Communicating Financial Management with Non-finance People: A manual for international development workers (Practical Guides for Organizational & Financial Resilience)

Strong financial management skills are essential to promote high program standards in international development organizations. Many non-finance people find numbers and financial techniques difficult, and some just give up or expect someone else to handle them. However, NGO managers and other staff are responsible for sound financial management and without full understanding their programs will be, at best, less effective, and, at worst, vulnerable to going unfunded.

To help avoid these problems, many development agencies provide financial training for their non-finance staff, and also their partners. But just providing more skills training does not address all the issues. Poor communication about financial information, by both finance and non-finance people, often seems to cause a block. This book helps people speak and write better financial information, avoiding jargon, and preventing their listeners from switching off. It explains why messages about finance may not be received as they were intended when working cross-culturally and outlines how information can be tailored to different audiences. It outlines how to design training sessions that improve understanding and collaboration between finance and non-finance people, including partner organizations, trustees, and staff.

Communicating Financial Management to Non- Finance People should be read by non-finance and finance managers and staff within nonprofit organizations internationally, as well as other organizations.