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27 October 2017, 14:49

Finance Count 2017/18: Devon Air Ambulance

Devon Air Ambulance participated in the last round of Finance Count and have registered again for this year's report. Here, they tell us why, and how it's helped them improve. ...

Devon Air Ambulance participated in the last round of Finance Count and have registered again for this year's report. Here, they tell us why, and how it's helped them improve. Have you ever used a benchmarking tool before?  We have used some broad benchmarking tools which are useful in getting a different perspective and wider context, but can often make it too easy to discount evidence which you weren’t expecting to see on the grounds of it not being a relevant comparison. Why do you think benchmarking is important for your charity, and/or the sector? No organisation operates in a vacuum, and charities are no different. Charities in particular often draw on ideas like ‘fairness’ while accountability is essential – it’s easier to apply both when viewing a charity in the broader context of the environment and culture it operates in. Benchmarking is important to evaluate performance and opportunities, while reviewing best practice and ensuring that an independent perspective can be applied rather than focusing too much on the internal detail. Why did you sign up to CFG’s Finance Count 2017/18? We signed up to Finance Count to be able to measure our performance and expectations against the actualities. We expect it to assist in continually evaluating performance and strategy, hoping to identify areas for refinement in our approach as we continue to grow. What results do you expect to see? Having completed Finance Count in 2016 we are expecting some consistency in our results and limited movement in our comparative group, so any areas of significant movement will be interesting to evaluate. What were the key findings from Finance Count 2016? During a time of expansion it was interesting to see the staffing patterns and numbers of similar organisations, which assisted us in reviewing how to structure specific support areas, consider what resources to dedicate to processing, controls and reporting, as well as where certain tasks could be allocated across the charity. The information around staffing was very useful when deciding to create new roles to support our growth, such as a HR Manager and an IT Training and Support Officer.   To register for Finance Count 2017 please download and complete the short from at cfg.org.uk/financecount « Back to all blog posts