field staff and have to empower them to make good judgements. Everything depends on how you work with your field staff.

4. Ensuring that finance staff and programme staff work together

Employing finance managers and staff who have strong interpersonal skills and a commitment to your organisation’s values, as well as technical skills.
Making sure that finance staff / managers are always involved in decision making and budgeting, from the earliest stages of any new project.
Actively considering the financial management implications of all major decisions.
Encouraging finance staff to develop a greater understanding of programme work (eg by regular visits to field activities).

5. Supporting other stakeholders

Supporting the trustees, e.g. providing them with financial information and helping them understand financial management issues.
Monitoring relationships with donors and partner organisations and ensuring that the financial aspects of these relationships are in line with broader approaches.
Presenting donors with realistic and honest strategies, plans and reports about your organisation’s work.
Meeting your legal obligations (eg supporting the annual audit and preparing returns for government departments).

All NGOs have a responsibility to be honest about the limits of what they can achieve. Otherwise donors and trustees are encouraged to think that NGOs can achieve amazing results overnight – and then they expect them!

Access more great guides on financial sustainablity for NGOs at www.mango.org.uk