If you are accountable you have to give an account or answer for your actions to someone. This may be formal, like when a Management Committee reports to the AGM or Councilors stand for re-election. But there are many other...

Accounts are a way of 'giving an account' of what has happened financially. They can cover any period. Most organisations have to produce annual accounts. These are usually drawn up after the end of the financial year and s...

Accrual accounting is based on the concept that any money earned by an organisation must be matched with the costs that were incurred to generate that income, and that both are included in the same period of accounting. So ...

Promotes and supports grant-making charitable trusts and foundations. Members tend to be the bigger trusts, particularly those that have paid staff. It can't give individual advice to grant-seekers but its publications and ...

ACRE is the national (England) association of most Rural Community Councils, but some - mainly in the north of England - are members of the Federation of Rural Community Councils instead.

The value added by your activity. A chef 'adds value' to food by cooking it, which is why we are prepared to pay more for the cooked meal than the raw ingredients. In the business world, activities are examined to see how m...

Particularly important where funding from the National Lottery is concerned. Lottery money is supposed to be 'additional' to ordinary spending by the government, not a substitute for it. So if a voluntary organisation wants...

One of the words used to describe what an organisation intends to do. Often used with 'objectives' in the phrase 'aims and objectives' – where aims describe ‘what’ a group intends to achieve, and the objectives describe ‘ho...

Someone paid to initiate a particular project or drum up interest in a particular activity. A dance animateur might work with local youth clubs to develop young people's interest in dance.

The phrase 'annual report' can be confusing. It has a technical meaning in 'annual accounts and report' (when it is sometimes called the statutory report) but it is also used casually, sometimes as shorthand for 'annual rev...

A phrase used by both Companies House and the Charity Commission to describe the form they require companies/charities to fill in every year and return. Often the Annual Return is sent back with the organisation's annual ac...

Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts in England, distributing public money from Government and the National Lottery.

A term used to describe the process of local authorities and other public bodies transferring assets – usually buildings or land – to voluntary or community organisations that can put them to good use.

Assets are what your organisation has. People say, "Our volunteers are our greatest asset." When talking finance, assets mean your money, property and anything that is owed to you. Assets are contrasted with liabilities, wh...

An audit is an examination of something, a reckoning, a writing down of what you've got. A social audit is when you examine what non-money resources you receive and use. Accounts are audited when they've been examined in a ...