Charities Reporting
by (Name)
The Name of the Class (Course)
Professor (Tutor)
The Name of the School (University)
The City and State where it is located
The Date
Charities Reporting
Charities are found all over the world and work towards ensuring the well-being of people in the community. Further, charity organizations operate like any other organization with different principles that govern their operations to see that the goals are achieved or met. Nonetheless, since each charity organization has various forms of needs and requirements, they need to develop an annual report. Each reporting requirement for the charity organization often has different purposes and relevance (McDonnell & Rutherford, 2018). Consequently, reporting is often significant when monitoring the performance of an organization in one year. Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Organization is one of the charity organizations in the United Kingdom that ensures individuals’ well-being (Macmillan Cancer Support). This report will highlight the requirements of charity reporting regarding their advantages and disadvantages and whether the chosen charity organization reporting coincides with charities reporting requirements.
Requirements of Charities Reporting
There are several essential charity reporting requirements for registered charities in the United Kingdom. These requirements include the reference and administrative information of the charity organization. Furthermore, the data consists of details such as the charity’s name, trustees, advisors, and registration number (Hyndman & McConville, 2018). Additionally, other requirements include the charity organization’s imminent structure in conjunction with both governance and management information. The charity organization’s structure should consist of ways to recruit its trustees and its constitutions. Conversely, to the charity organization’s structure, government and management information should highlight governing documents regarding the recruitment of trustees (Yang, Northcott & Sinclair, 2017). The charity reporting requirements also include the objective and activities summary of the charity organization.
The charities’ reporting requirements also include the primary or significant achievements, and goals met at the organization at the end of a given financial year (McConville & Cordery, 2018). Additionally, a financial review should also be reported by a charity organization within the given year summed up with a public benefit statement. Consequently, regarding the summary of the activities and objectives, the requirement of charity reporting includes both short-term and long-term goals of the organization with an adequate explanation of its aims (Hyndman & McConville, 2018). Risk reports and plans of the charity organization are also essential requirements of charities reporting.
This form of reporting has several advantages and disadvantages to the involved charity organization. One of the advantages of this form of reporting is that it ensures public benefit is achieved or upheld (Yang & Northcott, 2019). Additionally, the mentioned form of reporting also sees that charity organizations effectively analyze what the organization has achieved throughout the year. Besides effective analysis, the form of reporting also ensures that the charity organization’s transparency is displayed to the outside public regarding the use of funds (Hyndman & McConville, 2016). Further, this form of reporting is also advantageous as it allows charity organizations to track their performance, growth, and progress. Additionally, the information and details obtained from the charities’ form of reporting are essential in making vital decisions that impact its operation.
Financial reporting as a requirement of charities reporting requirements makes budling of the organization’s trail and audit much more effortless. Further, the information obtained in the mentioned form of reporting is also essential in providing stakeholders with the right information regarding the charity’s operations (McConville & Cordery, 2018). This move is advantageous because it helps charity organizations obtain vital information for future organizational forecasts and operational plans, such as budget planning and enhanced decision-making capabilities. Conversely to the mentioned advantages, charities reporting also has several disadvantages, such as the fact that it requires a lot of effort, input, and time to create. Moreover, the mentioned way of reporting requires the organizations to collect all required information that is essentially many extensively. The form of charity reporting is also expensive regarding writing and researching the organizations’ relevant details (Guthrie & Martin-Sardesai, 2020). Additionally, the technical requirement for charity reporting may be difficult for the public to understand.
Macmillan cancer supports charity organization mode of data presentation on the annual report significantly coincide with the requirements charities reporting (Macmillan Cancer Support, pp24). For instance, the organization has a well outlined and highlighted reference and administrative information on the report’s governance section. Furthermore, this section’s information includes the organization’s directors and leaders from the top to the lowest. Additionally, the organization has also provided additional information such as subsidiaries, operation mode, and parties related to the organization. The organization also highlighted their way of governance that fulfills the requirements of charities reporting requirements.
Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Organization also meets the requirement of the organizational structure (Macmillan Cancer Support). This aspect is attributed to the fact that the report outlines its management structure, which operates on its objectives as required by charities reporting. Additionally, Macmillan Cancer’s Support Charity organization’s goals extensively reveal their intentions to the public. For instance, some of the organization’s objectives include providing support and assistance directly and indirectly to individuals affected and impacted by cancer.
The organization’s objective also includes building cancer awareness programs and promoting and influencing effective care to the affected individuals and related members. None the less, these objectives have been effectively divided into both short-term and long-term goals as required by the charities reporting (Macmillan Cancer Support). Further, the Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Organization’s annual report meets the charities reporting requirements, guiding risk reports and plans. The organization’s report highlights a detailed risk assessment report and its plans to uphold public well-being.
The risk assessment report continues details such as the risk management process, level, and profile. Further, the organization has decided the risk into various groups, such as the strategic operational and regulatory, financial, and additional risks (McConville, 2017). Conversely, to the risks, Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Organization has also made sure to highlight the people their mode of operation in which ethical aspects or factors are considered. The organization has further laid ways to protect its supporter in conjunction with safeguarding the public’s welfare and inclusivity promotions.
Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Organization has also included its financial details regarding how it sources its revenues and how the revenue is used in taking care of the affected individuals (Macmillan Cancer Support). Additionally, the organization has also included extensive detail regarding their financial chart. Further, in line with the financial information, the organization has displayed its financial performance throughout the year, promoting transparency to the general population. Generally, the Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Organization mode of operation is geared towards the public benefit as required by charities reporting.
Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Organization has also effectively and openly informed readers on non-financial issues is short but up to point statements. Furthermore, the heading and topics are extensively eye-catching, followed by vivid descriptions that engage the readers on their progress and performance. Moreover, this move essentially promotes transparency to the readers (Hyndman & McConville, 2018). Consequently, to all the mentioned aspects, none-financial information is also well arranged for ease of reading.
Overall Assessment of Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Reporting and Relevant Recommendations
The overall assessment of Macmillan Cancer Support Charity reporting indicates that the organization’s reporting form is effective. This aspect can be attributed to several aspects that surfaced from its annual reports. For instance, the reporting provides an effective summary of the organization’s accomplishments in caring for cancer individuals. Additionally, achievements are also in line with the organization’s goals and activities. The reporting also shows how the organization has used charts to highlight and compare its performance throughout the year.
The organization’s form of reporting is also effective since it focuses mainly on the customer experiences that are key in conjunction with the organization’s goals. The Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Organization’s reporting format is also effective as it has well outlined financial details regarding the organization’s performance. The organization’s annual reporting has also focused on generating goodwill with effective documentation that demonstrates the strive to attain goodwill to the public. However, despite the fact Macmillan cancer supports charity organization’s way of reporting provides a considerate amount of information to the public, there are many aspects that the organization could have done better towards developing the report.
Firstly, the organization could introduce a first-person interview section on the reporting document directed at customer and client experience (Mack, Morgan, Breen & Cordery, 2017). Moreover, this would be important in sourcing testimonials from the public audience regarding the organization’s performance. Therefore, in this way, the organization would find it easier to match the individual’s experience with the organization’s objectives. Additionally, this move would also strengthen the organization’s idea of commitment to what it does (Hyndman, 2018). Consequently, to first-person interview sections, the Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Organization should include detailed financial information on their charities reporting in strengthening the general presentation.
The organization had included charts in the reporting presentation, but that should not be enough. Therefore, the organizations need to append brief explanatory paragraphs below the chart and graph to offer extensive explanations and increase transparency. Furthermore, including the said detail would also be vital in relaying the organization’s financial and performance health (Yang, Northcott & Sinclair, 2017). Further, Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Organization could also improve their reporting by including the organization’s list and letters that provide additional information about their performance, mission statement, goals, and a summary of the report. This section would also be important in encouraging more donors to contribute to the affected individuals’ welfare (Connolly & Hyndman, 2013). Additionally, the list highlighted in this area could include donors’ names where a certain level of the amount is set as the default for one to be included in the annual report list.
Conclusion
Charities are found worldwide and work towards ensuring the well-being of people in the community. However, each charity organization has different forms of needs and requirements, and they need to come up with an annual report that constitutes different reporting needs. Additionally, each reporting requirement for the charity organization often has different purposes and relevance. Consequently, reporting is often significant when monitoring the performance of an organization in one year.
There are several essential charity reporting requirements for registered charities in the United Kingdom. These requirements include the reference and administrative information of the charity organization. Furthermore, the data consists of details such as the charity’s name, trustees, advisors, and registration number. Additionally, other requirements include the charity organization’s imminent structure in conjunction with both governance and management information. Further, other charity reporting requirements also include the objective and activities summary of the charity organization. Consequently, to the mentioned requirements, primary or major achievements and goals met at the organization at the end of a given financial year are vital.
The advantage of this form of reporting is that it ensures public benefit is achieved or upheld. Additionally, the mentioned form of reporting also sees that charity organizations effectively analyze what the organization has achieved throughout the year. Consequently, to effective analysis, the form of reporting also ensures that the charity organization’s transparency is displayed to the outside public regarding the use of funds. Further, this form of reporting is also advantageous as it allows charity organizations to track their performance, growth, and progress. Additionally, the information and details obtained from the charities’ form of reporting are essential in making vital decisions that impact its operation.
The disadvantages of this form of reporting include the fact that it requires a lot of effort, input, and time to create. Moreover, the mentioned way of reporting requires the organizations to collect all required information that is essentially many extensively. The form of charity reporting is also expensive regarding both writing and researching the organizations’ relevant details. Additionally, the technical requirement for charity reporting may be difficult for the public to understand. Furthermore, Macmillan Cancer Support Charity Organization is one of the charity organizations in the United Kingdom that ensures individuals’ well-being in the country whose reports coincide with the charities reporting requirements. Nonetheless, the overall assessment of the reports shows that the organization has effective charity reporting.
Bibliography
Connolly, C. and Hyndman, N., 2013. Charity accountability in the UK: Through the eyes of the donor. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 10(3-4), pp.259-278.
Guthrie, J. and Martin-Sardesai, A., 2020. Contemporary challenges in public sector reporting. In New Trends in Public Sector Reporting (pp. 1-14). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Hyndman, N. and McConville, D., 2016. Transparency in reporting on charities’ efficiency: A framework for analysis. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 45(4), pp.844-865.
Hyndman, N. and McConville, D., 2018. Making charity effectiveness transparent: Building a stakeholder‐focussed framework of reporting. Financial Accountability & Management, 34(2), pp.133-147.
Hyndman, N. and McConville, D., 2018. Trust and accountability in UK charities: Exploring the virtuous circle. The British Accounting Review, 50(2), pp.227-237.
Hyndman, N., 2018. The Charities SORP: an ‘engine for good? Public Money & Management, 38(4), pp.247-250.
Mack, J., Morgan, G.G., Breen, O.B. and Cordery, C.J., 2017. Financial reporting by charities: a matched case study analysis from four countries. Public Money & Management, 37(3), pp.165-172.
Macmillan Cancer Support. Annual Report, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.macmillan.org.uk/_images/2019-annual-report-and-accounts_tcm9-358602.pdf
McConville, D. and Cordery, C., 2018. Charity performance reporting, regulatory approaches, and standard-setting. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 37(4), pp.300-314.
McConville, D., 2017. New development: Transparent impact reporting in annual charity reports—benefits, challenges, and development areas. Public Money & Management, 37(3), pp.211-216.
McDonnell, D. and Rutherford, A.C., 2018, May. Promoting charity accountability: Understanding the disclosure of serious incidents. In Accounting forum. No longer published by Elsevier.
Yang, C. and Northcott, D., 2019. How can the public trust charities? The role of performance accountability reporting. Accounting & Finance, 59(3), pp.1681-1707.
Yang, C., Northcott, D. and Sinclair, R., 2017. The accountability information needs of key charity funders. Public Money & Management, 37(3), pp.173-180.