Lucy Hancock,
Leeds Mind

““Charity finance is quite specific, so Julie’s expertise was invaluable.”

Leeds Mind is an independent charity supporting individuals with a range of mental health challenges. Working across West Yorkshire, we deliver all kinds of preventive and therapeutic support to people of all ages.

I was fairly new to my post as CEO when we had some unplanned changes to our finance function. As a result, I needed interim support, and we wanted help with the charity’s strategic development. I reached out to Emma Willder at Beyond Profit – an organisation that works specifically with charity finance – and they recommended I speak to Julie.

“Straight away, Julie just ‘got it’ – she really understood my position as a CEO.”

Julie’s experience in the charity sector was one of the reasons we chose to appoint her. She’s also worked at operational and strategic levels, which was really important to the work we do here at Leeds Mind.

It was immediately clear how personable Julie is. She took time to understand what I was hoping to achieve from working with her and was very accommodating of the charity’s position, explaining she was here to help us in any way she could. I also like how Julie speaks in a really accessible way about finance, all while demonstrating that she clearly knows her stuff!

“Julie’s knowledge really helped us through our audit.”

When Julie joined us, we’d just gone through an audit. I asked her to support us through the end of this process and identify the best ways to move forward. Julie truly increased our understanding of the audit process, particularly with the finer details of the report. She hugely simplified some of the complexities and helped us work through them.

As part of this work, Julie reviewed our current systems and processes. Thankfully, she is incredibly conversant with everything we have in place (such as Xero). That meant she could support our existing teams with ease, showing us all we could make improvements to the ways we use our systems.

“Her understanding of the charity position gave us the right answers at the right time.”

Julie used her expertise to explain how some of our systems could enhance our understanding of other areas of finance, such as our management accounts. This led into quarterly reporting, thus Julie became more involved in the strategic aspect of the charity’s financial management. She was also involved in some of our finance meetings.
Trustees and other parties often struggle to understand the nuances of charity finance. So, alongside our finance lead, Julie developed a training session to deliver to a board event. The feedback was great, with attendees telling us it was one of the most valuable sessions of the day.

“Julie became a sounding board for working through things – I really felt I could talk to her.”

I found Julie to be incredibly helpful and adaptable. She presented technical information in a digestible manner and provided support through an organisation review process. That wasn’t part of her original work remit, but she was very happy to adjust her plans to suit what our charity needed most.

Julie became a core part of the finance function at Leeds Mind. Though she has finished her time with us, I would and have recommended Julie to other organisations, including local Mind charities.

Working with Julie is really easy and enjoyable. Her knowledge of charity finance is so important in today’s complexities, where charities often need solutions quickly. I am pleased we had the opportunity of Julie’s support when we did. She made a real difference.

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