Financial Report Introduction

Starting the term of 2021-2022 of AIESEC in Belgium still meant facing (the aftermath of) COVID-19. While our first semester started with some restrictions on working at the office, we were still not fully operational as an organization, which had its expected impact on finances as well. Also the ongoing issues in our legal governance challenged us this year repeatedly. Therefore, strategies were focused on maintaining a steady financial situation and focusing on improving our legal governance.

Not only as a National team were we struggling with the above mentioned issues. The financial setback of COVID-19 in combination with the past years before COVID-19 have not worked in the favor of our Local Entities. This has made us a less sustainable organization over the years, while reserves have diminished due to continuous costs but no revenue being generated in a steady manner either. The financial situation in our Local Entities was definitely our biggest challenge being taken on by education and auditing.

As an organization providing youth exchanges all over the world, bringing youth to Belgium is made possible by the Single Permit process. Therefore, maintaining strong relations with the Federal and Regional government in Belgium was of high priority this year as well.

Strategies

To make sure we could tackle the issues mentioned above, the following strategies were put in place:

• Educating the Local Entities on (general) Finance & Legal management

• Auditing the Local Entities for improving their onground financial management

• Stronger Single Permit process and change management shift

Sustainability, as our main goal as a National team, is embedded in all three strategies and came back in all actions we have taken financially.

Our Local Committees

As mentioned before, our Local Entities have been struggling for years, even before COVID-19 started. This made the past period an extremely challenging one for our organization. Making financial decisions was the center of our financial operations and nothing was done unless it contributed to overall sustainability. Therefore education was given to the LCs on financial sustainability and how their actions impacted this directly or indirectly. Proper financial management is definitely a big part of becoming sustainable, having an overview of their financial situation and knowing what good or bad decisions are to maintain on this uphill road.

Besides education, two virtual audits and one physical audit were conducted in the past 12 months. During the virtual audits, all aspects of the Finance Standards were checked and feedbacked. During the physical audit, follow-up was done and help was given to continue these improvements on ground as well, e.g. in their physical bookkeeping. The average in the virtual audit went from 65% to 79% overall.

The National Committee

Starting the term in August 2021, the focus was maintaining our financial situation, as the past year a lot of improvements were made. Therefore, a most consistent approach was taken to re-use tools from the past year that were made and linked to each other. Improvements were made to adapt the tools to the ongoing situation but overall this helped in achieving 117% budget execution. With the amazing efforts of the BD team, we managed to improve our cashflow with around 80K by the 31st of July 2022.

Maintaining the same position also meant that the team had to be more involved in the financial situation and understand their position in this process. Therefore, a focus was made on clear communication, graphics and transparency in our finances during the past 12 months.

Conclusion

Overall, the seeds are planted for sustainability in the financial department. Not only through education and auditing of Local Entities, but maintaining our financial position as a National Team in order to support the Local Entities in this process. This trend will continue in the next term, where sustainability stays the priority.