Fiona Young Priest
Fiona is an experienced Director of Finance and Resources and has spent the last 25 years working with or advising the Charity Sector. Until 2020 she worked as a Charity Finance Director in the grant making sector and before this at Crisis UK, the homeless charity.Working with small and medium sized teams she has been involved in leading the finance function, change management programmes, led on strategic reviews and developed social investment portfolios. Alongside this she has developed specialisms in charity finance and governance and been company secretary. She has supported the management of investments for endowed grant making trusts and been involved in project management.She now works as a charity consultant supporting charities and not for profit organisations with specific projects. To date these have included independent assurance reviews of systems, developing policies and reviewing management reporting. She has been involved in whole organisation reviews, reviewed accounting systems, run tender processes and supported the finance function at director level where gaps have emerged either due to unexpected team illness or gaps in recruitment. She has also supported the recruitment of new Finance Directors and teams.Alongside this Fiona works as a coach and mentor; and has worked with a number of voluntary sector CEOs and senior managers.
Fiona has worked with a number of charities and grant makers in the past. Her most recent clients include:• The Oversight Trust – for the quadrennial reviews of Access – the Foundation for Social Investment, Fair4All Finance and Youth Futures Foundation• 360Giving• Intrac• The Chancery Lane Partnership• Local Trust• Nuffield Foundation• Ovo Foundation• Bayes Business School
Chartered Accountant (ICAEW) Masters in Charity Accounting and Financial Management Diploma in Charity Accounting (ICAEW) ICAEW Business and Finance Professional Diploma in Transformational Coaching (Animas)
• Charity Finance• Accounts Preparation and Preparation for Audit• Accounting system and records• Financial planning and budgeting• Fund accounting• Financial Management• Finance system reviews• Tax• Reporting• Strategic Planning• Reviews• Report Writing• Evaluations• Charity Governance• Board facilitation• Project management• Investment Management within the grant making sector context• Social Investment• Grant making• Mentoring and coaching• Risk Management and reviews for internal controls• Preparation of tendersFinance director with 19 years experienceCoaching and mentoring voluntary sector professional – mostly CEOs both independently and through the Cranfield TrustUK and international experience with over 10 years external audit experience mainly specialising in charitiesVarious trustee roles including Charity Finance Group, Womankind Worldwide and Chippenham Borough Lands CharityExternal Examiner of the charity finance courses at Bayes (formerly Cass Business School and co-ordinator of the Audit, Accounts and Tax Module at the Bayes (formerly Cass) Business School for the Charity Finance Masters courseCo-author of the 3rd and 4th Editions of the Good Financial Management Guide for the Voluntary Sector – published by NCVO and Co-author of Preparing Charity Accounts with Adrian Randall and Anthony Epton