Category Archives: Governance

Questions and Answers

I’m either asked these questions or I come across them in my work.  Here are three somewhat common ones.Questions?

Our nonprofit is getting ready for our first audit.  What are we supposed to do, and what does the auditor do?

You should receive a letter of engagement from the auditors that helps spell out the relationship.  You’ll also get a lists of things to do and get ready before the auditors come to your offices for the field work.  This article also talks about the process.  But if you have any questions you should ask your auditors before things get going to avoid any confusion and additional cost.

Should board members be allowed to contact staff directly?  Or should all contact go through the Executive Director?

This was a question on an email listserv and the answer that I liked was posted here.

I would like to have “Gross Receipts” defined. Would this include the value of our volunteer labor? Or is it strictly cash value of donations received?

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Money Managing in Challenging Times

valueFirst of all, thanks to all those who attended last weeks training.  The resources we talked about will be listed below.

It goes without saying that these are interesting times financially and operationally for the charitable sector.  Like many of you, I went through the economic slowdown that came after the tech meltdown in 2001 but this seems to be of a far greater magnitude.  But if there can be any silver lining in all of this, I think it is a greater focus on the operational side of nonprofit organizations.

I have read more articles about not-for-profit operations, administration and finance recently than I think I have in the last ten years.   And they have been positive.  They have spoken of the need for organizations to look at how their finances and operations are handled, to make sure they have the systems in place to be able to figure a) out exactly where they stand financially and b) what to do going forward as far as budgeting, cash flow and capacity.

While I’m not happy about the pain that will be felt by many organizations and the populations they serve I am pleased that these discussions are taking place and that we will end up with a stronger sector once this crisis passes.

Below are many links to articles and resources on money managing in tough times, divided into three sections.  More resources come out every day, so at best this list will only be complete as of the moment it is published, so if you know of any good resources that are not listed below please add them to the comments section.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the comments to see what others add.

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Nonprofit News Update

roundupThis edition of my Nonprofit News Update features resources for your nonprofit.  One thing I really like about how this sector operates is the willingness we have to share good ideas, to help out our brother and sister organizations.  Twitter is a fine example of that phenomena.  Just follow some of the nonprofit folk out there and you can learn a lot about what is going on in the sector and where the choicest resources lie.

Along the lines of social networks and sharing reddit and Idealist have come together to bring us IdealistNews, a place to post, rate and comment about news articles the feature charitable issues.  Check it out and see what others think is relevant to the nonprofit sector.

A nice resource for nonprofit boards of directors are these videos from BoardSource.  The eleven videos will walk you through the basic responsibility of nonprofit boards, including financial matters.

Been laid off?  Planning on laying people off?  This Guide to Surviving Layoffs might be a good page for helping you and others get back on your feet.

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