ACCA and UNV Pilot Launch

 

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Caribbean and the United Nations Volunteers Programme (UNV) in

ACCA-UNV Team. Photo: ACCA Team

Trinidad and Tobago jointly launched a 6-month pilot project ‘Organizational Capacity Development of Nonprofit Organizations through Corporate Volunteering’.

 

In the presence of the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Edo Stork and the Head of Corporate Development at the ACCA Caribbean Ms Brenda Lee Tang, more than 60 ACCA affiliates gathered at a breakfast seminar at the Courtyard Mariott to learn about an innovative volunteer initiative that will see ACCA volunteer support being provided to the local NGO Just Because Foundation (JBF) in the area of financial management and reporting.

 

The project is an attempt at breaking new grounds in the area of skills-based volunteering and seeks to maximise on the potential for organizational development through the mobilization of employee volunteers’ technical competencies. In his presentation, UNV Programme Officer Jens-Ulrich Poppen introduced attendees to the concept of the ‘voluntary triangle’ in which the interests, abilities and expectations of companies, communities and volunteers are being integrated into a methodological framework that aims at ensuring the sustainability of

ACCA-UNV Pilot Launch. Photo: ACCA Team

voluntary activities, the commercial viability of corporate social responsibility and the public benefit of community outreach and environmental projects. Highlighting the social value of the contributions of corporate volunteers and their importance for capacity development of nonprofit organizations, JBF founders Noel and Chevaughn Joseph explained the very personal history behind the foundation of their NGO – an organization that provides support services to families with children suffering from cancer – and outlined areas in which the business skills of the ACCA’s accounting professionals will provide vital support to its operations. The project will commence in June 2011.