This survey of 906 nonprofit finance professionals reveals some surprises about these crucial-but-often-overlooked staff, looking at questions ranging from educational backgrounds, workload, board and CEO understanding of finance, and CEO compensation:
Nonprofit finance scandals make for eye-catching headlines: whether about misused public funds, egregiously high salaries, constituents not served, or reserves squandered. But while nonprofit finance scandals make the headlines, the people who manage the funds — nonprofit finance professionals — are largely overlooked. And while studies have looked at the tenures and experiences of executive directors (CEOs) and development directors, few have looked at the finance professionals in our nonprofits.
Despite the occasional and highly-publicized problem, the very fact that such problems make the news testifies to the infrequency of such occurrences. Nonprofits are relatively free of financial scandal and abuse, demonstrating both professional expertise and a strong sense of values. But today even the best-managed nonprofits are working not only to steward charitable funds, but to manage earned-income operations, to re-invent their business models, to strengthen the leadership functions of governance, and to maximize the use of funds for mission and values.
Finance professionals are at the core of these efforts.
This study was conducted by Steve Zimmerman and Jan Masaoka under the auspices of American Nonprofits with data analysis assistance from Kristen Wolslegel. More than 900 individuals responded to survey notifications through Blue Avocado and American Nonprofits. For job and career-related questions, only those respondents who characterized themselves as staff CFOs or equivalents were analyzed; this represented 557 professionals. Different screens were used for various questions. Percentages reported are percentages of those answering a particular question. (Results from each segment of respondents is being used to inform planning efforts at Blue Avocado and American Nonprofits.)
The study reports findings in four areas:
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- CFO Profiles: educational and job backgrounds
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- Staffing the finance function: how nonprofits of various sizes and business models staff finance activities
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- Concerns: stressors and areas presenting challenges
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- Miscellaneous: some questions were added to the survey touching on financial health, CEO compensation, and other miscellaneous areas.
CFO profile
Nonprofit finance professionals have strong educational backgrounds and average tenures that are considerably longer than executive directors and development directors.
Despite the stereotype of the nonprofit finance person as untrained, 47% of nonprofit finance professionals have college degrees in finance-related majors. All segments of the CFO population reported high usage of books, articles, non-degree training programs, counsel from auditors and board members, and other on-the-job learning opportunities.
More than 70% of finance professionals have been in their positions for more than six years. These tenures compare very favorably with those reported for development directors of two years and executive directors of three to five years.
Three distinct profiles of nonprofit finance professionals emerged correlating to the financial sizes of their organizations.
For larger organizations with revenues over $3 million, the finance professional:
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- Frequently has more than six years of experience: 43%
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- Studied finance in college: 56% studied finance or accounting in college
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- Is likely to handle government contracts as part of their work: 45% rate government contracts as “very important” to their organizations
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- Has an engaged board and/or finance committee that understands the business model of the organization: 51% responded that the board has a general understanding of the organization’s financial health
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- Has an executive who understands the business model and strategy: 81%
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- Has an average salary of $97,764
For mid-sized organizations with revenues between $500K and $3 million, the finance professional:
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- Learned about nonprofit finance from other nonprofit finance professionals and books and articles, although 31% reported having learned about nonprofit finance in college
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- Is somewhat likely to handle government contracts as part of their work: 39% rate government contracts as “very important” to their organizations
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- Is less likely to have an engaged board and/or finance committee that understands the business model of the organization: 36% responded that the board has a general understanding of the organization’s financial health
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- Has an executive who understands the business model and strategy: 72%
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- Has an average salary of $62,274
For small organizations with revenues of below $500,000, the finance professional:
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- Is more likely to be a volunteer or part-time staff: 62% of respondents from small organizations were board members, contrasting with 4% for large ones. 38% of respondents from small organizations were employed part-time, contrasting with 9% for large ones.
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- Is more likely to have less than one year of experience: 43%
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- Learned about nonprofit accounting and finance from the board treasurer, books and articles, and a technical assistance provider
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- Is unlikely to have an engaged board and/or finance committee that understands the business model of the organization: 13% responded that the board has a general understanding of the organization’s financial health
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- Is unlikely to handle government contracts as part of their accounting: only 16% rate government contracts as “very important” to their organizations
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- Is less likely to have an ED who understands the business model and strategy (46%)
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- Has an average salary of $13,403
While there can be resilience and competence among all nonprofit finance professionals, these results imply that larger organizations offer a more supportive environment for the finance professional. In turn, larger organizations are often rewarded with a longer tenured finance staff.
Staffing the finance function
For nonprofit staff in many positions, it can seem that there is never enough time to get the job done. The finance function is no different. Almost 80% of respondents said that having enough time to do their jobs was at least somewhat difficult; almost half of those said it was very difficult. This isn’t surprising given that smaller organizations are more likely to have volunteer or part-time finance staff. Strikingly, over 80% of all respondents are also responsible for functions other than finance.
In fact, regardless of revenue size, about 80% of finance staff has responsibilities beyond finance. The most common area of responsibility other than finance was human resources with most also engaged in technology, legal and office management. There were also a wide array of answers including facility management, program evaluation, administrative tasks such as insurance and risk management, and earned revenue enterprises.
Small finance departments
To do all this work, organizations with less than $1 million in revenue generally rely on one person, whereas between $1 and $3 million have two staff people in finance. Between $3 and $5 million, the average moves to 3 people in the finance department. Given the complexity of nonprofit financial transactions and management, no wonder so many feel they do not have enough time. Organizations do outsource some of their financial work with almost 60% outsourcing payroll.
Confidence
Their backgrounds, continuing study and long tenures contribute to a strong sense of confidence among nonprofit finance professionals. When asked about a series of challenges, nonprofit finance professionals view themselves as capable and confident:
Given their strong academic backgrounds and experience, the technical aspects of the job are not seen as difficult for finance professionals. However, those aspects that introduce greater uncertainty such as forecasting for year-end and preparing budgets create more difficulty. Similarly, finance professionals tend to enjoy non-difficult relationships with their peers and supervisors including the board, executive directors and auditors, but are challenged by staff who may not be complying with financial procedures such as timesheet submission.
Financial knowledge of other staff
We asked two questions to see how finance professionals perceive the degree to which their CEOs and their co-workers understand the organization’s financial health and business model. Nearly half of respondents — 48% — say that staff understand the financial health of their own programs, but not the overall organization’s financial health; only 22% reported such an understanding.
Finance professionals from small organizations were less likely to say that staff did not understand the financial health of the organization. This could be because smaller staffs lead to greater transparency or that the finances are easier to understand. Either way, it suggests that staff from small organizations have a better grasp of the financials than their counterparts at mid-size and large organizations:
< $500K | $500K-3M | > $3M | ||
Staff understands financial
health “not very well” |
17.4% | 43.5% | 38.3% |
Likewise, the staff of small and medium-sized organizations were somewhat more likely to understand the business model and strategy of the organization:
< $500K | $500K-3M | > $3M | ||
Staff understands the business
model and strategy “not very well” |
19.2% | 33.7% | 46.2% |
Financial knowledge of the executive director
For nonprofit financial professionals, few partnerships are as important as the one with the executive director or CEO. This partnership is often the foundation for financial success or turmoil within an organization. We asked financial professionals if they felt the CEO understood the organization’s financial health. Given the importance of the question even a response of half having in-depth knowledge seems low. In organizations with larger budget sizes, the CEO generally had a better understanding of the financial health and business model of the organization:
In contrast, there were virtually no differences among organizations of different sizes in terms of the degree to which the executive understands the business model, and executives appear to have strong understanding; as a result averages are shown here:
How well does the executive understand the business model?
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- Not very well: 4%
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- A general understanding: 23%
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- In-depth knowledge: 74%
Financial knowledge on the board
We also asked to what degree the board understands the financial health and business model of the organization. While the financial expertise of board members is often descried, respondents in many cases gave board members higher marks than they gave their CEOs.
Government contracts
Larger organizations are more likely to have government contracts, which typically come with new challenges for finance departments. Of those with such contracts, 91% of respondents found government accounting and reporting to be challenging. The delays in payments from government agencies can explain why 80% of agencies that have government contracts rate having enough cash on hand to meet payroll as difficult. But managing cash flow was not the only difficulty that government contracts cause. The survey also found that if you had significant government contracts you tended to have:
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- More difficulty finding trained staff to hire (70% vs. 30%)
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- More difficulty getting staff to comply with accounting procedures (69% vs. 31%); and
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- More difficulty working with contracts (73% vs. 27%)
Each of these becomes more important for government reporting and is under increasing scrutiny by public auditors as funds become scarce.
Restricted funds
Although 77% of organizations reported having restricted funds, few appear to be borrowing from them: only 14% reported having a negative net worth in unrestricted funds “sometimes or often,” while 86% said this is the case “never, almost never, or rarely.” This is worth noting because there is often the perception that organizations are using cash for purposes other than its restricted purpose.
CEO compensation
Because nonprofits CFOs are likely to know the salaries of all or most of the staff, we took the opportunity to ask them about their opinions about the salaries of the CEOs in their organizations. Large organization CFOs (65%) are much more likely to believe that the executive makes too much than their counterparts in either mid-size organizations (28%) or small ones (7%):
“The CEO at my organization makes too much”
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- > $3M: 65%
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- $500K – $3M: 28%
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- < $500K: 7%
At the same time, about a third of organizations, regardless of budget size, said that the CEO makes too little:
“The CEO at my organization makes too little”
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- > $3M: 34%
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- $500K – $3M: 34%
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- < $500K: 33%
Tellingly, CFOs do not believe that boards understand the full extent of CEO compensation:
Closing comments
When we asked respondents about their next jobs, almost 40% said that they will stay until they retire and leave the work force. This finding may reflect an older cohort or a group of professionals who stay put once they find the right job. Some implications from this study about hiring finance professionals:
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- Invest in your search for finance professional: good finance professionals who are supported will stick around for a long time.
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- Invest in professional development for your finance staff: most finance professionals reported significant learning on-the-job and through taking workshops and classes. Both CEOs and board members can support these efforts.
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- When hiring finance staff, expand the areas where you might look beyond CPAs and accounting majors. Individuals who have finance degrees and/or significant experience at other nonprofits may be excellent candidates.
If you are a CEO or a board member, this study can serve to spark a conversation with your CFO about how better to educate staff and the board about the organization’s financial health and business model. Ask your CFO and finance staff about their workloads and non-finance responsibilities, what areas of work they find the most difficult, and what professional development they would like that would impact their job performance.
If you are a nonprofit board member, do you understand all the components of your CEO’s compensation? Does the board discuss the executive’s compensation, not just in terms of a raise, but in terms of whether the compensation is appropriate for both the scope of responsibilities and for performance?
If you are a CFO, which results reported here resonate with you? Are your experiences similar or different? How can you make use of this study to help you choose professional development activities for you and your staff?
Nonprofit finance staff are key to sound financial management and accountability, and important partners in business model analysis and evolution. This study shows them to be well-trained, long-tenured, and confident. They deserve our respect and support.
About the authors and the sponsors
Steven D. Zimmerman, CPA, MBA is the principal of Spectrum Nonprofit Services where he provides training and consulting in finance and strategy for community-based organizations throughout the Midwest. Steve writes the Finance and Strategy column for Blue Avocado, an online nonprofit magazine, and has also written for Nonprofit Quarterly and spoken nationally on these subjects. With Jeanne Bell and Jan Masaoka, he co-authored Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability (Jossey Bass, 2010).
Jan Masaoka is CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits), a statewide alliance dedicated to “bringing the full power of California’s nonprofits to strengthening communities.” Jan also founded and publishes Blue Avocado, to which 64,000 people have subscribed online, and which has been described as the second-best read publication in the nonprofit sector.
American Nonprofits is a membership organization open to U.S. nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organizations and their staff, stakeholders and volunteers. Members can participate in a range of educational, research, discussion, and collaborative opportunities in the broad area defined by finance and strategy.
American Nonprofits exists to:
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- Create a platform for research, dialog, and debate among nonprofit finance professionals and thought leaders on topics related to finance, accountability, capital, and strategy
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- Create a democratically governed financial institution — a federal credit union — owned by the nonprofit sector to which nonprofits, foundations and individuals can move their deposits, and see their deposits and fees used to support the nonprofit sector.
Blue Avocado is an online magazine written for nonprofit staff and volunteers to address issues real nonprofits face on a daily basis. Published six times a year and sent to 64,000+ subscribers (opt-in!), each issue provides at least one informative, one thought-provoking and one fun article. Blue Avocado operates under the sponsorship of American Nonprofits. To subscribe for free, visit www.blueavocado.org or send an email to editor@blueavocado.org with “subscribe” in the subject line. Blue Avocado depends on your donations to keep us going!
This is some really good information about CFO studies. It is good to know that it would be smart to have a widen the range of stuff the CFO will handle stuff. I wouldn’t have thought about doing that but it does seem like it would be smart to consider.
A non-profit asked me to clean up an office, set policies and procedures in place and then become the office manager until a suitable person was found because their CEO was leaving. I understood I would then become the volunteer coordinator (my real passion). The CEO had 2 weeks left before her resignation took place. I attempted to learn all I could from her and was side stepped at every turn. When I asked for the key box so I could double check the building keys, she threw a bag of keys at me which flew all over the floor. I picked them up, found what key belonged to what door, and chalked it up to the stress of changing jobs. After she left and I had access to the files, all the files had been purposely mixed up – individual sheets of paper shuffled better than a deck of cards all in on file. It took 3 months and 5 volunteers working 5 days a week to resort and file all those papers, but it only took one week to find the real reason she left and the files were a mess: $50,000 a year were missing for the past 3 years and numerous baloney contracts to friends of the former CEO. I studied the non-profit world and learned that embezzlement and theft are extremely common due to ignorance and the good feelings/faith of most of the non-profit volunteers, employees and boards. Non-profits without good controls, a strong board, and following standard financial practices are a target for thieves. Such non-profits can accidentally “tempt” their good employees and volunteers by not having strong policies and procedures. To counter the good mushy feelings non-profit members have, I suggest making decisions based on policies and procedures and disregard one’s (or board’s) natural feelings to help, of generosity and pity.
Good material from Bridgespan for people interested in becoming nonprofit CFOs:
https://www.bridgespan.org/Publications-and-Tools/Chief-Financial-Officer/BecomeNonprofitCFO.aspx
Hi Jan, I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I just read the your survey of CFOs with great interest. It seems like several things are coming together right now—nonprofit fraud reports, an indirect cost report, and now this.
It has started me thinking about how they are related. Nobody wants to pay for indirect costs, but they still expect impeccable financial accounting. Perhaps they need to rethink their positions on adequately paying for this—not just the CFO, but also allowing for enough accounting staff to have a proper separation of duties as well.
During my life as an ED of a provider organization, I always felt that the CFO position was the most difficult to fill because of the lack of training colleges provide about nonprofit (fund) accounting. One of the criteria I always used in hiring for the position was that the person had to have nonprofit accounting experience. I just found that too often, even CPAs simply just didn’t get it if they had always been in the for-profit world.
And, when I did organizational development consulting with small nonprofits who depended on volunteers and board members, it was even worse. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times I had to tell the accountant on the board (who was usually enlisted because of this background) they were wrong in how they were advising the organization.
I am not sure why the differences between for-profit and nonprofit accounting seems so difficult for finance people, but I have found it to consistently be the case. It makes you realize how rare and vital a good nonprofit CFO truly is. You can be sure I will be using the information included in your report about contracting in my efforts. Congratulations on a timely, needed report. –B.
Thank you so much for the CFO article. I’ve been working in a non-profit for over seven years and have never seen this level of focus or clarity dedicated to a position which is incredibly important to the stability and success of our organization. I forwarded it to our Board chair, Finance committee members and, of course to our CFO. So glad to have received it.
Found article/survey on Finance Staff to be very good and accurate.
Great article. I plan to use it in my graduate nonprofit finance course this spring. Financial management is so much more than auditing and compliance. Nonprofits that value the CFO position know that it is equally as important to look forward as back.
As a former Finance Director I can testify to the unbelievable problem of people refusing to turn in timesheets, demanding to be reimbursed without reciepts, and "forgetting" to give me CRUCIAL information. I also don't know why this makes me so insanely irritable.
Aw, well – I (and others I imagine) feel your pain. It is a mystery – I think there may be something about being asked that makes some folks feel they are being interrogated and are under suspicion. That may be due to their actually feeling guilty because they are guilty of wrong-doing, uncomfortable being on the spot about money, or whatever. I like a Blue Avocado reference that noted importance of integrity from the top down so luckily our ED goes by the same rules as everyone else. No ticket, no laundry. I'd say make rules clear, make consequnces clear and then stick to both. If that means someone's paycheck is run with the next batch or the non-profit doesn't cover expense without a receipt – then so be it. Just remember to be even and fair to all and consistent. People learn. You can always blame it on the audit; I do.
Insightful article, thanks. I can't agree more that a capable and valuable CFO should be compensated well for their efforts. Often times the problem lies with the donors and the archaic notion that nonprofit personnel should work for peanuts. As long as we are slaves to the 20% or under indirect cost paradigm (which is easily fudged for those that are less than transparent by nature) and the fact that many donors will not pay for support salaries, our hands are tied. In fact, I would add that ALL good staff should be compensated well. They are hard to come by and it is frustrating when the really good ones move on because some larger multi-national has a bigger overhead budget to pay them out of. Everyone deserves increased pay when they can get it so no blame is placed on the employee when they grab good opportunities. Thanks. Janeen Simon, ED WINGS Guatemala