Friends of Londiani would like to take this opportunity to state that we strive to apply the highest standards of governance in our work. Amidst the current controversy about governance issues in a number of Irish charities, we want to reassure our donors and supporters that we have implemented strong governance in Friends of Londiani and outline to you how those measures protect your donations and the communities that we work with.
Firstly, we are members of Dóchas – the Irish Association representing a network of over 60 non-governmental development organisations. Dóchas has been calling since the 1990s for a charity regulatory authority to be established in Ireland and in the absence of such a body it created its own codes of best practice which we have followed since we became members of Dóchas in 2008. Transparency and accountability matters to Dóchas and all their members and so this is the path we have followed since we first registered as a charity in Ireland.
We implemented the Dóchas Code on NGO Corporate governance and comply with all its principles. We review our compliance on an annual basis. We believe the Irish public has a right to expect the highest standards of aid agencies in Ireland and to know that each organisation is reaching those standards consistently.
We adopted the Governance Code Type B for Community, Voluntary and Charitable Organisations in Ireland. We review our compliance on an annual basis and the review sets out actions and completion dates for any issues that the assessment identifies need to be addressed.
We are committed to achieving the standards outlined in the Statement of Guiding Principles for Fundraising supplied by ICTR, the organisation representing the interests of Irish charities.
Friends of Londiani’s accounts comply with the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) standard in general and with the Dóchas/Irish Aid guidelines on financial reporting. We publish our annual accounts online every year and these are available on our website.
We registered with the Charity Regulatory Authority (CRA) when it was established in 2014 and we submitted our first annual return with them in October last year. Charity Regulatory Authority Number: CRA 20059583
We are shocked that this is not how all charities in Ireland operate and we are saddened to think that the reputations of all charities in Ireland could be at risk from the actions of a few.
We maintain that all charitable organisations have a duty to adhere to the highest possible standards of accountability, transparency and performance. There are thousands of charities across Ireland, in the international and domestic sector, which continue to do exceptional work in an effort to ensure vulnerable people’s needs are addressed in the most effective and impactful way possible.
We are committed to governing the organisation in a transparent and ethical manner. Be assured that we don’t rest in the area of governance but we have systems in place to continually check that we are doing as we say we will do.
If you would like further information on our work we would be happy to oblige. We encourage you to ask questions of any charity that you choose to support and if you’re wondering what make a charity good, have a look at this website #goodcharity
