Now What Do Them Bones Say This Year?  Written by Ann Bown of Charisma Communications, a financial sustainability consultant to the non-profit sector. Ann is the author of the book How to Fast-Track Your Board in Fundraising

Now What Do Them Bones Say This Year?
You will be trying to manage multi-stakeholder demands; fundraising targets have increased; donors want more information; political disruptions; criminal elements are infiltrating your organisation; board members are ignorant about liability; and staff members are resisting new directions. Do these sound familiar? 2008 will be the year of knocking your ducks on the head and into a straight row - or if you like, the era for creating a culture of accountability.
Wanted – a strong voice for Civil Society – Activists have Left the Building.

Political changes are in our universe. In fact we can expect turmoil throughout the year, all of which could probably be to the advantage of the NPO sector or maybe to its disadvantage. But we need a new force of critical thinkers with the guts to decipher babble from our politicians and the media – this will be our greatest challenge – but where are those ‘thinkers’?

SANGOCO, who once was a giant and articulated our concerns, a strong and powerful mouthpiece for civil society, has not be able to revive itself and might finally close its doors this year with a pathetic whimper.

Good Governance and Accountability are hot items - it would be negligent not to highlight this as one of the BIG things for 2008. Unenthusiastic and absent board members of non-profit organisations (NPOs) should become more vigilant by firstly digesting the contents of their Articles, Deeds or Constitutions and checking-out legal obligations. In a recent workshop I created a secure space for troubled yet concerned board members to let off steam about the non-performance of their NPOs - so many were fearful that their organisations were just not conforming nor caring sufficiently to take ‘governance’ seriously – ‘after all’ said one of the delegates ‘isn’t this voluntary work just playtime – who’s going to bother to check up on us and I am not personally liable, I’ll walk away if the going gets tough’.  

A group of leaders from a professional body decided that the once voluntary role of the Chairperson is to become a paid (salary) position as the elected chairperson is unemployed. Did they check their constitution, one wonders, and what will the other members have to say about this decision taken by a handful of office bearers?

A Chairman from an international charity appointed a foreign ‘friend’ to a senior position without the right skills for the job or knowledge of the voluntary sector with a package exceeding the graded post.  Oh my, what will the donors and colleagues say?

The controversy of the PSL (Professional Soccer League) R70 million commission to be shared amongst board members after striking a five-year sponsorship deal with ABSA, led to a reprimand from the Minister of Finance regarding governance of this non-profit organisation. One of the dangers of a membership-based voluntary association arise when the watch-dogs don’t read and adhere to their own Constitution - it is clearly stated under item 6.7 that PSL will utilise its funds in the pursuit of its objectives but not for personal gain. (The constitution is posted on their website). 

Capacity Building
We need more actions that improve non-profit effectiveness and professionalism – it’s vital that board members and especially staff receive ongoing training and skills development. Few bother to plan in spite of SETA opportunities. Public confidence and long-term sustainability of an NPO is achieved when the internal culture strives for professionalism, ethical behaviour, competent management, succession planning, strategic thinking, self-evaluation reviews and broad-based fundraising actions.

Information and Data
Are we growing or shrinking and what are we thinking? A number of research initiatives will be in the pipeline this year. Bev Russell of the 2002 “Size and Scope” fame indicated that we could have over 160 000 NPOs in the country today but she’s hoping to quantify this number and other NPO trends during 2008 – so make sure you keep an eye out for this report.

MDGs - 2015
When reviewing your strategies for this coming year please include your long-term plans towards achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as many corporates and government departments are seeking to link-up with reliable implementers. It is vital that as a nation we meet the performance indicators collectively. Get yourselves jacked-up on this global work by logging onto http://esl.jrc.it/ and download the Sustainability Indicators Dashboard compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division – this nifty tool will let you scan the world.

Criminal Activities
We can expect more sad tales of NPOs being duped this year and defrauded out of money. Be very careful when giving out banking details, names of signatories and contact details and ID numbers of board members – don’t flaunt them on your website and be wary of providing too much information in a funding proposal or even direct mail appeals.

The staff of the Novalis Ubuntu Institute in Cape Town had a dreary Christmas when internet fraudsters hacked into their bank account and stole over R90, 000. They were wiped out completely by this SCAM as the hackers falsified the Chief Financial Officer’s identity book. This occurred through a SIM card switch at an MTN outlet in Johannesburg. The money in the account was from Swedish donors for an OVC art programme.

Theft of identity is not only happening to individuals but to a number of community-based organisations (CBOs) in poor areas – there has been a steady increase in this activity for the past 5 years. Even when the CBOs can identify the culprits they don’t have the clout to take on the gangsters and are actually scared of repercussions – so maybe this is this year we need to scrutinise new employees and or volunteers more closely or even start up our own CBO Scorpions unit?

Cash-flow and Delays
A survey carried out by SANGONeT last month revealed that 82.6% of respondents felt there was a funding crisis of a significant degree. This is not the first time that we’ve felt a ‘crisis’ in raising funds and I’ve yet to glimpse a survey where the respondents actually state they have raised too much. But this year we need to get more serious about ensuring success because in reality the funding environment is friendlier with more money available than ever before – it just isn’t getting into bank accounts fast enough and this is giving the impression of a ‘funding crisis’ when it is a cash-flow crisis. Ten years ago it took between 2-6 months for a funding proposal to be approved and money deposited into a bank account – today we are looking at a 12-18 months delay and in some cases two years before the moolah appears. Due diligence might be the cause as donors check out your projects, but more often than not its groaning administration systems.

A rural women’s organisation based in Montagu in the Western Cape is operating out of a shack – they applied for funding towards the first phase of a new building for a modest drop-in centre and soup kitchen that would benefit orphans from child-headed households. The Department of Social Development approved a significant amount of R40 000 towards the initial R60 000 needed to start the building. When representatives from the local Social Development offices arrived with a cheque they decided that the conditions of the grant were not being met as a permanent dwelling with services wasn’t in place - they took the cheque back and the director of the organisation is now fighting for what is rightfully an allocation towards this OVC project!  

The National Lolly and changes to the Lottery Act Afoot
Is the Lotto really back on track, have they got their Act together yet?
My 2007 prediction that the NLDTF (National Lottery Development Trust Fund) would redeem itself didn’t actually take into account the suspension of the Lotto operations for a period due to objections of the newly appointed preferred bidder, Gidani, by its predecessor Uthingo. Well, that’s history now, but what about the lost income derived from punters and the ultimate impact this will have on good causes during 2008?

This Licence Operator glitch did not really stymie activities of the NLDTF so new calls for Charity proposals and other agencies were made by early 2007 in spite of several months without DA (distribution agency) members to adjudicate applications and approve grants. According to the 2006/7 Annual Report of the National Lottery Board, R1.3 billion was the slice of income to be distributed to good causes by Uthingo – this was later reduced to R1 billion and even later to R800 million – of which only R739 million was actually distributed to organisations. This should have left a fair residual and a roll-over for 2007 but some NPOs are wondering why their applications were greatly reduced by as much as 90% if adequate funding was available!

Hopefully the NLB website will get a face-lift this year with updated information including the names of the not-so-new DA members (this is only available in the annual report) and perhaps some Q&A space on why they had such a rollicking from the Auditor General on matters of governance - such as the need for an effective approval mechanism between the DA’s decisions and the accounting authority and why had site visits not been arranged as requested by the DA’s to beneficiary premises.  It would be good to have such systems in place and dispel the urban legend that a one-man decision-maker is tampering with applications in the programme office!

The allocation of over R600 million by the Department of Labour towards ABET for the next 5 years might shift this criteria within the Charities focus for 2008.

SMS competitions had a reprieve after the ruling by Judge Roger Claassen on the NLB application that WiniKhaya was an unlawful lottery – the Judge stated that the Lotteries Act of 1997 had been poorly drafted and urged the Legislature to revisit the Act with the greatest of urgency - so there might be some amendments taking place this year or maybe next year or the year after – make sure your organisation is included in the consultation process when this commences.

Many believed that the case had been won by SA Children’s Charity Trust and SABC1 but in effect it was a legal point regarding who had the power to bring the application before the courts, which apparently should have been the Minister of Trade and Industry. The NLB has lodged an appeal – sound familiar?

I feel compelled to mention the National Development Agency – they have a very nicely presented strategic plan and impressive corporate looking logo but what happened to the missing millions and to those who committed the dastardly deed? We would appreciate some answers, please.

Corporate Trends
There was definitely an increase in CSI expenditure this year and more to come during 2008, if my aching bones are right.  
This business activity is expanding all the time and new terms will include CSER (Corporate Social Environmental Responsibility) and CSA (Corporate Social Accountability) – so mark your spot. 

The Making CSI Matter Conference held in November last year threw a safety line to a number of new social investment programme managers – many of whom had been coerced into this role by their employers and told to do this thing called CSI as well as their existing jobs. Poor darlings.

CSI is no longer the Cinderella of business, thanks to B-BBEE Codes (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment), but companies still need to make sufficient allocation of resources. They also need people who are trained and prepared for the responsible task of grant management and project assessment as well as a will from senior management to make CSI really matter.  

The recent launch of the CSI Mapping tool, funded by the Old Mutual Foundation as a joint initiative of Trialogue and Naledi Development will certainly assist with data gathering and integration of community programmes that hopefully will paint a truer picture of corporate involvement.
There has been a huge leap in employee volunteering programmes – it’s actually very exciting to see corporates promoting altruism of staff members during prime time television such as the OUTreach programmes of OUTsurance - 24 projects with 182 staff members - this is so encouraging, but how will this sterling work continue unless they partner with CBOs to ensure sustainability? Some cynics might call this ‘choreographed charity’ – let’s hope not, as this work is so successful that it could become a PR trend for others.

Our Daily Bread
With regards to price fixing of staple foods on the poorest of the poor my final word goes to Tiger Brands – what were you thinking? If an award was available for the Most Greedy and Conniving Corporate then Tiger shareholders should get it - blessings to the whistle-blower, Imraahn Mukaddam, Western Cape independent bread distributor.  
Bottoms-up, chins out and cheers to 2008.

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