Displaying 1-30 of 201 results
Autumn Budget 2025: what it means for charities
- Dec 2025
- Kristina Kopic
The 2025 Autumn Budget, delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, has prompted a mixed response across the charity sector. While some measures offer practical help for organisations and the communities they support, many of the structural pressures charities face remain unchanged or have intensified.
Balancing finance, culture and impact: the leadership challenge for charities
- Dec 2025
- Sharon Bell
Leading a charity today means juggling competing priorities: financial sustainability, organisational culture and delivering meaningful impact. For small charities in particular, this balancing act can feel relentless. How do leaders keep the mission alive while ensuring the numbers add up? This article explores practical ways to navigate these tensions and build strong foundations for the future.
Welcoming, including and developing new trustees
- Dec 2025
- Jessica Williams
This is the final instalment of our three-part series on trustee recruitment. This last chapter focuses on inducting new board members. It’s based on the Charity Commission’s recently updated guidance – Finding and appointing new trustees.
SORP 2026: why impact and sustainability reporting matters
- Nov 2025
- Kristina Kopic
Funders increasingly ask for evidence that resources are being used effectively and responsibly, and the wider public, whose trust is essential to the sector, expects openness about how charities contribute to society, including how they manage their environmental and social footprint.
Reflecting on four years as Chair of the ICAEW Charity Committee
- Nov 2025
- Daniel Chan
As I step down from the Charity Committee, having joined in 2019 and taken on the role of Chair for the last four years, I have been reflecting on what has been a journey of growth – for me, personally and professionally, as well as for ICAEW’s impact in the charity sector.
Empowering trustees: changes to ex gratia payments under the Charities Act 2022
- Nov 2025
- Kristina Kopic
Charities can often find themselves in situations where they feel a strong moral duty to make a payment or give up an interest, even when there is no legal requirement to do so and the action cannot strictly be justified as being in the charity’s best financial interests. Such actions are known as ex gratia payments.
First international charity finance standard ushers in new era of transparency
- Nov 2025
- ICAEW Insights
INPAS, the world’s first comprehensive international financial reporting standard for non-profits, is expected to aid transparency, improve credibility, and remove grant reporting burdens.
Charity Conference 2026 – making sense of new reporting requirements
- Nov 2025
- Kristina Kopic
As the year draws to a close, charity reporting and governance is full of opportunity and change. From a new Charities SORP, new financial thresholds, and the launch of the first global reporting standard for non-profits, to a substantially refreshed Charity Governance Code and new finance resources for trustees, now is a good time to take stock and prepare for what’s ahead.
Finding new trustees: advertising and appointing
- Nov 2025
- Jessica Williams
This is part two of our three-part series on trustee recruitment. This time, we’re focusing on advertising roles and appointing new board members. It’s based on the Charity Commission’s recently updated guidance – Finding and appointing new trustees. The final post will focus on how to include and develop new recruits.
New charity financial thresholds: what accountants need to know
- Nov 2025
- Kristina Kopic
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) recently confirmed significant changes to charity financial thresholds in England and Wales, aiming to create a proportionate legal framework and reduce the heavy administrative burdens faced by the sector.
Introducing INPAS: a new international accounting standard for the non-profit sector
- Nov 2025
- Kristina Kopic
The world of non-profit accounting has reached a major milestone with the launch of the International Non-Profit Accounting Standard (INPAS) – the first global accounting standard designed specifically for not-for-profit organisations.
Charities and LLP SORPs announced: what’s changed?
- Nov 2025
- ICAEW Insights
Key changes to the Charities SORP include a three-tier reporting regime with increased disclosure and presentation requirements for larger charities. Changes to lease accounting and income recognition will present the greatest challenges.
Charity Governance Code revamp urges reflection on board behaviours
- Nov 2025
- ICAEW Insights
The biggest revision to the Code in eight years is launched during Trustees’ Week and sees a shift away from processes and recommended practice to getting charity boards to reflect on their effectiveness.
From balance sheets to boardrooms: why trustees with finance skills matter
- Oct 2025
- Kristina Kopic
Trustees’ Week 2025 (3-7 November) is a time to celebrate the contribution of nearly one million charity trustees across the UK.
Next Generation ACA ramps up specialised learning offering
- Oct 2025
- ICAEW Insights
The first specialised learning courses for ACA students have launched, but what do they offer students and employers? We take a closer look at the introduction to the charities sector to find out.
Set yourself up for success: finding new trustees
- Oct 2025
- Jessica Williams
This is the first in a 3-part series about trustee recruitment. It’s based on the Charity Commission’s recently updated guidance – Finding and appointing new trustees. Future instalments will focus on advertising and appointing, and how to include and develop new trustees.
Data protection – are you aware of the recent changes?
- Oct 2025
- Kristina Kopic
In June 2025, the Data Use and Access Act became law, marking the most significant change to UK data protection rules since GDPR came into effect. But what does this mean in practice, especially for charities, who often rely on data to understand their supporters, deliver services, and measure impact?
Courage, control, and clarity: redefining risk mitigation strategies
- Oct 2025
- Kristina Kopic
The Charity Commission’s Charity Sector Risk Assessment 2025 paints a challenging picture: squeezed finances, increasing fraud and cyber threats, governance weaknesses, safeguarding concerns, and a shifting reputational landscape. For finance leaders and finance trustees, it’s a clear signal that your financial and analytical skills are more vital than ever.
Back to school: doing the homework in your charity role
- Sep 2025
- Kristina Kopic
September always carries that familiar “back to school” feeling. You have returned from your holidays, the air feels fresher, and it’s time to get organised for the months ahead. For those working in or with charities, this is also the perfect moment to review your charity’s financial management and reporting with a fresh perspective. Just as students head back to the classroom, finance professionals should take this season to review their charity’s operations and make positive changes. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
The Charity Commission’s evolving approach to increasing registrations – a shift to modern solutions?
- Sep 2025
- Kristina Kopic
In its recent blog post, the Charity Commission shared that, in July 2025, it received over 1,000 registration applications in a single month for the first time. This milestone reveals that the sector continues to grow despite financial pressures. However, we also learned why AI-generated content in applications can result in application rejections.
Link your charity’s impact and sustainability reporting to the UN SDGs
- Sep 2025
- Kristina Kopic
Increasingly, charities are being expected to demonstrate not only the positive change they create but also the wider impact of their operations. With the Exposure Draft of the new Charities SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice) placing greater emphasis on impact and sustainability reporting in annual reports, this offers an opportunity for charities to align their strategic aims and reporting with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
ICAEW urges government to reconsider tax changes for charities
- Sep 2025
- ICAEW Insights
ICAEW believes that some of the changes proposed by the government could cause uncertainty and may even discourage potential donors from leaving gifts to charities in their will.
Is your charity missing out on withholding tax reclaims?
- Aug 2025
- Tom Daffern and Joy Akinleye
Charities face increasing pressure to make the most of limited resources. Maximising investment returns is crucial to furthering charitable causes, yet a significant source of lost income often goes unnoticed: foreign withholding tax (WHT) on investment income. Year on year, charities investing internationally may be losing thousands, even millions, of pounds to withholding tax that could potentially be fully reclaimed. Here’s what you need to know.
The Civil Society Covenant: are you ready to reset the relationship?
- Aug 2025
- Kristina Kopic
The UK government launched the Civil Society Covenant on 17 July 2025, marking a significant commitment to redefine its relationship with charities and broader civil society. Find out more about the Covenant and the role of chartered accountants in resetting the relationship between government and civil society.
Surprising insights from the Charity Digital Skills Report 2025
- Aug 2025
- Kristina Kopic
The Charity Digital Skills Report 2025 is out. Now in its ninth year, the report remains a helpful pulse check on how UK charities are balancing financial pressures with the opportunities of technological acceleration, and this year’s report paints a surprising picture of digital transformation in the sector.
Small charity trustees – are you prepared for the regulatory changes?
- Aug 2025
- Kristina Kopic
If you are a trustee of a small charity, you may feel daunted by all the changes that are coming: the next Charities SORP, the new financial thresholds, the changes at Companies House and many other developments that may affect your charity and its governance processes. Small charity trustees often take a more hands-on role in preparing for regulatory changes, so it’s critical you stay informed. We are here to help you!
ICAEW supports new VAT relief for donated goods
- Jul 2025
- ICAEW Insights
Responding to the government’s consultation, ICAEW has made a number of recommendations to ensure that the new relief achieves its objectives without undermining VAT simplicity or placing undue burdens on donors, charities, or HMRC.
Charities SORP 2026 and more – it’s been busy!
- Jun 2025
- Kristina Kopic
June has been busy, with two key consultations closing, and Volunteers’ Week offering an opportunity to celebrate the many ICAEW members who volunteer for charities and other not-for-profit organisations.
ICAEW urges joined-up approach on charity reporting
- Jun 2025
- ICAEW Insights
The new Charities SORP alone is unlikely to address the disproportionate reporting regime facing smaller charities, ICAEW warns.
Charity thresholds must keep pace with inflation, ICAEW urges
- Jun 2025
- ICAEW Insights
Current thresholds are a blunt tool and are due review for inflation, says ICAEW, amid concerns that the numerous thresholds add to the complexity of the regulatory regime facing charities.
Displaying 1-30 of 201 results