Maximising Return on Unrestricted Funds-A Different View

As a management consultant with significant experience of working with clients in the charity sector the safest routes to the maximisation of Unrestricted funds is to invest in the short term money market deposits.As trustees are guardians of the charities they have to be careful in keeping funding as liquid as possible and at the same time maximise the investment return. This comes down to my favourite subject of risk appetite, which depends on the size of the charity. If the charity is big and has significant unrestricted funds then it is more than likely they would invest the funds in the financial instruments with better returns. Although, maximising the investment is important but trustees shouldn’t loose the sight of the unexpected and start investing in institutions like ‘Icelandic’ financial institutions where funds ‘freeze’ forever.

Just to conclude, in my opinion, the charities with significant unrestricted funds should seek appropriate investment advice from professional investment firms. For the charities which are smaller or insignificant unrestricted funds to think of investment other than in money market deposits would be risky and beyond their resource capability. I think the best investment for any organisation is to invest in re-engineering the process to achieve efficiency. I have seen many charities really struggle with getting the required information from the systems so in my opinion to have better systems in place would give them better returns on their investments.

Fayaz Malik

WWW.Planenterprise.com

Branding and Image For Voluntary sector- Continued

The VS organisations find it difficult to attract the talented individual due to the image of having a laid back approach and the organisations depending on donations.

Investing time and money to build strong brand can bring benefits, such as

¨ Improved staff morale

¨ higher service user satisfaction and public profile

¨ attracting new staff

¨ acting as a powerful catalyst for a wider programme of culture change within the organisation

¨ helping set new standards for communication, service, values and behaviour

¨ leading to more cost-effective and speedier ways of communicating

Thus branding and image is vital for the VS to make a difference not only to the bottom line but also an impact that it has largely over the society.

Branding and Image For Voluntary Sector-

Branding and image is very important for the Voluntary Sector in the current climate of funding. The fierce competition has obliged and forced the voluntary sector organizations to get the core messages across to the commissioners, funders, donors and other organisations ready to invest in the voluntary organisations. The organisations not only have to compete for the funding but for the human resource too, and the best in the sector wouldn’t work for the organisations with no image or a bad image. Hence, differentiation is vital for survival. The Voluntary Sector image should reflect the core purpose, and every aspect of the organisation must reinforce key messages about who we are and what we do.

www.planenterprise.com