NPO’s: How to run a successful accountability process for donors using Unit4?

Unit4 offers non-profit software solutions to help free your teams to make a positive impact in the world, and to do more of what matters to you and your supporters.

Not-for-profits (NFP) organisations do not have it easy in today’s world. There are some realities affecting them, such as rapidly changing expectations and the adaptation to meet that demand; shrinking budgets; funding diversification; and an agenda for greater transparency, accountability and compliance.
When it comes to donors, there are two main hardships that these organisations must overcome:

1. Increasing operational complexity: there are new trends in how donors support more local initiatives driving program delivery and administration away from the central control of international organisations. These multinational associations are then decentralising activities while they’re creating new branches and entities. This has resulted in a complex operational and organisational situation that pushes financial controls and technology to the limit, most of the time with disparate systems.
2. Rising donor expectations: the expectations and profiles of private and individual donors are changing, resulting in a fall in trust and erosion of brand loyalty. Supporters expect a more consumer (retail) experience unless they were previously or are connected emotionally to the cause. In addition to this, everybody wants to be engaged in a digital way with the organisation.
   dirty hands giving food

Despite these challenges, NFP organisations now have a great opportunity to digitally engage with donors, show them their achievements, and deliver greater impact.

Benefit from an ERP solution

In this scenario, maintaining accountability might be difficult, and comprehensive tracking is often difficult. Organisations can benefit from an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution to run a successful accountability process for donors:

• Satisfying the diverse reporting requirements of multiple donors.
• Aligning expenditure with strategic objectives and outcomes.
• Tracking and reporting on projects at any stage (from application to closure).

Unit4 offers non-profit software solutions to help free your teams to make a positive impact in the world, and to do more of what matters to you and your supporters. With Unit4 ERP, NPO organisations can achieve complete support for program success:

• Accountability: satisfying the diverse and often changing reporting requirements of many donors.
• Efficiency: eliminating manual, error-prone processes that distract workers from their core processes.
• Transparency: Improving decision-making with real-time accurate financial information.

Tools for successful accountability process

The tools that Unit4 offers for a successful accountability process for donors, with the standardisation of processes and 360 information management for non-profit organisations, are the following:

• Operating and non-operating income and expenses control.
• Foreign currency income control and visualisation through dashboards for analytical purposes.
• Effective management and traceability of projects financed by external partners. Covering not only financial execution but operational execution in accordance with the activities proposed in the project scope. In addition, traceability of efficiencies, recoveries, cost overruns, and budget limits.
• Inventory control in humanitarian emergencies.
• Talent management for projects and direct hiring.
• Data visualisation in all hierarchies according to priority (for operational positions data feed), process monitoring and control, for coordination, monitoring and analysis positions and for management positions. Data visualisation dashboards for effective decision-making.
  Centralised information management, despite having several business units or branches.
• Financial evolution, utilities, and student control for training units.
• Management of donations in money and in kind. In the first, traceability of income, management, administrative expenses, budget execution, and accountability to the donor. In the later, inventory control, inventory management under PEPS methodology, and real-time updating.
• Possibility of carrying out peer review by consolidating the information, standardising it and completing it in real-time.

Unit4 ERP is the software of choice for many charities and non-profits, with it renowned for its range of innovative functionality, much of which is extremely relevant to the non-profit sector, notably its project and funding capabilities.

At Arribatec, we top the list of Unit4’s partners worldwide, something we are very proud of, and demonstrate the level of success with both Unit4 and our clients. Our experienced consultants have worked with non-profit organisations for many years. We understand your worries and give you peace of mind that your solutions will be implemented seamlessly, allowing you to keep your focus on your mission.