"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Q: What's your go-to website when things are bleak?
A: www.nonprofitwithballs.com
Q: Where do I learn about the different types of nonprofits, including requirements for their formation?
A: http://www.irs.gov/charities/index.html
Q: What general advice is there for budgeting in a nonprofit?
A: Unless you're putting together a budget for a grant request and need to use "zero-base" budgeting, most nonprofits during most of their life-cycle (except start-up and overhaul/renewal), use "line-item" incremental change budgeting, which involves looking at near-term historical trends as base-line data and then building the budget +/- from that base-line. Budgets help with planning, strategy, operational and financial monitoring & control, and act as a communication to stakeholders about how the organization will use resources and the commitments it hopes to deliver upon. Each month, the nonprofit's financial statements can be compared to the budget expectations. These statements include, "The Statement of Activities" (in for-profit lingo, the Income Statement or Profit & Loss Statement); "The Statement of Financial Position," (or Balance Sheet), and the Cashflow Statement. At management's or the Board of Directors' discretion, other separate statements or schedules can be additionally prepared to keep track of other key financial matters, such as capital expenditures. As our auditors reminded us, it is important for an organization to thoroughly understand its costs, both fixed and variable, and both direct and indirect (overhead). As a variation of our basic equation reminds us, "without margin, no mission." In our auditors' experience, some nonprofit leaders give in to the temptation to "dabble" outside their agency's core business, without thoroughly appreciating the full costs of doing so. Consequently, the "contribution margin" of that new line of business may be insufficient to cover all that new program's costs, which then requires another program to contribute margin to the money-losing endeavor. To better track this risk, some nonprofits budget and monitor the contribution margin (revenue-expenses) of each of their programs.
Q: What general advice is there for daily financial management of a nonprofit?
A: Since "cash is king," and since a budget is generally an annual planning process and is useful for monthly review and management control, but not good for timely cash management, a "rolling" look-ahead forecast is recommended. The forecast can be updated with the latest revenue and expense trends, as well as the latest changes in your assets (e.g. accounts receivable) & liabilities (e.g. accounts payable; debt), and then not only compared to the budget, but also to anticipate cash shortfalls or needs. This anticipatory value of a forecast can help the nonprofit manager make timely financial and operational decisions in between the annual budget cycle.
Q: By "value-proposition," do you basically mean how an organization delivers value to its clients?
A: Yes, with the caveat that an argument could be made that a nonprofit's "value-proposition" extends to all its stakeholders, including its supporters. Consequently, a thorough or comprehensive assessment of an NPO's value-proposition may want to consider "what's in it" for all who are "invested" in the difference that the NPO is trying to make in the world.
Q: Where can I find best practices in the actual scaling of NPOs?
A: http://www.socialimpactexchange.org/
Q: Where can I find out specific information about the legal requirements of different nonprofits?
A: www.irs.gov/charities/ for tax-exempt requirements of U.S. nonprofits. And www.icnl.org for filing and regulatory requirements of 50 countries' requirements. Individual Secretary of State Departments or Departments of Revenue or Commerce for any State requirement. www.boardsource.org or www.blueavocado.org for templates/examples of nonprofit articles of incorporation or bylaws. For best-practice guidelines for the different types of charitable foundations or nonprofits, see either the Council on Foundations website: www.cof.org or the Alliance for Nonprofit Management www.allianceonline.org For human, environmental, and societal sustainability data, see the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board or www.sasb.org
Q: Where can I find information about leading-edge NPO innovations?
A: Stanford Social Innovation Review www.ssireview.org ; Johns Hopkins' Center for Civil Society Studies http://ccss.jhu.edu/ ; FSG Social Innovation Consulting www.fsg.org ; The Bridgespan Group: Nonprofit Strategic Consulting www.bridgespan.org ; www.foundationcenter.org ; www.daringtolead.org; http://hks.harvard.edu/centers/hauser ; http://thegiin.org ; bcgperspectives.com
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Q: What are some good questions my nonprofit should be asking about our programs, services, and products?
A:
- Is it needed?
- Does it work?
- Will it be used?
- Will it reach those who need it most?
Questions to clarify your sense of purpose/vocation...
1. What are you good at doing?
2. What do you enjoy?
3. What feels most useful to you?
4. What creates a sense of forward momentum for you?
5. How do you best relate to others?
REGISTER TO BECOME A FREE USER ON BOTH WWW.GUIDESTAR.ORG AND WWW.CHARITYNAVIGATOR.ORG
Other Resources on dashboards, metrics, SROI...
http://dashboard.imamuseum.org/ http://www.blueavocado.org/content/nonprofit-dashboard-and-signal-light-boards
http://www.thesroinetwork.org/sroi-analysis/the-sroi-guide http://www.hbs.edu/socialenterprise/
Other cool sites, across a variety of needs & possibilities...
https://www.bcgperspectives.com/
http://plusacumen.org/
www.garyhamel.com
http://community-wealth.org
www.socialimpactdata.org
www.standforyourmission.org
http://www.theharwoodinstitute.org/
http://policylink.org/
www.communitycommons.org
www.hbr.org
http://www.emergingleader.co/
http://www.ideas42.org/
Resources for nonprofit financial management? www.strongnonprofits.org
www.therules.org -- community organizing
https://thousandcurrents.org/buen-vivir-fund/ -- community wealth-building
www.emcf.org -- a sunsetting strategic investment philanthropy
www.mdrc.org -- top-notch program/impact evaluation studies
https://www.blackbaud.com/nonprofit-resources/blackbaud-index -- rolling 3 month trend of $32B in U.S. philanthropy across 8,855 NPOs; published 1st of every month
https://www.growthink.com/businessplan/help-center/non-profit-business-plans
https://www.nonprofitdemocracynetwork.org/
https://thousandcurrents.org/buen-vivir-fund/ -- community wealth-building
www.emcf.org -- a sunsetting strategic investment philanthropy
www.mdrc.org -- top-notch program/impact evaluation studies
https://www.blackbaud.com/nonprofit-resources/blackbaud-index -- rolling 3 month trend of $32B in U.S. philanthropy across 8,855 NPOs; published 1st of every month
https://www.growthink.com/businessplan/help-center/non-profit-business-plans
https://www.nonprofitdemocracynetwork.org/