An Institute of Many Parts

One of the distinguishing features of CIPFA is that it has many roles and many public faces. In some ways it is a much more complex organisation than many larger enterprises.

Some of its key roles include:

• a membership organisation
• a professional body
• a stakeholder in the accountancy profession
• a stakeholder in the public services

and, adding to its complexity, the organisation which aims to live up to the responsibilities of these roles is

• both a registered charity and a commercial organisation.

All of these roles and public faces of CIPFA are important. Indeed in many ways they are inter-dependent. For this reason the Institute Council's development strategy aims, quite deliberately, to secure significant progress in relation to all of these roles over the next few years.