NGOs: A HIGHER PURPOSE TRIGGERS ELEVATED DEMANDS

Due to special organizational and economic conditions NGOs have increased requirements for efficiency and a need for tools to deliver detailed reporting. Both to comply with formal requirements and cater to a critical public.

"NGOs are associated with devotees, volunteerism and notable causes, but if you look at them from a business perspective, they are characterized by complex organizational structures, strict compliance requirements and an extremely volatile financial basis. This entails some special needs”.

Martin Mark Rasmussen is a partner in exacto and based on exacto's broad portfolio of NGOs, he has noted that the organizations are increasingly looking for digital tools to support them in meeting the requirements.

Complexity

"With a complex organizational structure which, in addition to the head office, can count both voluntary sub-departments, physical stores, fundraising on the streets or by telephone, member organizations and collection teams, it is crucial that they have access to a solution for reporting that can be accessed regardless of location, be simple to use and effective without the need for in-depth accounting experience”.

Volatility

Along with the complex organizational structure, Martin Mark Rasmussen points out that the organizations' financial conditions also give rise to some special requirements for the support:

"NGOs operate in a very volatile economic reality. The income is divided between memberships, sales activities, funds and donations in the form of e.g. inheritance or from collections. With this dependence on which matters concern the public and how a political majority prioritises, they need to be able to follow the economic development closely with actuals to be able to quickly make the necessary adjustments", explains Martin Mark Rasmussen.

Earmarked

However, according to Martin Mark Rasmussen, the fact that the economic framework is volatile is not the only reason:

"As a emphasize of the finance department’s need for effective digital solutions, comes the special condition that a large share of the funding is specifically earmarked for special projects. These funds may only be used for the specific project and thus be clearly separated from other activities such as daily operations. This means that compliance and ultimately preventing claims for repayment depend on precise and detailed reporting on time spent".

Compliance – formal and informal

Following on from this, a final factor comes into play when the NGOs formulate their needs:

"The complex structure and volatile economic framework could result in a large administrative strain on resources. But NGOs are dedicated to a purpose, and the outside world expects them to use their resources for this purpose. There are some more formal requirements as well as to what percentage of income from collections may be used for operation and administration. Therefore, the administrative staff must have tools that give them access to simple and efficient workflows that ensure that resources allocated to administrative work are limited", concludes Martin Mark Rasmussen.