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Nonprofit Bookkeeping Test
If you’re not an accountant yourself, it can be hard to hire a qualified bookkeeper. How can you tell if an applicant really knows bookkeeping? CPA Dennis Walsh created this terrific assessment test you can give candidates for bookkeeping and ac …
Meaningful Budget Work by the Board
For many nonprofits, the annual "approval of the budget" is the cornerstone of board financial oversight. However, this annual approval is frequently an empty ritual: one where board members peruse a budget that they are unsure is realistic o …
A Board-Staff Agreement for Financial Accountability
Not all board members need to be familiar with financial terms and concepts, but eachorganization needs to develop a clear and explicit agreement for how financial accountability will be ensured. The following is a starting point for an agreement …
Eight Strategic Mistakes with Memberships
If you have members (whether those members fit the legal definition of member or not), chances are you’re making at least one of these strategic mistakes identified by Ellis Robinson. With striking clarity she points the way not only to bui …
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 …
Our Executive Director is Embezzling
It’s the phone call no board member wants or ever expects to get: word that the organization’s executive director is being investigated by the police for embezzlement. In this First Person Nonprofit article, Vernon Waldren, board member of the No …
Attorney Recommends Review Instead of Audit
When one nonprofit considered moving away from having an annual audit to having a review, the board wanted a legal opinion before making a decision. They sought out nationally-recognized nonprofit attorney Tom Silk, who has generously shared his letter …
Seven Ways to Reduce Your Audit Costs
Too many of us think of audit costs as an expense to suffer, not to manage. CPA Dennis Walsh tells us differently: Executive Director Blair Benson of the Mental Health Association in Greensboro, North Carolina, was hoping her audit costs wou …
Focus on the Destination, Not the Route (Budget)!
It’s time to stop looking at budgets, argues Jeanne Bell in this provocative finance column, and pay attention instead to projections and financial goals: In this precarious era, annual budgets have become like new cars: they los …
Finance Fear Factor Ratios
At even the most solid nonprofit organizations some board members and executive directors are beginning to wonder and worry, "Are we okay? Should we be worried?" Watching the traditional indicators of financial health — like performance-to-b …
