Tag Archives: Records Retention

Financial Management

MFMP-logoI have written before about creating policies for your nonprofit. Now nonprofits have a new tool they can easily use to create their own financial management policies and plans. The Nonprofit Risk Management Center has a new tool called My Financial Management Plan where users can go through up to 21 different modules on nonprofit financial and accounting topics to create a variety of policies and procedures to help manage, organize and streamline their financial operations. From the Risk Management Center:

Nonprofit leaders have spent countless hours developing the necessary components of a financial management plan. But for many organizations the components, from an annual budget, return on investment strategy, cash flow planning tool and more, remain disparate. The nonprofit lacks a cohesive plan that reflects the organization’s commitment to the effective stewardship of its assets. My Financial Management Plan was created to guide leaders in updating the components of their financial management systems and integrating these components into a cohesive plan. This powerful system features covers topics such as Board Fiduciary Obligations, Managing Fraud Risk, Managing Cash Flow, Return on Investment Analysis, Cost Allocation, Classifying Net Assets, Managing Cash Flow, Budgeting, the form 990 and Grants and Contributions.

My Financial Management Plan is a powerful tool to turn financial management strategies, policies and protocols into a plan that will help your nonprofit demonstrate both competence and accountability. Use the “Plan Modules” feature to go through the 22 system modules. Each module offers the opportunity to upload existing material from your financial management system, create new content (based on our templates or created “on the fly”), or skip sections you don’t wish to use. Use the “Manage My Plan” feature to edit your draft plan, upload supporting PDF files and view/download your plan. The system also features a classroom with easy-to-understand articles and resources on a wide range of financial management topics.

I was fortunate enough to work on this project and create a lot of the module content. I know that this will be a great tool for nonprofits to learn about what they need know about with regards to their nonprofit’s finances and creating the appropriate policies and procedures to ensure good financial stewardship. For those not ready to buy access to the program you can register with the site to receive periodic email updates on nonprofit financial issues.

If you have any questions or comments about the program please let me know via email or in the comments below.

More Questions and Answers

Questions?When I present trainings and workshops I always get at least one question I can’t answer on the spot and need to look up.  Here are the Questions and Answers from the week of January 12th, 2009:

  1. If our organization awards scholarships do we list that on the form 990?

    Yes you probably do.  For information about what kinds of grants and other assistance is listed in the updated Form 990 and Schedule I please click here.

  2. How long do we keep records for donations to our nonprofit?

    At least seven years after the donation.  Many organizations keep them permanently but that is up to the organization.

  3. When we pay someone a stipend do we have to give them a 1099 at the end of the year?

    Yes you do as it is considered “non-employee compensation.”  Please check out the IRS’s 1099-Misc information here.

  4. Where can I find more sample policies and procedures?  Specifically ones that the IRS is asking for?

    updated Form 990 The Yolo Community Foundation has put theirs online to promote good governance, please check them out here.
    Also the National Council of Nonprofits has some good samples as well.

  5. Do raffle and auction winners get a donation thank you?

    Yes, if they end up paying more than market value for the item they recieved.  Check out this nice piece from the IRS that is all about contributions and specifically take a look at the examples that start on page three.

Did I miss any?  Ask them in the comments below or email me.