Governance & Policies
How the Foundation is governed, who is accountable for what, and our policy suite, available to download.
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For institutional funders and due diligence
Accountability
Everything an institutional funder, a regulator or a careful donor needs in order to assess us: governance, policies and published documents.
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Reports & Publications
Our Corporate Profile, programme structure guide and leadership biographies. Annual report and audited accounts are scheduled, and we say plainly that they are not yet published.
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How we measure impact
What each programme must have before it launches, the indicators we use, and what we do not yet claim. Found under Our Impact.
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Stewardship
Financial stewardship
Every naira entrusted to the Foundation belongs to the people we serve. Our approach rests on three commitments: control before scale, restriction honoured, and transparency by default.
The controls we operate
| Control | How it works |
|---|---|
| Budget approval | Programme budgets are approved by the Board before expenditure is committed. |
| Payment authorisation | Defined authorisation thresholds, with separation between the person requesting a payment and the person approving it. |
| Documented procurement | Written quotations above threshold, and separation between specifying goods and purchasing them. |
| Staged disbursement | Grants to participants are released against milestones, not as lump sums, and no one both selects a participant and releases their funds. |
| Signed records | Distribution lists, receipts and delivery records retained for every item issued. |
| Monthly review | Management accounts reviewed monthly against budget. |
Restricted funds
Where a donor gives for a specific purpose, that restriction is honoured absolutely. The Synia Scholars Fund will operate as a ring-fenced fund with its own agreement, published selection criteria, separate accounting and an annual statement to its donors. We will not promote it externally until that architecture exists.
Risk
Managing risk
The Board maintains a live risk register. We publish it because an organisation that cannot name its own risks is unlikely to be managing them. Open any risk to read the detail.
Safeguarding
Exposure. We work with children and vulnerable adults. A failure here would be both an ethical and an existential reputational failure.
Mitigation. Policy adoption as a precondition of delivery; vetting; two-adult rule; consent discipline; reporting route; partner obligations
Security & access
Exposure. Insecurity can restrict access to communities and endanger staff and participants.
Mitigation. Community-rooted delivery; local partners; movement decisions made locally; no activity where staff or participants would be placed at risk
Funding concentration
Exposure. The wider funding environment has contracted sharply, and over-reliance on any single source would be fragile.
Mitigation. Diversification across individual, diaspora, corporate, institutional and partnership income; growth of recurring giving
Over-extension
Exposure. Committing to more programmes than we can deliver would damage credibility and dilute quality.
Mitigation. Phased portfolio; only programmes with a written model launch; honest reporting
Evidence deficit
Exposure. Without outcome data we cannot prove impact or compete for institutional funding.
Mitigation. Baselines mandatory; monitoring framework; external evaluation planned
Key-person dependency
Exposure. Concentration of relationships, knowledge and profile in the founder.
Mitigation. Independent Trustees; documented programme models; delegated programme ownership; leadership development
Tenure & investment
Exposure. Improving shelter a household is later evicted from converts a grant into a loss.
Mitigation. Right to remain verified before shelter works; Protection paired with Shelter; written site permissions
Financial control
Exposure. Weak controls in a growing organisation create exposure to error and to fraud.
Mitigation. Separation of duties; staged disbursement; documented procurement; Finance & Audit sub-committee; audit
Roadmap
Strategic priorities to 2029
Our strategy is deliberately sequenced: institutional foundations first, three flagship programmes second, and expansion third, because a portfolio that outruns its systems eventually fails the people it was built for.
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Phase 1
to mid-2027
What happens in this phase
- Adopt the Safeguarding Policy and code of conduct.
- Launch three flagships, Train a Child, Enterprise Development, Safe Shelter, each with a written model.
- Establish the Synia Scholars Fund architecture.
- Introduce the monitoring framework.
- Recruit independent Trustees and a finance lead.
Test of completion. All three flagships have a model, a unit cost, an indicator set and one completed delivery cycle with data
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Phase 2
2027–2028
What happens in this phase
- Launch Protection & Rights, Savings & Financial Inclusion, WASH, and Emergency Response & Household Recovery.
- Formalise the Community Wellbeing platform.
- Publish annual report and accounts.
- Register as a UN implementing partner and join relevant clusters.
Test of completion. Two years of audited accounts; one institutional grant delivered and reported on time; monitoring producing outcome data
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Phase 3
2028–2029
What happens in this phase
- Launch Youth Skills & Employability, Durable Solutions & Resettlement Support, and Women's Economic Empowerment at scale.
- Formalise the NCFRMI partnership.
- Commission an external evaluation.
- Build the country and regional model layer.
Test of completion. Published cost per beneficiary for each flagship; one external evaluation completed; formal federal or state partnership in place
Questions? Contact us