Mildred Khumalo

I am a seasoned Chartered Management Accountant with over 15 years experience in NGOs.

I have worked for Non-Governmental and Government organizations for the last 15 years, my key roles being a Finance Manager with the Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children (TTBC), Management Accountant with South African Institute of International Affairs as Management Accountant, Lawyers for Human Rights(LHR) as the Director of Finance and Operations and currently Chief Operations Officer with Grow Great Campaign a project of DGMT. I was also temporarily appointed as an Acting Co-Director for LHR for a period of one year. I have been responsible for preparing and presenting management reports to the Board of Directors, managing the annual budgeting process, closing funding gaps, managing foreign exchanges rates, reporting in foreign currency, establishing and maintaining key relationships with donors and other stakeholders, annual audit planning, and managing staff and performance appraisals; preparing and updating finance policies and procedures, strategic planning.

Over the last 15 years, I have gained extensive experience in grant financial reporting and proposal writing and I have worked with the following funders: UNHCR, European Union (EU), UNODC, USAID, FREEDOM HOUSE, CIDA, SIDA, DFID, OSF, FORD FOUNDATION, SRT, FIDH, CSDF, PRM, GIZ, DGMT, Tutuwa, Alan Gray, ELMA, Co-Impact, First Rand, amongst others. I have developed polices for our implementing partners and ensure that our partners utilize the funds for the intended purposes. I have also developed fundraising strategies for LHR and Grow Great.

I have gained substantial experience in developing project budgets, forecasting, asset management, procurement procedure and IT. I have changed the accounting packages for three organizations I have worked for, this has improved our reports. As part of the Executive Committee (EXCO), I take part in strategic planning.

Our planning sessions include bringing in various stakeholders, board members, branch managers and project heads. With my experience in project management, my involvement in programme planning has been huge and I have contributed in monitoring and evaluation of the various projects and measuring impact.

To complement my experience in project management and leadership, I have attended short courses on Project Management, People Management and Leadership and recently on IFRS-Impact of COVID-19 on Financial Reporting.

I am a Chartered Management Accountant registered with CIMA.