Consulting Services
We work with NGOs by improving their financial and grant management functions as well as HR and IT. Specific examples include:
1. Financial Management Capacity Improvement
Our core skill is improving financial management functions in NGOs. We are experts in analysing processes & systems, implementing practical steps to improve them and delivering training to increase capacity in the areas of financial management, budgeting, donor grant management, donor proposal writing and other areas. Our experts are familiar with all major accounting, grant management and donor relation systems and are able to identify quickly if clients are getting the best out of their systems and how to streamline processes.
2. Cost Review & Reduction
We are able to analyse where client spend cash unnecessarily and make practical step-by-step suggestions on how money can be saved. Where wished, we can also implement cost saving projects.
3. Donor Proposal Writing
Proposal writing is a time and resource consuming process. We use our donor knowledge and development expertise in this area to reduce costs and save time for our clients to enable production of high quality proposals with the necessary skills and experience input. Since we are familiar with donor requirements, our experts are often used as quality assurance teams before a proposal is submitted. Our experience and close relations to ensures that we are able to make each proposal as relevant, fully compliant to all guidelines and in consideration to current funding trends.
Our proposal writing expert there can help with the these services:
- Providing guidance and briefings for specific proposals in advance of our clients starting to write them.
- Assisting the drafting process: Large proposals benefit from our experience from drafting stage and we assume a coordination role in getting the proposal done in time and up to maximum quality.
- Reviewing and Quality assurance: Our experts, review our clients proposal and all appendices to ensure that it is as good as it can be.
- Consortium building: Donors increasingly ask for consortiums of NGOs to submit joint proposal. Our experts can act as dissemination and coordination resource to inform and steer the process as well as make necessary introductions.
After each proposal has been evaluated, we will conduct a review about all lessons learned and future learning points (even where the proposal was successful) to foster continued improvement. To date, 97% of all proposals that we have written or helped our clients to write have been successful.
4. Independent Field assessment
We check and support the financial management function of our clients field offices and structures to ensure that these are efficient and compliant with donor and internal requirements. We also perform regular financial control checks or support field office with specific tasks related to financial and grant management.
5. Policy Improvement and training
We help improve our client’s standard operating policies in the area of operational services (finance, grant, HR and IT) and devise training to support these areas. Our substantial programmatic knowledge ensures that SoPs and surrounding guidelines are practicable and useful.
6. IT Services
Some of our experts are professional IT and network specialists and are able to set up and secure a communication infrastructure for NGOs in field offices. This is particularly important in an emergency setting, where working communication channels can be difficult to establish.
Contact us for any questions or if wish to discuss your situation confidentially.
