Prophix Joins Forces with Charity Finance Group

Helping Charities Manage The Financial Spotlight

All organisations are subject to financial scrutiny and require sound financial management in order to survive, thrive and grow. As recent headlines have shown, this applies to everyone, including the not-for-profit sector.

The closure of The Kids Company has swung the spotlight firmly onto charities and how they manage their money. The media, regulators and public are definitely watching more closely. But clearly 99% of charities have absolutely nothing to fear from this, but ALL will now certainly be burdened with great reporting requirements, that have the potential to impact their overall efficiency.

This is one reason why we chose to become a corporate subscription partner with The Charity Finance Group (CFG). The CFG represents more than 1350 UK charities, with a collective financial turnover of £21.1billion. Set up to champion financial best practice and provide opportunities for training and peer-to-peer learning, The Charity Finance Group is a charity itself and understands the weight of its financial responsibilities, both to regulators, member organisations, employees, donors and beneficiaries.

By working alongside the CFG as a corporate subscription and event exhibition partner, we have a unique opportunity to help support the sector and impart guidance on all aspects of financial management that will not only help reduce the impact of the reporting burden, but also improve general operational efficiency. Our relationship started with Prophix attending CFG’s IT and Data Insight Conference in London on March 2nd and also announcing plans to attend its Annual Conference in May.

The IT and Data Insight Conference was aimed at helping charities improve the efficiency of their financial and operational processes with data. In particular it explored the power of data and provided practical ways to integrate systems and data-analysis to support more effective decision-making. For Prophix, we used the event to highlight how our software can address charity finance teams’ unique challenges such as SORTP and SoFA regulatory requirements, impact reporting and restricted donation tracking as well as improve the efficiency of their processes by streamlining budgeting, planning, reporting and consolidation tasks.

There are an estimated 732,000 paid employees in the charity sector in the UK and some
163,800 charities. These organisations and individuals help some of society’s most disadvantaged groups and responsible and efficient financial management is imperative to protect their day-to-day operations and the people they serve. Paying wages, ensuring donations reach the hands of needy families, funding lobbying campaigns, investing in research and managing fundraising campaigns; the financial needs of charities are complex.

The cost of getting it wrong is too onerous to bear. A loss of faith in trustees or regulators can quickly turn into a damaged reputation, distrust, public outcry and a dried-up donations pipeline. We’re very much looking forward to working with the CFG to share our best practice and ensure that the not-for-profit sector adopts the most effective and efficient financial practices so they can concentrate more resource on what matters most which is charitable work.