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Aug 08

Signs of hope in the American food system

By Trends

By Michael Pollan, author, reprinted from The Washington Post

In the 10 years since I wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” many things about the American food system have changed for the better, but perhaps the most important development — and potentially the most challenging to the long-term survival of that system — is the fact that the question at the heart of my book has moved to the heart of our culture.

I hasten to add this is not my doing. When I wrote the book, Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation” and Marion Nestle’s “Food Politics” had already helped pique the curiosity of Americans about the system that fed them. Yet, in general, all writers can really do is lift a sensitive finger to the cultural breeze and sense a coming change in the weather; very seldom do they actually change it themselves. (Or as one of my mentors once explained, “Journalists are at best short-term visionaries. Any more than that, no one would read them.”)

In fact, during the four years I spent researching the book, most of the time I felt like I was late to the story. Something about the public’s attitude toward food and farming was already shifting underfoot, and I became convinced my book was going to be dated on arrival. Food safety scandals, such as mad cow disease in England and outbreaks of E. coli contamination in fast food hamburgers in America, had raised disturbing questions about how we were producing meat. At the same time, climbing rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes had led many to wonder if perhaps Americans had developed a national eating disorder of some kind. Food, which is supposed to sustain us and give us pleasure, was making people anxious and sick. Why?

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Aug 08

Focus on natural capital costs in industrial farming

By Feature, Trends

By Dan Mitchell, independent journalist, Green Biz

It is nearly impossible to calculate the real costs and benefits — including the externalized or invisible costs — of any human activity: growing soybeans; making car tires; cooking dinner for your family. When growing soy, for example, it’s easy enough to calculate the total price paid for inputs such as fertilizer or pesticides and the price received for the finished crop.

But accounting for the total costs and benefits — such as environmental damage from fertilizer runoff or the social benefits of putting land to productive use — isn’t something we tend to do as a culture.

For example, the true costs of producing a Quarter Pounder with cheese are borne not only by McDonald’s, but also by all of us who have to deal with, among other things, environmental degradation caused by industrial farming and the bad public health outcomes of eating such meals.

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Aug 08

The final rule for nonprofit organizations

By Sponsor Insight

By Mike Staton , co-founder and managing director, Alerding CPA Group

The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has issued the new overtime final regulations (“Final Rule”) which impact nonprofits as well as for profits.  The new rules will go into effect December 1, and will mean that most employees earning less than $47,476 will be entitled to overtime compensation regardless of their employment classification.  Neither the Federal Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) nor the DOL’s regulations provide an exemption from overtime requirements for nonprofits.  However, there are special rules that apply to nonprofits which is where the confusion and details of compliance begin.

Here are some key points and how they apply to nonprofits:

  1. Effective Date:  December 1, 2016 with no phase in period allowed.
  2. Salary threshold:  The Final Rule raises the standard minimum level for salaried, exempt workers to $47,476 per full-time year from the previous threshold of $23,660.  White-collar employees must also meet the exemption requirements of the duties tests defined by the FLSA.
  3. Enterprise rules:  As a general matter, nonprofit organizations are NOT covered enterprises unless they meet the threshold test.  The FLSA and the Final Rule apply to enterprises with annual sales or business of at least $500,000.  For a nonprofit, enterprise coverage applies only to the activities performed for a business purpose (such as operating a gift shop).  It does not apply to the organization’s charitable activities that are not in substantial competition with other businesses.  Income from contributions, membership fees, many dues, and donations (cash or non-cash) used for charitable activities are not counted toward the $500,000 threshold.
  4. Individual rules:  There are also tests to be made at the individual level.  Organizations should review the FLSA guidelines on these rules.

Employers will need to pursue one of several options to comply with these changes.  The options include increasing exempt employees’ salaries to the new level, converting them to hourly employees and paying overtime, or one of many other options.

The DOL has published “Guidance for Non-Profit Organizations on Paying Overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act” for further clarification. You may also contact your Alerding CPA Group professional at 317-569-4181 or visit our website:www.alerdingcpagroup.com.

mikestaton Michael A. Staton, CPA
Managing Director
Mike is a Certified Public Accountant and is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Alerding CPA Group. Mike has served closely-held businesses for over 30 years and was named the Accounting Advocate of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2001.
See Michael Staton’s Full Bio ►

Aug 01

LISC: bridging the skills gap

By Feature, Programming

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Over time, Centers for Working Families has learned that with the right tools, families can take small, deliberate steps that change their financial footing from unstable to solid. But families also need access to higher quality jobs, higher wages, better benefits, steady employment and opportunities for advancement.

To acquire those jobs, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) realized that there were basic skills gaps that must be filled and plans to use a federal grant to do just that.

“We just got a smaller Social Innovation Fund grant to support an adult education program to bridge the skills gap,” said Tom Orr, senior program officer at LISC.

In January, the Social Innovation Fund (SIF), part of the Federal Corporation for National and Community Service, awarded funding to three Indianapolis Centers for Working Families — John Boner Neighborhood Center, Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center and Edna Martin Christian Center. A fourth center, Southeast Community Services Center, receives private funding.

Overseen by LISC, the SIF grant funds Bridges to Career Opportunities, which teaches core skills such as math, reading and English as a Second Language in combination with “soft skills” like interviewing, teamwork and conflict resolution. The coursework is organized by specific industries’ or sectors’ employment needs in order to prepare participants to succeed in subsequent technical-skills training. In the next 12 months, the goal is for nearly 200 people to receive these services.

This local effort is part of an $11.3 million SIF grant to the national LISC office, which developed the Bridges to Career Opportunities program and began piloting it last year. The goal is to “prepare low-wage workers for careers in local growth sectors.”

 

Aug 01

Program helps families become financially savvy

By Feature, Programming

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Ten years ago, Terri Ottinger was laid off, raising two elementary-aged daughters alone and trying to save the family home from foreclosure. Ottinger and the girls’ father had split, and more than anything, she wanted to keep the house they had owned together to give her children a stable lifestyle.

Not knowing how she could ensure that, she saw a flier for the Family Success program and applied to take part. A decade ago, that program, located at the Hawthorne Center on Indianapolis’ Westside, changed her life. What the program taught about budgeting and credit has stuck with her.

It helped her stabilize her finances, and since then, she has purchased a different home on her own, gotten a job with Wayne Township schools, started a savings account and paid her bills on time while boosting her credit score to over 700.

Today, the Hawthorne Community Center is one of eight Centers for Working Families in Indianapolis. Started with an Annie E. Casey Foundation grant in 2004, and originally called Family Success, the center was housed at Washington Community High School.

Indianapolis was a logical pilot site for the Family Success program, an outgrowth of the Casey Foundation’s Making Connections project. That work was already happening locally through a collaboration with Community Solutions Inc., a local community development consulting firm. Lena Hackett, CSI’s president and founder, said the Baltimore-based foundation’s research showed a strong link to fragile families being successful if they could optimize all of their revenue streams and have access to quality financial coaching.

Today, there are 80 centers in more than 30 cities around the country managed by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), one of the largest organizations supporting projects that revitalize communities. A recent indepen­dent study by the Economic Mobility Corporation found that Center for Working Families participants have greater success meeting their financial goals.

The key to their positive outcomes? The centers do more than simply offer employment assistance. Locally, to meet the needs in neighborhoods, more focus has been put on credit and budgeting. In addition, United Way is now a funding partner.

Tom Orr, senior program officer at LISC, has overseen the work in Indianapolis, and started with Hackett at CSI. He said the costs per center are $150,000 to $175,000 annually.

“We always say it’s not just another program, just a new way of organizing services for low-wealth or low-income families. It’s a bundle of services that consists of financial coaching, employment and career coaching and income supports broadly defined. Oftentimes it can mean the difference between stability and living on the street,” said Orr. He said it helps people get steady, living-wage employment, boosts their credit ratings and increases net income and net worth.

There are three main services bundled together: one-on-one financial counseling, employment assistance and help accessing public benefits that supplement work income. Clients are coached over the long term. LISC believes that no single strategy combats all the complex and deeply rooted factors of poverty, and holds true for individuals struggling to balance a household budget.

In January, United Way took the lead on financial sustainability for LISC’s model. LISC had had the benefit of significant federal funding for many years, but that is no longer available. Local funders also played key roles.

“We had local funders who really got it, the Clowes Fund, the Indianapolis Foundation and Pulliam Trust. Without their help, I don’t know that we could have done this,” Orr said.

To ensure ongoing support, Orr said he learned it was important to clearly communication to funders that this change doesn’t happen overnight.

“One lesson we learned is that this work takes a long time. The anecdotes that we share through the network are that this work takes two, three, four or five years for families really to make significant progress. And it’s not a straight line. Oftentimes, it’s just one step forward and one step back,” said Orr.

LISC provides opportunities for the eight centers’ staffs to network. All three coaching strands – employment, financial and supports – have roundtables to share information, peer exchange and in-service training. With the exception of the financial coaches who meet monthly, each group meets every other month. Site managers meet quarterly.

Over time, the process for a nonprofit to become a Center for Working Families has evolved and gotten more rigorous. It includes a pitch to stakeholders who help determine its inclusion. The newest organization to offer services is PACE, a nonprofit that “provides a variety of services to help offenders, ex-offenders and their families to lead productive and responsible lives in their community.”

According to Rhiannon Edwards, the executive director, the initial conversation was in 2009, when LISC was looking for an Eastside partner.

“At that time, we felt like, ‘We’re not really ready for that. We’re still trying to navigate what services our clients need to really be successful.’ So even though we’ve been doing this for a long time, we really looked at our data. We don’t just want to have an employment program, we wanted to figure out exactly what makes our population successful,” said Edwards. “We’ve realized as we’ve grown, we were delivering all the services that are being delivered in the Center for Working Families sites, other than the financial coaching.”

Once PACE decided there was potential, the first step was to apply for a planning grant to determine how the program could work with its existing services. Initially staff members worried that serving all of their clients might be impossible. Annually, PACE has 1,500 new clients.

“We were saying, ‘We’re a little nervous because our world is very different from the other organizations’ world.’ We want to make sure we’re not making a mistake trying to do this,” said Edwards. With the help of a consultant, the nonprofit created a logic model to serve as a road map for staff.

“People come to us in so many different times in their life, they’re not all ready to go down the Center for Working Families track. We deliver the same service that we delivered before we got this designation, we just have a process that decides when we enter them into the Center for Working Families database,” said Edwards.

Key to the program’s success, Orr said, is hiring skilled financial coaches. These are people who have the ability to work one-on-one with families on their finances and help with budgeting, credit repair and debt management.

“Credit is just a big deal. We’ve learned a lot about it over the years. It affects everything. People with bad credit pay more for everything. It affects their employment, it affects their housing prospects. There are just lots of ramifications to having bad credit. Moving credit scores is still a slow business. It might take a couple years or more,” said Orr.

Four years ago, LISC’s Chicago office developed a model called the twin-account program as a credit-building tool. A client applies for a $300 loan at a credit union that is a locked account. Monthly the client makes a $25 payment until the loan is paid off. The payments are reported to the three credit bureaus.

“At the end of the term, if they’ve paid all their payments on time, we’ll match. They then have $600 that they can use to invest in crediting building or pay down their debt. We have been fairly flexible in how they use it, we don’t want them to blow it, but we encourage them to use it so they can invest in a secure credit card or pay down debt or put it in a savings account. The coach works with them to make that decision,” said Orr. “If a person understands or can see that they’re making that kind of progress even if it’s modest, just moving from the 500s to the low 600s, they think, ‘Well, what else can I do to bump it further.’”

In the past five years in Indianapolis, 13,335 individuals have received one core service, and 10,285 have received bundled services. Of this number, 1,849 increased their credit scores. According to Orr, an estimated 53 percent of the people return for services, and key to this return is providing some type of on-going programming.

“If they’ve established a relationship with a coach, that’s what we want. We don’t want a case that is ‘closed.’ If the person is engaged in healthy budgeting, they may have passed the point of crisis, but working with a financial coach in that same way that people work with a financial adviser on their long-term financial goals. Especially, if they are beginning to put money away in a 401(k) or 527 college savings account, they’re growing assets and managing them. That’s what we hope to see,” Orr said.

Edwards said one of the hurdles they are learning how to overcome is how to get client buy-in. At PACE, a client doesn’t start with financial coaching. Most would never go to a financial coach because they have multiple priorities – finding a place to live, getting a job and re-entering society.

“So the first time the financial coach meets them is usually in the job readiness area, where he’s like, ‘Look, you wonder why I’m here talking to you? Here’s why I’m here talking to you. You are here to get a job, but you have bills, you already have financial commitments. You’re going to come in here and say, “Give me any job.” But in reality, you need to figure out what you need to make so you can pay child support, so you can pay probation. I’m here to help you figure out.’”

PACE started the program in January, and currently its financial coach has a caseload of 50. Most clients arrive without bank accounts, and that is part of the service that is provided. Workshops include sessions with banking partners to help clients open accounts.

“Before Center for Working Families we were trying all these different things to make sure that our clients didn’t go back to jail. Which is still what we’re doing, but now they can say, ‘Hey, you’re still working. Why don’t you come in and let’s do your budget again and see where you’re at, and see if you’re ready for something else.’ It’s just different mechanisms for us. So it gives us some different tools to pull out of the toolbox to figure out.”

While initially Edwards was skeptical, PACE’s criminal justice partners have been open to financial planning. She thought they would wonder why the nonprofit was doing financial coaching when they should have been getting clients jobs or off drugs. Once a client completes a budget, determining what can be paid to the courts, a copy of the budget is sent to probation and parole.

“And that’s good because Probation and Parole is getting their money and the system can keep moving, but then they can really see that the client cannot pay $100 a week, they can only pay $40,” said Edwards.

“They’re not like other people where you can say, ‘Do you want to buy a house?’ For a lot of them, it’s like, ‘Yeah, right. I’m nowhere near that.’ You cannot come at them with some of those big ideas. You’ve got to come a little bit smaller. So it’s being able to say, ‘Well, we can do a budget and see what we can do with your home detention fee,’ then they buy in. Then we can come back and say, ‘OK, let’s look at your credit report.’”

Edwards said that while the population her staff works with has other issues, ultimately all CWF clients have similarities.

“All our populations are coming from the same place, and that’s poverty. It takes a lot of work to get someone out of poverty. Now the road they travel is very different. But I think it’s all the same thing. They’re traveling that road and you just have to help navigate those barriers along the way.

Remember, Ottinger? When enrolled in Family Success, she took a tax course. Every year since then, she and her daughter volunteer at the Hawthorne Community Center. They, along with other volunteers, complete Hawthorne area-residents tax forms for free. She says that it’s her community service and desire to pay it forward.

Jul 26

Why your nonprofit should be using nonprofit accounting software

By Uncategorized

By Jim Simpson, CPA and director, Financial Technologies & Management   FTM logo

As the number of nonprofits has proliferated, accounting software is more tailored and can help manage these complexities.  But taking the time to select the right software for your nonprofit is critical.

Before your purchase, start with a software evaluation and assessment to see if you’re a good candidate for nonprofit accounting software.  The software evaluation and assessment will review your current system to determine its level or utilization and functionality.  It is probably a good idea to perform a software evaluation any time there is a major change within the organization either positive or negative.

Nonprofit accounting software has several features and functionality to help your organization with some of the following:

  • Flexible report writer
  • Grants management capability
  • Cost-allocation functionality
  • Strong audit trails
  • Integration with payroll, fundraising, and other applications
  • Expanded capabilities as organization grows
  • Various financial segment or element tracking to include funding sources, programs, projects, locations, and other essential financial information.

Here are features and functionality of the software that can provide optimum efficiency.

The flexible report writer allows you to use the accounting software to meet the internal and external complex reporting requirements.  Generating reports should be able to be varied to meet the board, program, and funder reporting requirements and easily modified to meet the changing program and funder needs.

The grants management capability allows you to track the financial results for each grant, and report back to the funder in the required format, using one accounting system.

Cost-allocation functionality allows you to easily allocate transactions on a real-time basis to multiple programs and funding sources all within the system. It should allow to you to pool various cost pools like facilities and overhead and allocate these to the various program and funding sources to provide a full-cost accounting.

Strong audit trails keep track of what users are doing within the accounting system.   The system should allow you to provide your annual auditors and program monitors with the financial information they need to meet their requirements and reduce the chances of fraud. Those involved in the finance function should have segregated permissions in the accounting system to protect the organization and its staff.

As organizations look to be more efficient, it is important they look at software that allows them to integrate their critical functions like payroll, fundraising, human resources, and other areas.   Nonprofit accounting software typically has this functionality built into its various modules or it allows for third party product integration.  It is typically modular based, which allows your organization to add functions and capabilities as the organization grows and needs additional tools.

One of the most important reasons to look into nonprofit accounting software is the ability track financial information different ways.

For example, an organization may want to track its various funding sources to see what funds are available.  It may want to track my various programs and projects to see what the programs costs are and how the organization is doing financially.  It might have various locations and want to know how each location is doing.  It might have donor and endowments restricted assets and wants to do a separate accounting for these donations to know what assets are left and make sure donor restrictions are met.

It is important, too, that staff remains efficient and effective, enabling them to focus on the long-term planning of the organization and not just keeping up with the day-to-day-accounting.

There are several purchase options that include direct purchase or subscription pricing to pay-as-you-go.  You will need to insure that you include software advisory services to include planning, implementing, and training.  In some cases, you will need to also include data conversion and integration services.

FTM_Jim Simpson photo   Jim Simpson, CPA and director of Financial Technologies & Management, is a nonprofit financial leader and trainer, CFO, controller, forensic consultant and software advisor, including Abila MIP Fund Accounting since 1999.  He has served CFO, controller and software advisor for over 25 years to over 350 nonprofit organizations.  Our nonprofit accounting solutions include Abila MIP Fund Accounting QuickBooks for Nonprofits, and other Nonprofit Accounting Software.

Contact Financial Technologies & Management to see how we can help your nonprofit with accounting solutions.  You can schedule an appointment directly from the website at WWW.FTMLLC.COM, email info@ftmllc.com or phone at 317-819-0780.

Jul 25

Data tool for Marion County

By Feature, Leadership

In case you missed it, WFYI’s “No Limits” aired a program about the new IndyVitals tool created by SAVI at The Polis Center. The tool contains an untold wealth of information about the 99 distinct neighborhoods of Marion County. It measures the health and sustainability of neighborhoods in Marion County in the following goal areas:

  • built environment
  • economy and jobs
  • education, arts and community
  • equity and empowerment
  • health and safety
  • natural systems
  • general demographics

John Krall’s guests were Sharon Kandris, director of community informatics and SAVI director, The Polis Center at IUPUI; Brad Beaubien, AICP, administrator for long-range planning, Department of Metropolitan Development, City of Indianapolis-Marion County and Steven Meyer, executive director, King Park.

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Jul 25

Three things great data storytellers do differently

By Feature, Leadership

By Jake Porway, founder and executive director of DataKind, for Stanford Social Innovation Review

How can data be used to both humanize our work and demonstrate robust social impact?

How can we use data to tell a story without bogging down our audience with numbers and statistics?

How can people be inspired by data?

These are just a few of the nearly 200 questions that represent a mix asked in a survey before Porway’s talk at SSIR’s Data on Purpose conference.

At DataKind, Porway and his colleagues use data science and algorithms in the service of humanity, and believe that communicating about the work by using data for social impact is just as important as the work itself. There’s nothing worse than findings gathering dust in an unread report.

At DataKind, staff believes projects should always start with a question. It’s clear from the questions above and others that the art of data storytelling needs some demystifying. But rather than answering each question individually, Porway poses a broader question to help get at some of the essentials: What do great data storytellers do differently and what can we learn from them?

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Jul 25

The state of storytelling in the nonprofit sector

By Feature, Fundraising, Leadership

By Vanessa Chase, founder, Storytelling Non-Profit and Network for Good

Stories have been a huge trend in the nonprofit sector in the past five years, but our sector has been telling stories for much longer. Year after year, we are committed to telling people about our work, progress, and needs. Each time we communicate these things, we are communicating pieces of the larger narrative about our organization.

But things are changing, and storytelling is becoming a much more intentional act. Across the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, storytelling is a buzzword and communicators are consumed with telling stories that will engage their target audience. In the nonprofit sector, donors make up that audience. Our challenge is getting our current donors to give more and acquiring new donors who care about the cause. This is not a new or small task for our sector.

“The State of Storytelling” is a project that came to life out of an interest to know how the nonprofit sector is actually using stories and what results organizations are getting. Stories are constantly talked about as a tactic, but are they really helping nonprofits get better fundraising results?

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Jul 25

Don’t waste your professional development

By Sponsor Insight

By Stefanie Krievins, coach and founder, The Heart Projects |

We do-gooders are great at doing good, which usually also means being constantly active. What we’re not so great at is renewing our spirit and taking breaks to avoid compassion fatigue — that unique form of tension and stress that comes from helping those in distress.

Professional development, in particular leadership development, can help you address the toll that this difficult — yet fulfilling — work takes on your well-being.

Many nonprofit staff are quick to attend trainings on the development of their technical skills: fundraising, management, budgeting, marketing and outcomes development. While this is certainly important, you’ll be able to apply those learnings more quickly if you also address your leadership skills:

  • How to prioritize
  • Goal setting
  • Project and time management
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Ability to challenge the status quo
  • Inspiring and communicating with others

As you enter a new budget year, plan now to strategically use your professional and personal development benefits offered by the organization.

In the short-term, it can seem difficult to dedicate time to your own development because there are so many pressing issues. If you apply the information directly after the training or coaching, you’ll probably find that you’re more efficient, focused and energized. In the long-term, learning these important skills will support you to have more of an impact for the organization.

Here are some ways you and your organization will benefit from leadership development:

  • Understanding your strengths and how your job provides you with joy. It might seem odd to seek training or coaching when you’re happy in your job, but it will only support you in becoming a better leader faster.
  • Learning new skills. One of my favorite quotes is, “Leaders are learners.” In our important work, leaders are needed at every level and we need people equipped to take on new challenges in an educated way. The secret to every great leader is that they are constantly learning new skills and new levels of self-awareness.
  • Understanding why you feel stressed. Stress can feel overwhelming and all encompassing. Taking the time to understand specific stressors helps you isolate the problem and then figure out how to solve it. Being able to get rid of stress is just the first step. The second step is to identify the positive emotion you want to replace it with.
  • Respite. Those in human and social services especially deal with some the worst of humanity: abuse of kids and seniors, teens left to fend for themselves on the streets, drug abuse, untreated mental illness, etc. This can, and does, traumatize employees and staff at all levels. You deserve the opportunity to truly disconnect and renew your energy — and have it funded by your employer. You are carrying out the organization’s mission, so its budget needs to cover the emotional health of employees. This can be done via coaching, therapy, EAP services, paid retreat time or spiritual direction, a form of one-on-one discernment with a trained professional.

Leadership development comes in many forms and goes beyond the typical training/conference/workshop. Here are some creative suggestions for you to leverage your allocated professional development benefits:

  • Paid wellness/spiritual retreats (just for you or for a larger team)
  • One-on-one or group coaching
  • Job swapping with an individual from another organization
  • Finding a mentor through a formal mentor program
  • Joining a mastermind (it’s like having your own personal board of directors)
  • Paid sabbatical of a month or more, usually available after at least five years of employment
  • Attending a stress management or meditation/mindfulness workshop

If you have especially challenging goals for the upcoming year, don’t be afraid to ask for additional leadership development. Your organization will increase the likelihood of meeting its goals if it supports your growth. You also owe it to your organization to implement what you learn by practicing your new skills, and providing a report to your manager on how the leadership development impacted you.

By focusing on your own needs and development, you’ll strengthen your organization with better outcomes, more effective outputs and stronger teamwork. Personally, you’ll benefit because you’ll be able to take on more challenges and be in a better position for a promotion. Make your growth a priority this year.

stefanie Stefanie Krievins is the founder and coach for The Heart Projects, which delivers free resources at stefaniekrievins.com. She also offers personal leadership development programs and coaching for nonprofit staff, volunteers, social entrepreneurs and those who want to connect with work that matters. She has a master’s degree in nonprofit management from SPEA at Indiana University, completed credentialed coaching training from Erickson International, and has more than a decade of employment and volunteering in the charitable sector in Indiana and nationwide.