Rules to be Followed by Charities in Fundraising Events

Fundraising is a core activity focusing on helping organisations in need. Without the support of contributors or needy hands, much of the good deeds done for various organisations would not be possible. Charity fundraising is the most effective way to keep their cause alive. It is actually a helping hand for organisations to grow and thrive in the circumstances of limited funds. Though, the main aim of fundraising is helping nonprofit organisations to raise the income, but this process is actually taken as a source of fun. Many organisations perform several sporting challenges and activities in fundraising events.

Fundraising is a source of income for most of the charities and some of them receive 100 percent of their income through these charitable activities. In order to obtain the most out these activities, organisations must know how they should conduct their fundraising events. Below are some recommendations and requirements regarding charity fundraising events that should be followed by organisations. 

Raised Fund should be Used for Genuine Cause:

The funds raised for a particular cause must be used for that cause only because it is one of the important activities for churches through which they receive money. As the organisation has promised to use it for a genuine cause, they cannot break the trust of contributors by using this money for refurbishing their organisation’s building or any other activity. Therefore, donors must be informed prior to fundraising that their money will be used for a fruitful cause.  The organisations should provide proper documents detailing what exactly will be done with their money and this information should be accurate. 

Data Provided in Charities should be Protected:

When people give donation to organisations, they provide their personal data as well so it’s the responsibility of organisations to keep that data safe according to the Data Protection Act 1998. Make sure to tell people how exactly their data will be used. More and more organisations are using Church Management Software to protect and maintain the data in more structured way. 

Fundraising Events should be Safe:

Whatever the activity you are going to organise in the fundraising event, you need to make sure that it should be safe and the location you choose for the event should be easily accessible to people. As anything could happen at any time or it is impossible to protect against all risks, so it is worthwhile that your event should be covered by the relevant insurance policies.

Hence, charity fundraising event should follow all the legislation including data protection, health and safety.

What are the Benefits of Management Software in Church

We have often seen on TV and read in novels about the personification of the beauty of a church. The persona of the church just takes a leap to next level if the church is in countryside. It is noticeable that in a chapel where the priest knows every face that comes in the house of almighty. He treats every one of them equally and cares for their well-being. It may be possible that, he might be familiar with every member of the family of a parishioner. Sometime he also may have asked them to volunteer in some of the holy tasks of the cathedral. Well, we might be aware of the fact that as big and humongous the church grows the depth of jobs and responsibilities also increase exponentially. May it be any social gathering, which is being conducted by the church or be it any other official task of the chapel. The issues may not be the complexity of the tasks, but it's the number which creates all the hindrance. Well, to avoid this there are some companies which develop management software for churches. 

Before we understand the importance of management software for the church, let us try to understand that what actually management software is all about?

Well, management is the term, which defines the optimal utilization of available resources to get the desired result. Now, when a computer program known as software takes charge doing the management of resources and handling the tasks that program is known as management software.

Well now, let’s have gaze upon the benefits of management software for churches.

Maintenance and storing of records :-> We all remember the days when people use to climb to an old, dusty and ready to break shelves to claim any record available. It wasn’t even sure that whether the particular data is at the place where it has been searched for. Well long gone are such days. With the help of this management software for churches, it has now become very easy to maintain and store any number of records. Until and unless any major catastrophe doesn't strike, the data is safe for a lifelong period. 

Saving Member's details :-> It doesn't matter that what number of members are working a particular church. The software for management can store the entire detail of each and every member. At the required time all that is to be done is just type the name of the member, and you will get every information about the desired person.

Tracking the finance :-> Cathedrals and chapels have to deal with a whole lot of monetary transactions in the form of lending and donations. It is not possible to keep an account of all such transactions manually. The management software for church can keep a track of such transaction. At the time of requirement, the complete detail of the transaction can be called out.

So these are some of the benefits that a church can avail with the help of management software. After all, the hand which is always ready to help should also get a little bit of support and encouragement.

What Is the Importance of Charity Audit?

There are charities in the country that have a gross income of almost £1 million. These charities offer a huge helping hand for the people affected by any catastrophe or are the victim of the wrath of god. It is noticeable that these charities work on the funds accumulated by the donation that is being done by different people on different occasion. There are people in the world who donates a huge amount to these institutions in the name of humanity and with the motive of serving people. Well, the charitable institute that has a gross income of £250,000 and summed assets greater than £3.6 million shall be audited once in a year. This is a mandatory process that is performed to ensure that the charity is working under the rule and regulations established by charity commission and other legislations. This practice also ensures the healthy working of charity's financial practices.

Before we try to find out the importance of a charity audit, let us first try to know that what does the charity and fundraising audit means? Well, according to the Charity Commission, an audit "is the scrutiny of accounts by a registered auditor who, as an audit professional, will apply auditing standards issued by the Auditing Practices Board. There is a person called auditor who inspects and checks the working and the practices of the institution, it is compulsory for the auditor to be registered with a supervisory body in accordance with the Companies Act 2006.

A panel that has been set up by Financial Reporting Council or FRC is known as Auditing Practices Board or ABP. This board offers the guidance and sets standards for the auditors in the UK. There are two prime objectives set up by ABP, which is mandatory for every auditor to follow, and they are:

•   To ensure with satisfactory results that, the financial statements are clean and have no hand in any sort of material misstatement, caused by fraud or error. This empowers the auditor to reveal any opinion on the status of financial statements. This also ensures that every statement is prepared as per the framework applicable by ABP.

•   The finding which an auditor makes must be reported to International Standards of Auditing, also known as ISA.

So, this was all about Audit related to charity. Now let’s try to know, what is the importance of doing Charity Auditing?

1. Commencing an audit on your charitable institution assures you that your charity is in a good financial condition.

2. It gives you the tenability that your charitable institute requires keeping the investors, stakeholders and donors happy.

3. It identifies area in your financial accounting, before they become problematic for your institution and tightens it up.

4. The process of audit acts as a catalyst for your charity to comply with the standards set up by relevant legislatures.

5. Auditing helps you to work on the prime cause for which the charity was started.

The above reasons prove the importance auditing of a charity.

How Software Helps Churches in Maintaining their Financial Accounts

Today, there are very few people in the world who are generous enough to help the needful. People are busy enough in rushing and hassling in their own life that they have forgotten the joy of serving and helping others. God gave some of us more than what we need and there are some people in the country who almost starve for a complete day to get a complete meal at the end of the day. Is there someone, who can take care of these people? Is there somebody, who can welcome these less fortunate children of god? Yes, there is one body that takes care of these less received souls and that body is the place where it is believed that god himself lives, The Church. 

What do we think a church really is? Is it just a place which connects the soul with the supreme power? Is a place where one can let himself lay at the feet of almighty? Yes, you are right. It is all the above mentioned things. However, it is also a place, where the less gifted people get, food during their hunger times, clothes to cover their body and shelter to hide their head during the time of their hardships. 

Now as big the building of a church is, the donations and supplies which it gets are even bigger. So, how a few people in the facility of the cathedral can handle each and every account? How the people manage and ensure that the records of everything are well maintained? Well, the answer is quite simple, Accounting Software. There are many organizations which offer accounting and financial software to the church. These computer programs help the church in keeping and ensuring the safety and proper management of both small and big records and accounts of the chapel.

The companies which offer accounting software for churches keep in mind the time to time updation of the particular software. Well, today technology is growing and developing each and every day. Everybody wants their work and their task to be finished as soon as possible, so why not facilities like the church can ask for the same. After all, it's the chapel that provides the helping hand to the needful. Then, why not a helping hand for the body that accepts and treats every person as the equally loved and blessed by god? Though these companies offer fees for the accounting software but, the fees is very nominal and low. The people in the company, who handle the software to be given to the church, makes sure that the services and product are of finest quality and works smoothly and in a hassle free manner.

It is noticeable that such software can reduce the time consumed making, monitoring and reviewing the each and every account present in the facility of the cathedral. This software for churches also minimizes the financial workload from the accountant of the church that is looking after their accounts in the chapel up to a huge extent. Hence, it would not be wrong to say that such software is very essential for bodies such as churches, chapel and cathedrals.

So, let's take a moment to appreciate those organizations, which helps the angels incarnated working in the church and tell them, “GOOD JOB”.