Judith Clapham

Business Manager
National Association of Youth Theatres (NAYT), Darlington

National development agency for youth theatre.

Having already strengthened the organisation’s financial management systems with the help of PNE’s Managing Money programme, Judith decided to take this onto another level by attending PNE’s Covering Costs programme with a view to implementing the principles of Full Cost Recovery (FCR) within NAYT.

“PNE’s Covering Costs programme was the ideal way to find out how to implement FCR within our financial management systems, to provide training and better information for our board, and to help train other members of staff in order to improve our succession planning.”

Judith says that although NAYT didn’t quite fit the acevo and Big Lottery models of FCR completely, PNE’s support enabled her to adopt their principles and to tweak various aspects so they work well in her organisation.

The one to one sessions with a PNE financial specialist enabled Judith to develop an Excel system for FCR, and to successfully integrate this with their Sage accounting system.

“Integrating the Sage system with our bespoke FCR tool makes it so much easier to allocate core costs between projects, and to explain and justify figures in funding bids with far greater clarity.

“As a result of PNE’s support, we have identified our full costs and have introduced robust financial systems that several key people in the organisation can use. It also makes reporting financial matters to the board so much easier.”

Judith says that the organisation is now in a much better position to produce funding bids with FCR included which is clearly explained and justified in terms that funders want.

“We are currently on a fundraising drive and will be including FCR in several bids which will hopefully yield positive results over the next six months.

“PNE has made a significant difference to our financial management and future sustainability.”