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Ask Rita: FFCRA Paid Leaves 2021—Help!
Dear Rita, In March of last year, when the pandemic hit, we spent a lot of time implementing the required Covid-19-related paid leaves of absence. We drafted leave forms and gave notice to our employees of the right to take these leaves, and we are ver …
Alleviate Accounting Systems and Staff Training Chokepoints to Power Nonprofit Missions: A Case on How One Oregon Nonprofit Did It
Part 2: Personal to Personnel In 2019, I came to Lost Valley Education and Event Center (LVEC), first as a student, then as LVEC’s bookkeeper, with no prior training in the craft other than management of my own finances and my stint as an Air Force Int …
How to Plan and Execute an Emergency Succession
Covid-19 has had most of us asking generative questions at some point. What is the real purpose of our organization? If we can only do one thing, what should it be? If our leaders become caregivers, sick themselves, or even die, how will the organizati …
How Nonprofits Can Return to In-Person Board Meetings and Retreats as the Covid-19 Pandemic Winds Down
It’s Spring 2021 and your board retreat approaches. Half of your board members—and all of those over 65 or with chronic health conditions—have received a Covid-19 vaccine. In this near future, perhaps new Covid-19 cases have dropped below 60,000 …
The Employee Retention Credit: What Nonprofits Need to Know
Originally enacted as part of the CARES Act in March 2020, and subsequently voted into law last December, the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) may now be claimed by eligible employers—and that includes tax-exempt nonprofit organizations—that previously …
Ask Rita: Recording Conversations in the Workplace—Do I Have to Put Up with This?
Dear Rita: We recently met with an employee who has had a long history of not performing their job responsibilities as expected and of showing reluctance to accept our guidance to improve and meet expectations. At this meeting, we planned to give the e …
Alleviate Accounting Systems and Staff Training Chokepoints to Power Nonprofit Missions: A Case on How One Oregon Nonprofit Did It
Part 1: Innovation is Iterative In 2019, I came to Lost Valley Education and Event Center (LVEC), first as a student for the Holistic Sustainability Semester (HSS), one of LVEC’s programs, and then began employment as LVEC’s bookkeeper, with no prior t …
Running Your Nonprofit’s Accounting Department During Covid-19 and After
When stay-at-home orders hit a year ago, was it a seamless transition for your nonprofit, or was your bookkeeper sneaking into the office early on Saturday mornings to scan documents and do work on your desktop version of Quickbooks? Your organi …
Making Strategic Planning (Relatively) Painless
Strategic planning time! Do I hear groans or cheers? In my experience sitting on nonprofit boards and employed as a nonprofit staff member, I typically hear some grumbling when the topic of strategic planning comes up. Volunteers (or very minimally pai …
Re-Opening After Covid-19: What Nonprofits Need to Know about Reasonable Accommodation of Employees with Disabilities
Although the number of Covid-19 cases varies throughout the United States, nonprofit leaders are undoubtedly eager to re-open organizations and get back to business. While many continue to allow some staff to work remotely, others choose to or must hav …
