2 (a) Discuss the nature of the financial objectives that may be set in a not－for－profit o

Question

2 (a) Discuss the nature of the financial objectives that may be set in a not-for-profit organisation such as a charity

or a hospital. (8 marks)

Answer 1

正确答案：

2 (a) In the case of a not-for-profit (NFP) organisation, the limit on the services that can be provided is the amount of funds that
are available in a given period. A key financial objective for an NFP organisation such as a charity is therefore to raise as
much funds as possible. The fund-raising efforts of a charity may be directed towards the public or to grant-making bodies.
In addition, a charity may have income from investments made from surplus funds from previous periods. In any period,
however, a charity is likely to know from previous experience the amount and timing of the funds available for use. The same
is true for an NFP organisation funded by the government, such as a hospital, since such an organisation will operate under
budget constraints or cash limits. Whether funded by the government or not, NFP organisations will therefore have the
financial objective of keeping spending within budget, and budgets will play an important role in controlling spending and in
specifying the level of services or programmes it is planned to provide.
Since the amount of funding available is limited, NFP organisations will seek to generate the maximum benefit from available
funds. They will obtain resources for use by the organisation as economically as possible: they will employ these resources
efficiently, minimising waste and cutting back on any activities that do not assist in achieving the organisation’s non-financial
objectives; and they will ensure that their operations are directed as effectively as possible towards meeting their objectives.
The goals of economy, efficiency and effectiveness are collectively referred to as value for money (VFM). Economy is
concerned with minimising the input costs for a given level of output. Efficiency is concerned with maximising the outputs
obtained from a given level of input resources, i.e. with the process of transforming economic resources into desires services.
Effectiveness is concerned with the extent to which non-financial organisational goals are achieved.
Measuring the achievement of the financial objective of VFM is difficult because the non-financial goals of NFP organisations
are not quantifiable and so not directly measurable. However, current performance can be compared to historic performance
to ascertain the extent to which positive change has occurred. The availability of the healthcare provided by a hospital, for
example, can be measured by the time that patients have to wait for treatment or for an operation, and waiting times can be
compared year on year to determine the extent to which improvements have been achieved or publicised targets have been
met.

Lacking a profit motive, NFP organisations will have financial objectives that relate to the effective use of resources, such as
achieving a target return on capital employed. In an organisation funded by the government from finance raised through
taxation or public sector borrowing, this financial objective will be centrally imposed.