Development Ratings

Chief Executive, Susanne Niedrum, joined Build Africa in November 2004. She has been in the development field for 20 years, working extensively in low development African countries and in Latin America. She was previously Assistant Country Director for CARE in Kenya. A new fundraising director was hired in mid-2007, as was the new director of resources. Both had prior experience with other mid-sized charities. Trustees include professionals in business consulting, development in Africa, and fundraising. The patron is Dame Diana Rigg.

The previous child sponsorship work resulted in unexciting income growth. This is expected to change with a new fundraising policy and increased fundraising spending from 2007. This results in a worse fundraising efficiency than is ideal for the time being. The plan is to boost income and launch the new profile from 2008, but this coinciding with the current financial crisis is clearly unfortunate. We have reduced our forecasts for 2008 a little. Progress has been made in tightening up the financial ratios in recent years, with the administrative expenses and programme ratios generally moving towards best practice.

In 2006, the percentage of income used on projects dropped as project expenses were slightly reduced. This was due to the charity working through its Asian exit strategy and the early stages of its reorganisation programme. The slight lowering that is forecast in 2008 is due to the fundraising push.

Expenditure by country in 2007 was as follows: Uganda: 69%, Kenya: 31%. Residual activities in Asia were ended in 2006 under the new strategic focus.

Expenditure by charitable activity in 2007 was as follows: Education: 56%; Enterprise: 44%.

Income has been derived mainly from general donations (84% in 2007) from its nearly 9,000 regular and committed donors. Legacies provided 11% of income. Grants receivable were 3%.