Financial Management

Effective People Management

COURSE ENGLISH EDITION / MAY 2025

Focus on civil society organisations

 

SYNOPSIS:

This topic is often secondary in civil society trainings, but we must be aware that every time we take a decision, execute a process or launch an activity, it has an impact on the financial area of our organisation.  Organisations put a lot of effort in generating funds for their activities and beneficiaries, but sometimes not so much in managing their financial assets or liabilities, which can be a drain of resources. Keeping budgets and expenses under control is also necessary for financial sustainability. A good financial management is the way for organisations to navigate challenging financial times, and in times of crisis can help organisations get their limited resources go further.

After this training, participants will be able to:

  • Have a global vision of the financial dimension of their organisations and introduce improvements, if necessary.
  • Reinforce the dynamics of planning, organising and controlling.
  • Carry out an organisational financial self-assessment based on key internal controls techniques to improve the organisation financial management

AUDIENCE:

Especially recommended for (i) directors and managers and (ii) financial and/or administrative managers.

TRAINER:

Stone Soup consultant since September 2018. Focused on organisational development, strategic planning, governance, finance management and training.

He is a senior executive with more than 30 years of experience in the private sector, working for multinational groups. Julio Alonso is graduated in Business Administration and MBA from ESADE Business School (Barcelona-Spain) and he has also several post-graduate studies in Management. He has developed his professional career in Spain, Portugal, USA and France, holding management positions in the fields of Controlling, Organization, Finance and Transformation.

He joined Stone Soup Consulting to apply his experience to the creation of social value, supporting the organisational development, strategic planning, financial sustainability and capacity building of several social entities, like Affinity Foundation, NCD-Senegal/BirdLife, LIFE Platform (Low Impact Fishers of Europe), Observadores del Mar, Asociación E2O (Escuelas de Segunda Oportunidad), IIDMA (Instituto Internacional de Derecho y Medio Ambiente) and Philea (Philanthropy Europe Association) since then. Furthermore, he has also developed and delivered capacity building trainings in Finance Management for NGOs for Academia EDP and Marilles Foundation and a Cost/Benefit analysis for BCNROC (Ayuntamiento de Barcelona). 

Julio speaks Spanish, Catalan, English and French. Based in Barcelona.

THE TRAINER ALSO TEACHES:

CONTENT: 

Introduction

  • Welcome and presentation of the course and its objectives, and clarification of requirements/expectations.

Introduction to financial management

  • What is Financial Management?
  • Why is Financial Management necessary?
  • Financial Management tools; Special specificities of Civil Society Organisations.

The financial statements

  • Exploration of the most relevant financial statements for the management of our entities – what they mean and what relevant information can we extract from them.
  • Balance Sheet: Assets, Liabilities & Equity and Analysis ratios;
  • Income Statements and their Analysis ratios; Cash Flow Statements; Financial Report.

The budget and budget control

  • How to elaborate a budget, to choose the right kind of budget that our entity needs, and how to monitor and control this budget.
  • What is a budget?
  • Budgeting techniques;
  • Different types of budgets;
  • Budget monitoring and control.

 Internal control

  • Review of different Key Internal Controls (KICs) that can be used to assess the state of an organisation’s financial management and to prepare for successful future audits;
  • Evaluation of the internal control system of an organisation using this tool; 
  • Demonstration of how to use the KICs list for a self-assessment on an organisation’s compliance with sound financial management practices

Conclusion

  • Final summary of main takeaways; 
  • suggestions for applying and testing knowledge; 
  • Presentation of additional resources and exercises.

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Hourly Schedule

20th May 2025

15 - 18
Financial Management
Focus on civil society organisations |
Speakers:
Julio Alonso

21st May 2025

15 - 18
Financial Management
Focus on civil society organisations ||
Speakers:
Julio Alonso
Julio Alonso
Principal Consultant

Date

May 20 - 21 2025

Time

CET
15:00 - 18:00

Cost

€150.00

Location

ZOOM

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