Reporting Requirements
All the reporting requirements and information Members need to know when writing their reports can be found in the Reporting Requirements document.
Review rounds and deadlines
Charter Members are required to report annually and no later than 12 months after the end of their financial year.
The Charter’s Independent Review Panel reviews Members’ Reports twice a year and the deadlines for the two review rounds are: 1 April and 1 October. Reports received before 1 April will be reviewed in April/May and those received by 1 October in October/November. The review of reports which are submitted after a deadline will be postponed until the next round.
In 2011 the Board adopted a sanctions policy for a breach of reporting requirements. The policy outlines the step-by-step process of how the Secretariat and Board deal with overdue reports. If a Member does not report in due time, its membership might be terminated. A copy of the sanctions policy is included in the annex of the Reporting Requirements document.
Reporting Framework
Since 2010 the reporting framework in place is the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) NGO Sector Supplement (NGOSS).
In order to support NGOs in getting started with reporting against GRI, the working group that developed the NGO Sector Supplement selected a number of components which were seen as the most relevant for NGOs. This list has since been developed to suit the needs of the Charter (last update February 2013). Please click to find the latest version of this Overview of the Reporting Template. Charter Members are required to report on the components included in this template. If they wish, Members can report on more components; however if they do not to report on all components specified in the template, they have to explain their reasons why.
Each year Charter Members in their accountability reports identify and prioritise areas for improvement and corrective actions they plan to take. As of reports submitted in 2014, Members are asked to capture these commitments in a Gap Analysis Table. The Independent Review Panel may suggest the Member to add further issues when reviewing the Member’s report. Each year following, the table shall be submitted along with the accountability report and will then be used as a basis to demonstrate progress. The table will be published on the website along with the accountability report and the feedback from the Panel. Please access the table here.
The Charter Principles is the core document that the Charter Member organisations sign up to when they join the Charter. The GRI NGO Sector Supplement is the reporting framework in place for the Charter. A matrix table was established in order to highlight that the Charter Principles are covered by the components included in the reporting framework. Please download it here.
Support and Help
The Panel has collected examples from Members’ reports of what they see as Good Practice when reporting against the GRI Sector Supplement. The latest version of the Good Practice document is available here.
Members are strongly advised to read other Members’ reports, in particular the ones mentioned in the Good Practice document.
For any extra information or help please don’t hesitate to contact the Charter Secretariat
“The NGO Sector Supplement now provides a robust vehicle for Charter reporting. It included reporting indicators developed with independent input and public consultation and offers the same standard that is used by commercial organisations.”
Jeremy Hobbs, Chair of the Charter Board and Executive Director of Oxfam International at the launch of the NGO Sector Supplement