Nonprofit Harvest

Navigating the Revised 990

Form 990 Videos: Understanding the Changes

MCN has uploaded videos from 990s Do Matter, a training designed and conducted by Eve Borenstein.  Nearly 3 hours of video is available on their website, Form 990 Videos: Understanding the Changes:

You’ll want to download the presentation slides (3.06 MB, PDF) and the sample form (2.12 MB, PDF) used during the training prior to viewing. We’ve tried to make each section roughly 10 minutes or less to allow you to learn at your own pace.

Additional Resources

• Not-For-Profit Accounting
• Online mini courses from StayExempt.org (IRS)
  
• What’s New from the IRS: The 2009 Work Plan for the Nonprofit Sector (GuideStar)
• Six Things Every Board Member Should Know About the NEW 990 (Blue Avocado)
• New 990 To Do List

This Week’s Harvest

• Nonprofit News Update from Not-For-Not-For-Profit AccountingProfit Accounting
  
  • Video: Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards (BoardSource)

• Philantopic’s Nonprofit Strategies for Tough Times: Economic Stimulus Act FAQ, including:
  
  • How do I find out which types of programs are eligible to receive funding?
  • Where do the decision-making powers lie?
  • Where can I turn for assistance and counsel?
  • Related resources

• Transcript from Managing in Hard Times: How Nonprofit Leaders Can Make the Right Decisions

• Media Matters for America launches Financial Media Matters

• Foundations comment on the State Budget
  • Foundation group throws out big ideas to shake up state budget talks (MinnPost)
  • Improve Public Services and Spend Less: Foundations Speak (Philanthropy Potluck)

Get More Bang for Your (Volunteer) Buck

Tracking Volunteer Time to Boost Your Bottom Line: A Complete Accounting Guide from Blue Avocado

Tracking volunteer time: sounds like another chore? Actually it can help you meet match requirements, improve your financial statement presentations, and reduce liability.

Read the full article for the whys and how-tos of tracking and reporting volunteer time and get more bang for your (volunteer) buck.

Collaboration

Last week I mentioned the award-wining collaboration between the YMCA and JCC/United Jewish Council of Greater Toledo.  SSIR recently interviewed the Collaboration Prize Co-Winners.

Mission Plus Strategy: What did each agency get from the merger?
Connie: The merger allowed each of our agencies to serve who they serve best, drawing from the strengths of each agency. The YMCA could handle all of the recreation activities, and daycare programs, where we are strong.
Abby: Because the YMCA was handling all the recreation and fitness programs that freed us up to completely focus on Jewish community programming and increase our services from cradle to grave

Read the full interview with Mission Plus Strategy to learn more about how “Two Faith-Based Nonprofits That Trust Each Other and Communicate Honestly Can Do Anything.”

Reconsidering Mission

Responding to the state of the economy and the housing market, Habitat Adds Demolition to Its Mission:

Workers will remove (and resell) reusable housing material rather than send it to landfills, some homeless or unemployed people will be paid to work on the program, and money earned through the demolitions will go toward the organization’s longtime goal of getting poor families into new or rehabbed homes.

“You have to look at the mission; the mission is to make housing more affordable,” said Paul Warriner, the executive director of Saginaw’s Habitat for Humanity affiliate. “And when you think about this, that isn’t too much of a stretch.

Updates from the Cohen Report

The Cohen Report perks up, with a series of new articles.

• Nonprofits Speaking for Themselves: The Impact of the National Economic Tailspin: This article compiles information from a number of surveys, including one by MCN, to gauge how the economy is impacting the nonprofit sector.  The post identifies key trends:
  • Budget deficits
  • Using reserves
  • Funding cuts - including sources of cuts and likely future reductions
  • Personnel cuts
  • Mergers
• How Corporate Giving Will Fare in This Recession 
• Foundation Payout Depends on How You Average

Tips for Your Board

• Board role in crisis from pubTalk
• To Be or Not to Be…High Performing from Greenlights

This Week’s Harvest

• Federal News Update for Your Nonprofit
• Why nonprofits are like so totally out of fashion
• What Social Media Can Teach Us About Sustainability
• Funder/Grantee Relationships: Or, What To Do After You Get That Check
• 25 Random Things that Make the Nonprofit Sector Great

And don’t miss out on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s next live discussion, Managing in Hard Times: How Nonprofit Leaders Can Make the Right Decisions.  Participate Tuesday, March 24th at 11 CT/12 ET or read the transcript.

Collaboration

Inspired by Nonprofit Leadership 601, I’m going to keep an eye out for innovative and interesting examples of how nonprofits are collaborating during this challenging economic time.  Taking a note from Heather, I’ll also tag those stories npoeconomy.

• Now That’s What I Call Collaboration…

Another Collaborative Framework

In his post, Social Movement Innovation Andrew Wolk asks how nonprofits can work together to maximize impact.

What are the unique roles of a direct service organization, an advocacy organization, a coalition, or the government? How do they all fit together to ensure lasting social impact?  What are the connections in education, for example, among Teach for America, Alliance for Excellent Education, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and the U.S. Department of Education?  Each organization is  concerned with its own sustainability and impact, but shouldn’t they also consider their role in a collective purpose: better education?

How Liquid is Your Cash?

From Balancing the Mission Checkbook, an important reminder that Cash is Cash, Sometimes:

Beyond verifying an accurate number, though, it’s important to have a solid grasp of all the strings and restrictions that might hinder your ability to use that cash when you need it. Some restrictions are external, such as temporarily restricted grants. Other strings on cash result from internal decisions related to investment decisions, reserve policies, or overly-complex designations and conditions.

To help organizations get a better handle on how accessible their cash really is, Nonprofits Assistance Fund has created the Cash and Investment Analysis worksheet.

I would also suggest reading a related post, It’s 10 am, do you know where your cash is?

 This Week’s Harvest

Updates on the Stimulus and the Proposed Deduction Changes

• Sources of Information Regarding Stimulus Funds: National Council of Nonprofits Special Report #4

• More information on federal stimulus in Minnesota from Minnesota Budget Bites

• Information about the Proposed Changes in Charitable Deductions: National Council of Nonprofits Special Report #5

• Obama’s Charitable-Giving Plan: What It Means for Nonprofit Groups Live Discussion Transcript from the Chronicle of Philanthropy

Other Developments

• L3C - Developments & Resources from Nonprofit Law Blog

• What I Learned From the IRS, Part 1 from Not-For Profit Accounting

• Art as collateral from the Artful Manager

• The Critical Alignment of Mission, Money and Competence blog post and discussion on Social Velocity

It may be a coincidence, but on the heels of Lucy Bernholz’s thoughtful piece, It’s not a recession, it’s a restructuring, there has been a lot of discussion about the relationship between nonprofits and money. From unpacking the complexities of nonprofit funding to re-framing the idea of financial markets to everything in between.

Nonprofit Funding: It’s Not One Size Fits All

Ten Nonprofit Funding Models: A Proposed Lexicon

Social Standford Innovation Review points out one of the reasons that nonprofit financial models are more complex than for-profit ones:

When a for-profit business finds a way to create value for a customer, it has generally found its source of revenue; the customer pays for the value. With rare exceptions, that is not true in the nonprofit sector. When a nonprofit finds a way to create value for a beneficiary (for example, integrating a prisoner back into society or saving an endangered species), it has not identified its economic engine. That is a separate step.

The article, Ten Nonprofit Funding Models from the goes on to identify different models, arranged by the dominant type of funder - individuals and/or foundations, government, corporations, and a funding mix.

So, What’s the Best Model for My Organization?

When trying to figure out your organization’s funding mix, it’s important to remember that there is no one right answer.  Blue Avocado elaborates in Just Tell Me: What’s the Best Way to Raise Money? Choosing the Right Revenue Strategy:

The decisions you make about your revenue strategy – that is, who should be supporting your work and how to go about soliciting that support – should be based not only on who is most likely to give you money or pay for your services, but what makes the most sense in terms of who you are, what kind of change you’re trying to make in your community and how your funding sources can help you get there.

And Is Profit Important?

Not-For-Profit Accounting addresses a frequently asked question, Why Nonprofits Have Profit

In order for an organization to do its work and carry out its mission on an ongoing basis it must generate more income than the expenses it incurs. It must make a profit. Any organization, either a for-profit or a nonprofit, that does not take in more money than it spends will fail in the end.

Fresh from the Farmer’s Market: This Week’s Harvest

• A Social Capital (Farmer’s?) Market from Tactical Philanthropy

• Resetting the Capital Approach from Social Velocity

• A Social Solution, Without Going the Nonprofit Route from the New York Times

• Increasing Service Opportunities Would Revive Nonprofit Finances, Report Says from the Chronicle of Philanthropy

• Academic Endowments: The Curse of Hoarded Treasure from Business Week