Non-Profit Governance

Board of Directors

Close the Gap is governed by an independent Board of Directors, of which the primary function is to give advice and make recommendations to the Managing Director about policies, strategies, allocation of resources and legislative arrangements. In addition, this board is responsible for giving its formal approval to major strategic and organisational decisions taken within Close the Gap. The Board needs to approve all main decisions taken by the management, including the budget and the business plan, as well as review the financial results.

Board of recommendation

Close the Gap’s Board of recommendation consists of eminent people willing to vouch for and to recommend Close the Gap within their networks. This specific Board is essential to the organisation in terms of international support and visibility.

Counsellors

Close the Gap’s Counsellors complement the Board of Directors and consist of a number of international peoplewilling to support Close the Gap in terms of network and visibility. Some members take responsibility for specific tasks, while others provide valuable input in another way. Each Counsellor brings something unique to the organisation. Counsellors do not have any legal authority but mainly act as international ambassadors for the organisation. They can undertake meaningful and purposeful activities for support specific to the organisation in policy, planning, evaluation, public relations and sometimes fundraising.  Counsellors are active in many countries within different sector such as development, education, health or microfinance sectors.

Strategic Partners

Close the Gap could not exist without the daily support of its Strategic Partner network. All partners support the organisation through philanthropic activities in their specific field.

Managing Director

The Board of Directors of Close the Gap has entrusted the daily management to Olivier Vanden Eynde, founder of the organisation, by means of a management agreement.

On an annual basis, two members of the Board of Directors hold an evaluation session with the Managing Director as part of an ongoing, collaborative inquiry to explore the daily functioning of the Managing Director. During the evaluation that took place at the end of 2008, the Board stated that the work of Close the Gap was considered to be very successful and efficient.

Since 2009, an Operations Director, Mrs. Aurélie Dupont, has been appointed in this position. This allows the Managing Director to invest more time and energy in the strategic future plans of the organisation.

A characteristic of the organisation is also the open relationship between daily management and employees. The vulnerability of the relatively small organisation was overcome thanks to the strong joint effort between the daily management and the Chairman of the Board, Prof. em. Dr. Wim A.G. Blonk.

Close the Gap values

Close the Gap’s Board of Directors, management and employees deliver the organisation’s five key mission values to counsellors, strategic partners, donors, supportive partners and contacts on a daily basis:

• Safety: when dealing with the erasing (data wiping) process
• Comfort: when dealing with the easy donation process in terms of logistics
• Reliability:  thanks to PKF International’s external audit and Deloitte Belgium’s internal audit
• Transparency: when dealing with all Close the Gap partners (counsellors, strategic partners, supportive partners, service partners, donors and contacts in general)
• Environmentally-Responsible: when promoting its “zero waste to landfill” policy with local partners

External audit

Since transparency is a key component of a healthy organisation, Close the Gap is audited on a yearly basis by “PKF Bedrijfsrevisoren Belgium”. The audit is conducted in accordance with legal and statutory requirements and provides assurance that the financial statements are free of material misstatement. The audit process includes measuring the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by the management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statements. This way, the organisation wants the public to better understand how resources have been used.

Internal audit

At all times, Close the Gap wants to be reliable towards its donors and partners. In order to ensure a transparent and professional use of funds (raised by strategic partners, donors and subsidiary governments), Deloitte supports Close the Gap with internal audits, risk management and legal support, as well as by providing Deloitte experts to carry out the entire accounting. A two-yearly audit conducted by Deloitte oversees the entire technical path to guarantee that the refurbishing and logistic track, as well as the quality assurance of the equipment delivered to Close the Gap projects take place in a consistent and transparent way. Close the Gap is also assessing how more internal audits can be carried out in the future.

The next internal audit will occur in May 2011. Results will feature in the annual report 2011.

Project Management

This entire process of transparency by internal and external auditing is strengthened furthermore by Close the Gap’s policy concerning its project management, which operates clearly by a neutral and independent selection of projects based on clearly-defined criteria. Two guiding principles, hereby, are the sustainability of the project as well as the concept of local ownership by each project beneficiary. This means that local partners are ultimately responsible for the results of their supported activities. In most cases, Close the Gap charges a modest contribution per computer configuration, but exceptions can occur when external funds or Close the Gap funds are available to carry the costs of a project.

To enhance the long-term self-supporting nature of its projects, Close the Gap offers all-inclusive solutions to its partners, including peripheral equipment, additional hard- and software and capacity building programmes through various qualitative partnerships, both local and international. The tools provided by these partnerships lead to improve sustainable projects and to bring people together to exchange knowledge and experience. A large number of projects found these broad sources to support them, thereby securing a sustainable and independent integration of the Close the Gap equipment.

Communication

Having a well-developed and open communication strategy – both in the short and the long run – is vital to an organisation like Close the Gap. Therefore, in the course of time, a traceable communication path was established to improve the organisation’s transparency. This was done by providing complete information about every step in Close the Gap’s process chain. In practice, this means that all communication matters are handled by the polyvalent Close the Gap team, coordinated by the Managing Director, who makes sure that all relevant information about executed projects, partnerships and other facts are accessible through the Close the Gap website, newsletters and other communication media.

Social Entrepreneurship

In the rapidly-emerging non profit world, it is important for an organisation to become self-sufficient rather than having to entirely or partly depend on contributions or subsidies. Close the Gap is aware of this and therefore operates as a social enterprise, combining the passion of a social, philanthropic mission with the very best of the for-profit enterprising world. It is, however, important to mention that Close the Gap’s social and environmental mission will always stay central to all its activities.

Risk Management

For Close the Gap, it is important to focus its programmes on the long term, since the digital divide cannot be closed within one day. Hence, it is important to build in financial assurance. Close the Gap has various ways of dealing with the risk of fluctuating income and the implications of this on the continuity of its projects. The organisation manages financial risks through a policy of spreading income. Income is obtained from multiple sources, including individual donors, gifts from strategic partners and institutional donors.