The Small Charity Finance List
This list is a work in progress. It is a living, breathing list of all the finance resources for small charities that we signpost to regularly, with some additional recommendations by small charities and people who work with small charities. All additions welcome.
The Essentials
Where to start - going back to first principles
- Charity Commission The Essential Trustee The gateway to it all
- Charity Commission 5-minute guide to finance Not sure where to start on the finances? Start here!
- Our very, very brief guide Small Charity Finance - Where to start
- Our blog on why all social leaders need to embrace finance
Test your knowledge
You will need a budget, maybe a cashflow forecast and a cashbook to keep accounting records. Free templates:
- A budget to tell you if you can survive
- A cashbook to keep good financial records
- A cashflow forecast to tell you if/when you are going to run of cash
- Charity Excellence Framework, WYCAS, CA Plus
- Our blog on cashflow forecasting
- Our blog on management reports
You will also need a set of annual accounts to file with the Commission:
- Charity Commission guidance CC15d on reporting and accounting
- Not sure what type of accounts to prepare? Check here
- Charity Commission Receipts and Payments Annual Accounts Template
- Charity Commission Accruals Accounts Template
- Charity Commission example accounts
- Charity SORP- the rule book for accruals accounts
- A technical note on converting from cash to accruals accounting for small charities
And these accounts will probably need external scrutiny:
- Charity Commission guidance for Trustees on independent examinations
- Charity Commission guidance to Independent Examiners on reporting matters of material significance
- Beyond Profit blog on independent examinations
And you will also need to get on top of the financial controls:
- Charity Commission financial controls guidance
- Charity Commission financial controls checklist Super helpful. Tick off and triage with a cup of tea.
- NCVO Financial procedures manual - guidance is in front of the paywall, template is behind
And you will need good financial governance:
- Financial Leadership in Small Charities - a free resource for Chairs from the Association of Chairs
- #CountMeIn - a collaborative campaign in Trustees Week 2024 to raise awareness of and celebrate Treasurers. If you are looking to recriut someone to this role, this Notion site has some fantastic resources.
- Charity Treasurers Handbook from Directory of Social Change
- ACEVO’s A Gentle Guide for the Non-Financial Charity Trustee – long but highly readable
Some great charity finance books
These are not written specifically for small charities but all contain some great content that will be useful:
Build your financial confidence
Where to start with asking smarter questions
- Charity Commission 15 finance questions
- Lloyds Bank Foundation’s Guide to Organisational Resilience
- Very helpful checklists from the Charity Finance Group
- Association of Chair's Financial Leadership in Small Charities; Reflections, Recommendations and Resources for new Chairs of small charities
Where to find free and affordable charity finance training
- NCVO - Charity Finance Skills and Finance Skills for Trustees (paid)
- Getting on Board - To infinity and beyond and Trustee Learning Programme (free)
- Directory of Social Change - Finance for non-finance managers, financial governance for Trustees (pd)
- ICAEW - Online finance training for trustees (free)
- Sayer Vincent - Great range of short 1 hr sessions (free)
- Money4You - various programmes for social leaders
- Embrace Finance - commission a bespoke training session or book in 121 professional mentoring (pd)
Where to start with some good small charity finance blogs and newsletters which we enjoy
- Beyond Profit Blog - always good technical updates and guidance in this
- Embrace Finance Blog - random thoughts and irregular news
- Lime Green Fundraising Blog - love this blog, I always learn something
- ExpensePlus - very useful blog on some of the technicalities
Where to find general resources (that are not behind a pay wall)
- NCVO - pages and pages of great finance stuff mainly by our brilliant Rachel Cooper ACA
- Small Charity Finance Programme - also by the brilliant Rachel Cooper ACA
- Association of Chairs - blog on support for small charity Chairs
- New Philanthropy Capital’s The Little Blue Book – this is a fabulous guide on how to analyse charity finance
- ACEVO’s A Gentle Guide for the Non-Financial Charity Trustee – long but highly readable
- Sayer Vincent – Made Simple Guides - all of these are brilliant. Clear and simple.
- NAVCA - find your local CVS (if you still have one....)
Where to get top tips on reserves
- Charity Commission CC19 Reserves and Resilience - the bible on reserves. wordy but good.
- Example reserves policy from the Charity Commission for a smallish charity (£500kpa) - v helpful
- Sayer Vincent’s Reserves Made Simple - again, brilliant
- IVAR’s report on the benefits of strategic reserves management - love the schematic on what it means to be strategic
- Bond’s report on building reserves for financial resilience - good tips on building reserves (spoiler, it's not easy)
- Blackbird Charity Finance’s Asking Smarter Questions About Reserves - BCF has a lovely turn of phrase
- Charity leaders talking about reserves - interesting podcast with CFG, ACEVO and NCVO chiefs
- CAF's approach to treasury management and reserves
Where to start with resilience and sustainability
- Charity Commission 15 finance questions
- a good starting place
- Lloyds Bank Foundation’s Guide to Organisational Resilience - simple, useful question banks by smalls for smalls
- National Lottery Community Fund – Full Cost Recovery - a super simple easy to follow guide on full cost recovery
- Bayes Business School – Cost Recovery - a more sophisticated approach but really useful if you want to up your game
- Embrace Finance Asking Smarter Financial Resilience Questions - a simple 7 step pathway to building resilience
- Lime Green fundraising - great name, great people, great support
- Nova Fundraising - lovely friendly experts who love smalls
- Funding School - great for lots of things but also for notifications on new grants for small charities
- Cranfield Trust's Making the case for unrestricted funding
- Government Grants Finder
- The Social Change Nest - provides support to grass roots community orgs
- Our blog on financial resilience in small charities
- Claiming gift aid as a charity
- gov.uk
- Charities and Tax - an introductory page from gov.uk
- Charity Tax Group - super useful resource on all things charity tax
- Charity Commission CC35, Charities Trading and Tax – know when you can and can’t trade
- Sayer Vincent’s Gift Aid Made Simple – gift aid is chronically underclaimed, don’t let that be you
Where to start with banking
Where to start with payroll
Get some free practical support
- NCVO Small Charity Helpdesk - ask your finance questions
- Charity Excellence Framework - a wealth of useful info, templates and signposting
- WYCAS - free templates
- CA Plus - free templates and useful videos
- Cranfield Trust On Call
- request support
- NCVO guidance pages - good starting point and overview
- Charity Commission guidance on managing financial difficulties
- Charity Commission guidance on filing serious incident reports
- Arts Council England Managing Financial Difficulties - superb guide and toolkit with practical suggestions
- Stewarding Loss - interesting resources relating to charity closure
- ACCA technical factsheet: Going concern and the alternative basis of accounts preparation for charities reporting under UK-Ireland Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) - best to read early when the sun is shining
- For guidance on assessing being a Going Concern this note from audit firm Saffery is very helpful
- Charity Finance Group and Association of Chairs have insolvency helplines for members
- The Decelerator gives free support to organisations to navigate better endings
- HMRC's redundancy calculator
Bring in some free expertise
Where to start with finding great volunteer support
- Reach Volunteering – to find finance volunteers
- Charterpath – to find chartered accountant volunteers
- ICAEW volunteers – for accountant volunteers
Where to start with finding great pro bono support
- Cranfield Trust – for pro bono consultancy support
- Pilotlight
– range of opportunities
Where to find professional support
- Charity accountant at the Charity Practitioners Forum
- Independent examiner at the Association of Independent Examiners
- Small charity consultant across a range of disciplies Small Charity Friendly Collective
Where to start as a Trustee
- Charity Commission The Essential Trustee The gateway to it all
- Charity Commission 5-minute guide to finance Not sure where to start on the finances? Start here!
- Charity Finance Group - Essential Finance for Trustees
- The Charity Treasurer’s Handbook - my Treasurer's bible, updated version coming soon
- Honorary Treasurer’s Forum – (brilliant) membership organisation for Treasurers with good website with example JD
- Association of Chairs blog on the Chair's role with respect to the finances
Small Print
- Working in the commons At Embrace Finance we believe the world’s problems are too tricky to resolve without sharing and learning together. Our resources are provided on a Creative Commons License basis. Please read these terms when using https://www.embracefinance.org.uk/open-working-commitment
- Disclaimer Any guidance provided herewith is illustrative only and is not intended to replace professional advice. Please consult an appropriately qualified professional adviser as appropriate.
- Third Party Disclaimer
When working with Third Parties the usual caveats apply. Always due your due diligence.
