PERSUADING CHARITIES that they should produce comprehensive, comprehensible annual reports can sometimes be an uphill struggle. Perfectly legitimately, many finance directors doubt whether anyone actually reads them, and fundraisers would often concentrate on more direct ways of communicating with donors.

I understand these points, but don't agree with them: I think being open and honest is inherently a good thing, and there’s evidence that donors are taking reporting increasingly seriously.

So it lifted my spirits to read that the Chair of the Charity Finance Directors’ Group, Charles Nall, has been pushing charities to report better, and more quickly. In an article in Third Sector, he argues that comprehensive reporting benefits both the charity itself (since the reporting enables it to see its work in a new light) and its supporters (since the report can act as a means of fostering trust).

Charles, who’s also director of corporate services at the Children’s Society (see profile), is leading by example. He says he’s already producing the Children’s Society’s report for 2007/8 – which counts as working at light-speed in the charity-finance universe – and the Society’s report for 2006/7 scored an impressive 82 per cent on our Quality of Reporting scale.

I’ve got my fingers crossed that other charities are as convinced by Charles’s arguments as I am.

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