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Loans From Nonprofit Board Members
In many nonprofits, a time comes when the question arises: should the organization accept personal loans from board members? This article does not try to answer that question. It does try to outline — very briefly — some of the choices in how …
Golden Rule of Board Resignations
At some point you may resign from a nonprofit board before your term is up. You might be angry, disappointed, or just too busy. Don’t botch your resignation: do it right. Most often as board members we stick out our term limits and leave …
Financial focus: You told us
In our April issue, we asked you to offer your thoughts on how the current political landscape will affect your organization’s funding. Your answers weren’t surprising, but they weren’t optimistic either. That’s understandable. It’s tough …
Four Ways to Remove a Board Member
Occasionally, a board member needs to be removed from the board. In some cases, a conflict of interest or unethical behavior may be grounds to remove an individual from the board. In other cases, the behavior of a board member may become so obst …
Can Nonprofit Boards Vote By Email?
Can nonprofit boards vote by mail and email? As is true of so many matters, there are legal answers and sensible answers to this question, which may not be the same. Attorney Gene Takagi and Emily Nicole Chan discuss both in this helpful article …
Nonprofit Auctions: A Complete Compliance Guide and Sample Forms
Auctions are known for two characteristics: they raise money (sometimes a lot), and they are a ton of work. Blue Avocado contributor and CPA Dennis Walsh gives us a complete, handy compliance guide, and even better: five sample forms to make sure your …
Treasurers of All-Volunteer Organizations: Eight Key Responsibilities
More than half of the nonprofits in the United States are estimated to be all-volunteer organizations. Here is a wonderful, succinct guide for the 600,000 + treasurers of such organizations: My time as treasurer of a faith-based nonprofit was a …
Bylaws Checklist
The very mention of bylaws in a board meeting is usually met with dread. It typically means either that a conflict has risen to the point where the bylaws must be consulted, or it means that someone is pointing out an area of noncompliance that …
Five Internal Controls for the Very Small Nonprofit
Segregation of duties, checks & balances . . . difficult to implement in the organization that has perhaps three or fewer staff, or only a few active board members in an all-volunteer organization. We asked CPA Carl Ho, who works with dozens …
How Much to Pay the Executive Director?
Nonprofit board members are often puzzled when it comes to setting the salary of the executive director. On one hand, we want to keep our talented staff; on the other hand, we know the budget is tight. Some legal and practical guidelines: It’s m …
