By Chris Mennel, audit manager, Alerding CPA Group As your nonprofit strives to use its resources as effectively as possible, at some point, you might consider outsourcing the functions that fall under your accounting and financial umbrella. Nonprofits often outsource areas that require specialized knowledge or a significant number of hours, such as payroll processing […]
By Walter Frick, senior associate editor, Harvard Business Review | In October 2000, Jack Welch announced the biggest deal of his 20-year tenure as head of GE: a $45 billion merger with Honeywell. Shortly thereafter he was forced to retire, due to GE’s mandatory retirement policy for CEOs turning 65. More than a third of […]
By John D. Macomber, senior lecturer Harvard Business School, HBR | Today’s mega-cities have a footprint problem. They are developing horizontally, not vertically, with vast areas of low sprawl reaching out for miles from Sao Paolo, Lagos, New Delhi, Guangzhou, Jakarta, and many others. A central question our civilization must address is how we can […]
By Jim Simpson, CPA and director, Financial Technologies & Management The way nonprofits prepare and present financial reports is about to change. It is the first significant changes in over 20 years. In 2011, the Nonprofit Advisory Committee recommended modification of the 1993 financial reporting mode to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). In April, […]
By Lauren Kreutzinger, supervisor, VonLehman In any business, in any organization, even the best-laid plans can go awry. In the nonprofit sector, this can lead to disaster. But that doesn’t have to be the case — if you’re prepared. For example, a major grant your organization counted on could fall through. Or your facilities might […]
By Chris Mennel, audit manager, Alerding CPA Group | A new proposed accounting standard could dramatically impact the current financial reporting methods for the more than 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States. Financial reporting in nonprofits was largely affected in 1993 by the issuance of Financial Accounting Standard No. 116 and Standard No. 117 […]
Nonprofits annually lose an average of nearly $15,000 because of fundraising solicitations intercepted by spam filters, according to a new study. Donations made in response to emails accounted for about a third of online fundraising revenue in 2013, but one in eight emails never reaches an inbox — a percentage almost as high as the share of emails […]
By Jan Masaoka & Steve Zimmerman, Blue Avocado Calculating overhead rates and managing overhead expense are important staff roles. Board members are not required to know how do staff accounting work, but we do need to bring an informed perspective to oversight: Harvard’s indirect cost rate is 68% while Iowa State’s is 48%. Should the […]
By Art Taylor, president, BBB Wise Giving Alliance, Jacob Harold, president/CEO, GuideStar USA,Ken Berger, president/CEO, Charity Navigator | To the Nonprofits of America: We write to ask for your help to end the Overhead Myth — the false conception that financial ratios are a proxy for overall nonprofit performance. Last year we wrote a letter […]
By Ann Goggins Gregory and Don Howard, Stanford Social Innovation Review | Organizations that build robust infrastructure—which includes sturdy information technology systems, financial systems, skills training, fundraising processes, and other essential overhead—are more likely to succeed than those that do not. This is not news, and nonprofits are no exception to the rule. Yet it […]