Mango

Trustees Report

Annual Report and Accounts for

Management Accounting for Non-Governmental Organisations

Known as Mango

For the year ending 31 December 2006

Company No. :3986178

Charity No. :1081406

Management Accounting for Non-Governmental Organisations

(Known as Mango)

Trustees’ Report for the Year Ending 31 December 2006

Page 1 of 24

Mango

Trustees Report

1. Reference and administrative details

Charity name: / Management Accounting for Non Governmental Organisations
Known as: / Mango
Charity registration no.:
Company registration no.: / 1081406
3986178
Registered office: / Chester House,
George Street,
Oxford
OX1 2AU
UK
Auditors: / Critchleys Chartered Accountants
Greyfriars Court
Paradise Square
Oxford
OX1 1BE
Bank: / CafCash Limited
Kings Hill
West Malling
Kent
ME19 4TA
Trustees: / Lord Joffe – Chair (up to 16th August 2007)
Paul Masters – Chair (from 16th August 2007)
Colin Havill – Treasurer
Sir John Burgh
Ros Avery
Richard Collier-Keywood
Management: / Alex Jacobs – Director
Terry Lewis – Training Director
Lucy Markby – Recruitment Director
Denise Joseph – Fundraising Director

Website:

Details of all of Mango’s aims, activities and staff are available at

2. Governance and management

Mango is a UK-registered charity, regulated by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. It is constituted as a company limited by guarantee. The organisation is bound by its Memorandum and Articles of Association, copies of which are available on request. The six trustees listed above are directors of the company and trustees of the charity. Alex Jacobs is the Company Secretary. One trustee, John Nickson resigned in 2005. We are extremely grateful for his time and commitment as a member of the board since 2000. Two new trustees were appointed during the year: Paul Masters and Richard Collier-Keywood. Nominations for new trustees are considered by the board and may subsequently be invited to join the board. The management team holds executive responsibility for implementing the policies and strategies approved by the board.

New trustees are provided with an induction to familiarise them with the charity and the non-governmental organisation sector and to brief them on their responsibilities as trustees under charity and company law.New trustees are referred to the Charity Commission’s guide “How to be an effective trustee”.

On 16th August 2007 (when these accounts were signed), Lord Joffe stood down as Chair of Mango, and Paul Masters was unanimously appointed as Chair. We are extremely grateful to Lord Joffe for his unstinting guidance, support and commitment to the organisation since it was founded in 1999. It is hard to imagine that we could have developed into such a robust organisation or be reporting such a strong performance this year without his active involvement. We are delighted that Paul Masters has agreed to become Chair, and look forward to working with him, to build on this foundation, in the years to come.

Mango’s board has identified and reviewed the main risks facing the charity in three categories: financial risk, reputational risk and operational risks. These risks are mitigated by the management team following strategies, plans and policies approved by the board. During 2006, the board approved a new three year strategy for Mango, available from our website.

3. Objects and activities

Mango’s mission is to strengthen the financial management of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working in humanitarian aid and development.

Our mission fits within the object set out in our Memorandum and Articles of Association: “to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of charities and the work of other voluntary organisations which is exclusively charitable”. In particular we assist non-governmental organisations with their charitable work in the relief of poverty.

Throughout 2006 we have continued to work towards our mission by providing six services to NGOs:

  • Providing financial management staff for NGOs and related organisations.
  • Providing financial management training to strengthen the practical skills and confidence of people working with NGOs.
  • Publishing practical tools and resources for NGO financial management.
  • Providing specialist consultancy services in NGO financial management.
  • Encouraging NGO staff to share their financial management experience and information through networking events.
  • Contributing to debates on standards and accountability for NGOs.

We work within the framework of our publicly stated values: in all our work we act with integrity and aim to:

  • Be professional and ensure our work is high quality
  • Be approachable and listen to other people’s views
  • Balance our interests with other stakeholders’ interests
  • Collaborate with other organisations
  • Be transparent and take responsibility for the results of our actions
  • Be both inspirational and practical.

By following these values we ensure that our activities have a lasting and concrete impact that contributes to achieving our mission in practice.

4. Achievements and performance

4.1 Training – direct delivery

Mango provides practical financial management training for NGO staff.

Mango’s core courses are one to ten days long and are delivered in regional centres around the world. Mango also delivers in-house training for a wide range of NGOs. Our four full time trainers and four associate trainers delivered courses in locations such as: Afghanistan, Bangkok, Burkina Faso, London, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, Zambia. This year, we also ran a six week Masters module at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine for the first time.

Performance indicators:

2006 / 2005
Number of core courses delivered / 47 / 37
Number of in-house training days delivered / 192 / 169
Total number of participants trained / 954 / 1,046
Number of participants on core & in-house courses / 846 / 806
Number of participants on university & mass events / 108 / 240

The total number of participants dipped, because we ran more core and in-house courses, and fewer mass participation events (e.g. conferences). We purposefully limit the numbers of people coming to each core and in-house course, to maintain the quality of the learning experience. Mass participation events can involve 50 people for a short period of time. At the opposite end of the scale, the Liverpool Masters module involved intensive work with 11 participants over six weeks. Demand for our core and in-house training courses continues to outstrip our capacity to deliver.

During 2006, Mango trained participants from 268 different organisations, comprising:

  • 140 Southern NGOs (2005: 95),
  • 102 International NGOs (2005: 64),
  • 3 British Universities (2005: 3),
  • and 23 other organisations (2005: 11).

We provided 31 bursaries (total value: £12,000) to participants from organisations which cannot afford to pay our full fees. We are particularly grateful to the AAT and to an anonymous donor for funding our bursary scheme, which plays an important role in increasing access to our training.All bursary applications are carefully screened, and awarded to small and poorly-resourced NGOs who would not otherwise be able to benefit from Mango’s training service and where the training will have greatest impact. All bursary recipients still have to make some contribution to course costs.

Course evaluations

Course evaluations by participants show that Mango continues to deliver excellent training.Participants rated key aspects of the course on a scale of 1 – 5 (one is the lowest rating and five the highest):

2006 average / 2005 average
Relevance of training to participants’ work / 4.5 / 4.5
Presentation skills of facilitator / 4.7 / 4.7
Teaching methods used / 4.6 / 4.7
How strongly would you recommend this course to others? / 4.7 / 4.7

The overall assessment of Mango’s courses run in 2006 by our participants was:

2006 / 2005
Poor / 0% / 0%
Fair / 1% / 2%
Good / 35% / 32%
Excellent / 64% / 66%

These ratings confirm the quality of Mango’s training courses.

“It was one of the greatest insights into the management of NGO projects I have had in recent times, and it really made a difference in my approach to management and supervising projects. And the training skill you exhibited greatly enhanced my quick and clear appreciation and understanding of the myth of finance and accounting especially for me as a non-finance person – Thank you, thank you and Thank YOU.” Trainee from Ugandan Red Cross,

4.2 Training – indirect delivery

In June 2006, Sara Holloway (one of Mango’s trainers) started a two year secondment with Christian Aid in Sri Lanka, with the aim of supporting local NGOs to strengthen their financial management. This includes working with Christian Aid’s staff and a Sri Lankan non-profit training organisation called Paltra, to strengthen their capacity building approaches. The goal is to adapt Mango’s proven materials and services to the local context, translate them into Sinhala and Tamil, and then that they will be delivered by Sri Lankan trainers, to Mango’s quality standards, on a sustainable basis. We are very grateful to Christian Aid for funding this work.

Mango’s Health Check is already available for free in Sinhala and Tamil! Download it from:

We are discussing similar Training Partnerships with other local organisations in Uganda and the Dominican Republic, with the aim that they will deliver Mango’s training to agreed quality standards in the future, reducing the cost to client NGOs, and increasing the supply of training available. We are very grateful to the Indigo Trust for funding this work.

During 2006, we sold three new licenses to use our training materials to: the Pan American Development Foundation (in the Dominican Republic), the Association of Private Voluntary Organisation Finance Managers (in the USA) and Cathy Masters Development Services (in South Africa).

100 peopleattended our Training for Trainers course (2005: 56), including two courses run specifically for Concern Worldwide’s staff. This course explains our training secrets and inspires other trainers to use participatory methods to make financial training effective and fun.

4.3 Recruitment

Mango runs a register of carefully selected finance professionals committed to working with NGOs around the world (including in Head Offices). Our register provides easy and reliable access to the finance staff that NGOs need.

Performance indicators:

2006 / 2005
Placements made during the year / 59 / 62
Total number of register members / 351 / 320

Examples of placements Mango made in 2006 include:

  • Finance Manager, Tearfund, Indonesia, permanent position
  • Operations Finance Manager, Merlin, UK, permanent position
  • Internal Controls Analyst, Habitat for Humanity, South Africa, 3 years
  • Finance and Administration Manager, British Red Cross Society, Maldives, 1 year (supporting tsunami reconstruction)
  • Consultant, Plan International, UK, 6 months
  • Consultant, Save the Children, DRC, 2 weeks

The total number of placements made decreased by 5% in 2006. This is due to a decrease in the number of field placements made (28 in 2006 compared to 33 in 2005), accompanied by an increase in the number of head office placements made. In particular, the first half of the year was difficult, with 22 placements made. As a result of a mid-year review of our activities, the second half saw a substantial pick up, with 37 placements made from July - December.

During the year we handled a total of 146 requests, including many hard-to-fill positions (such as for qualified professionals to go to Chad, Burundi and Liberia). Relationships with key NGO clients such as Merlin, Save the Children and Tearfund remain strong, and we continue to receive a reliable stream of requests from new clients.

The strong demand and service delivery in the last six months of the year demonstrates that Mango provides NGOs with a high quality and affordable service, which they value. This helps NGOs to find the staff they need to operate efficiency, effectively and accountably.As well as meeting NGOs’ staffing needs, Mango’s register provides finance professionals with a route into the NGO sector. Many of these highly qualified and capable staff move on to senior positions in NGOs. We believe that this makes an important contribution to the management of NGOs in the future.

"We have benefited immensely from Mango's help in identifying high capacity finance professionals for a variety of assignments, short-term and permanent, in our London office and overseas. They seem to always have a handful of people with exactly the right skills, experience and attitude for any assignment we give them. Mango's personalised approach and deep understanding of the international development sector is several notches above any other recruitment agency we have used." Eric Levine, Chief Executive, SPW UK

4.4 Publications

Mango publishes easy-to-use advice to NGO financial management on its website. Our flagship publication is the “Guide to Financial Management for NGOs”. This is freely available, and includes practical advice, tools and case studies to read on-line and download. The tools include: our Health Check (available in five languages), a simple finance system for NGOs to download and use, including cashbooks and forms, and the training manual that accompanies our introductory training course. The advice covers everything from the basic building blocks of financial management through to advanced issues, like handling funding relationships and accountability.

See for details.

Performance indicators:

2006 / 2005
Number of on-line visitors to the Guide’s front page / 20,855 / n/a
Total number of documents downloaded / 63,164 / 25,257
Copies of the Health Check downloaded / 7,527 / 3,053
Copies of the Training Manual downloaded / 1,875 / 1,712

We also distributed 2,000 copies of the Guide on CD.

In 2006, we surveyed users of Mango’s Guide:

  • 277 users responded to an on-line survey in August 2006, mostly from Africa, Europe and SE Asia. 79% of them currently work for NGOs.
  • 70% of respondents rated Mango’s publications as “very good” or “excellent”.
  • Over 90% of respondents rated Mango’s publications as “good” or “very good” in each of the following categories: easy to use, practical, relevant to their work and reliable.
  • Approx 50% of respondents reported that they “often” used Mango’s publications to help them do their job, advise others and understand more about NGOs.
  • Respondents urged Mango to translate our publications into other languages.
  • Comments included praise for Mango’s publications, and descriptions of how respondents had found them useful in practical terms (see below).

“I have been responsible for capacity building support to our partners for the last three years and in terms of financial management, Mango materials are the best resources that I have ever come across in supporting the development of financial systems in our partner organisations.” Anonymous survey response

4.5 Networkingevents

Mango provides opportunities for NGO staff to meet to reflect on their work, share experiences and identify good practice. In 2006, we launched a new seminar series for the Finance Directors of major international NGOs and related organisations. We also continued to chair the Overseas Special Interest Group (OSSIG), a sub-group of the Charity Finance Directors Group.

The Finance Directors seminars were attended by ten participants from organisations including ActionAid, the International Federation of the Red Cross, Oxfam, Plan and Sightsavers. They collectively direct over £1bn of resources. Seminars focused on the link between finance systems and field performance, encouraging critical reflection on current practice, informed by academic research and external speakers. Topics discussed include: decentralisation, internal control and the relationship between finance and programme staff.

OSSIG met three times in 2006, to discuss: external audit, organising the international finance team and risk management. Meetings were attended by 20 – 30 UK-based NGO finance staff, from NGOs like Water Aid, Tree Aid, Save the Children and many others. Members also use an email network to ask questions and find answers between meetings, for instance on topics like: audit fees, payroll arrangements and how to handle EU bureaucracy.

4.6Consultancy and standards

Mango contributes to debates on professional standards for NGOs, particularly in the areas of accountability and quality.

Alex Jacobs, Mango’s Director, continued in his role as chair of the steering committee overseeing BOND’s research on Quality Standards for NGOs. The research concluded that “the quality of an NGO’s [field]work is primarily determined by the quality of its relationships with its intended beneficiaries”. Work will continue in 2007 to explore how NGOs put this conclusion into practice.

Mango became an Associate Member of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership, and Alex Jacobs also sat on the Editorial Steering Committee to develop their new international standard in Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management. This builds on the work Mango launched in its “Who Counts?” campaign last year.

In addition, Mango worked with Concern and Oxfam to develop and pilot practical tools to enhance their accountability to their intended beneficiaries, in specific field projects. This included trialling a draft checklist, available from Mango’s Guide to Financial Management for NGOs.

Lucy Markby, Mango’s Recruitment Director, continues to play an active role on the steering committee of the Emergency Personnel Network, which aims to strengthen the ability of humanitarian organisations to recruit, train and retain staff for emergency operations. See

Mango carried out a modest amount of consultancy work during the year, working with NGOs to address specific finance systems issues and to explore issues of accountability and cost-effectiveness, as well as working with the Overseas Development Institute and Transparency International to research the occurrence of fraud in humanitarian response.

4.7 Organisational developments

During the year, we undertook a strategic review and developed a new strategic plan. Feedback from our NGO clients was very positive, noting that we fill an important and unique role in the sector, and encouraging us to continue to build on our established services. Our strategic objectives are discussed below, in section 6.

We are delighted to welcome new staff to the team, which numbered 11 at the year end, plus two vacancies. We had the major disruption of moving office mid-year (though have stayed in central Oxford), and invested in a new training administration software package, which has substantially eased our workload.

There were over 215,000 visitors to our website during the year.

5. Financial review

Mango received the following income during the year: