Webinar: Annual reporting and the benefits of the trustees' report

The Chief Executive of the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland will be sharing Key lessons for charities on annual reporting at a forthcoming webinar hosted by CO3 (Chief Officers 3rd Sector).

Frances McCandless will take part in the webinar, from 5.45pm to 7.30pm on Thursday, 20 September 2018. Joining details will be issued to all who register in advance, which they can do on the CO3 website here.

The webinar is an opportunity to get some top tips and advice on annual reporting straight from the Commission, Northern Ireland’s charity regulator. 

Annual reporting is a sea change for the Northern Ireland charity sector, with all registered charities now required to submit annual accounts and reports to the Commission, for publication on the register of charities. 

This is a key element of the Commission's ongoing regulatory and monitoring work, as well as being essential to keeping the register of charities up to date, supporting charities in being open and accountable to the public.

Through the annual reporting programme registered charities are required to complete and submit an online annual monitoring return form, attaching the charity’s:

• accounts
• trustees’ annual report
• report from independent examiner / auditor, as applicable.

In the 2017-18 year, 3,252 charity annual returns were submitted to the Commission under the annual reporting programme. Filing of these charity accounts led to £1.38billion of charity income being accounted for to the general public through the register, highlighting the magnitude of the Northern Ireland charity sector and its work.

In her presentation, Ms McCandless will focus on lessons learned from the over 5,000 charity accounts and reports submitted to the Commission to date – highlighting where some charities have gone wrong, and how to ensure you get your charity’s submission right.

The webinar will also provide an opportunity to find out how you can make the most of your trustees’ annual report, using it to its best advantage to reflect on the charity’s activities, successes and milestones over the year.

ENDS