Nonprofit Harvest

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.

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

On the Stimulus

• New York Times:
  • For States, Stimulus Offers Temporary Relief 
  • Economic Stimulus Special Section
• Washington Post:
  • Taking Apart the $819 billion Stimulus Package
  • States Counting on Stimulus Aid to Balance Budgets

Analysis from Center for Budget and Policy Priorities

• Statement by Robert Greenstein, Executive Director, on the Conference Agreement on the Recovery Package
• Economic Recovery Act: Key Provisions (With State-by-State Estimates)

The Nonprofit Angle

• From the Chronicle of Philanthropy:
  • Congressional Compromise on Stimulus Plan Includes Money for Arts, Social Services, and Volunteerism
• The Cohen Report:
  • Reading an Early Draft of the Stimulus Bill Conference Report: Compromise Provisions (Part I)-Spending 
  • Reading an Early Draft of the Stimulus Bill Conference Report: Compromise Provisions (Part II)-Safety Net Tax Relief 
• Washington Post Op-Ed: Where Stimulus Funds Can Make a Difference

Transparency and Accountability

• Recovery.gov
• From ProPublica (Hat Tip: Utne Reader)
  • Will We Be Able to Follow the Money?
  • The Stimulus Plan: A Detailed List of Spending
  • State-by-State Breakdown of the Economic Stimulus Plan?
• ShovelWatch
• ReadTheStimulus.org (Hat tip: A little light reading…readthestimulus.org)
• From the Sunlight Foundation: We Need Online Review of Stimulus Legislation
• Show Me the Spending

The Minnesota Angle (aka Budget Update)

• Minnesota’s stimulus take: About $9.1 billion
• MPR has a special section devoted to news on the Bailout (it complements their coverage of Minnesota’s budget shortfall)
• From Minnesota Budget Bites:
  • Minnesota quick to prepare for infusion of federal funds
  • Revenue-raising options, with their price tags and impact on tax fairness
  • Legislature asks for your opinion about budget solutions at forums around the state
• pubTalk: MN Legislature: Please Fix the Governor’s Budget
• Political Animal (from Pioneer Press): Pawlenty must redo his budget
• Politics in Minnesota does a great daily roundup of stories on the budget and other related news.

Nonprofits and Credit

• Billions in Nonprofit Projects on Hold Due to Credit Crisis, Report Finds
• Charities Set $166-Billion Worth of Construction Plans on Hold
• Credit Crisis Is Leaving Charities Low on Cash

Other News

• NY Times Op-Ed: Soup-Kitchen Accounting
• From pubTalk: New opportunity for “economies of skill”? 
• Half a Million Nonprofits Could Lose Their Federal Tax Exemptions
• POLICY MEMORANDUM: A Scan of Nonprofit Policy Recommendations for the Obama Administration

Looking for some additional background on the budget crisis in Minnesota and across the nation?  Here are two useful articles to get you started:

• New York Times article Facing Deficits, States Get Out Sharper Knives.

• The CBPP has a number of useful articles, including States in Trouble Due to Economic Downturn and State Revenues Plummet.

How can you start assessing tough choices you may have to make at your organization? One idea is to think through possible state budget scenarios, and develop corresponding program and organizational budgets.

These resources provide additional information on budgeting for nonprofits:

• Annual Budget Planning

• Nonprofit Budgeting Process

• Annual Budgeting Planning: 10 Step Checklist

• Budgeting Nonprofit Income: Grants and Contributions

• Nonprofit Budgets Have to Balance: False!

• Is Your Budget Broken?

• Two Guiding Principles for Effective Budgeting

Related news

• Pawlenty upbeat about governors’ historic meeting with Obama but worried about the growing federal and state deficits

• Fitch changes not-for-profit hospital outlook to negative (Hat tip: Stephanie Jacobs, from Fieldstone Alliance)

To get started, here are some resources from Nonprofits Assistance Fund:

• Kate discusses the economy on Balancing the Mission Checkbook. She has identified some strategies for nonprofits, as well as offering advice on on what to be wary of. Here are a few recent posts prompted by the current financial situation:
  • Jittery About Investments
  • Start Your Turnaround Strategies Today
  • This Post Will Not Cheer Your Up
  • It’s 10am, Do You Know Where Your Cash Is?

• Managing and Adapting in a Time of Uncertainty offers a framework to respond to the challenges nonprofits face in this economic downturn and set priorities with mission in mind.
• How financially healthy is your nonprofit? With this Financial Self-Assessment, you’ll have a better idea. Use the checklist to assess your organization’s financial management practices.

There are resource collections, blog posts, podcasts, news articles, and other information that we have found particularly useful. They are a great place to start.

Resource Collections:

• How Charities Cope With a Troubled Economy: Stories, live discussions, and statistics from The Chronicle of Philanthropy

• Economic Crisis Resource Center: A compilation of resources put together by Meyer Foundation.

• Dealing with the Economic Crisis: Resources collected by Donors Forum.

• Opportunities in Lean Times from Fieldstone Alliance

Blogs, podcasts, new articles, and other sources of information:

• Philantopic has done an excellent job collecting news stories on the economy and its potential impact on the nonprofit sector. Their posts are a mix of analysis, provocative ideas, and tangible suggestions to help your organization during this uncertain time.  I suggest reading all of their posts on this topic, and have included a few that I think are especially relevant to nonprofits:
  • Tips for NPOs Threatened by the Financial Crisis
  • A to Z Survival Guide for Uncertain Times
  • Time to Start Preparing for the Unthinkable?
  • How to Survive (and Thrive in) Tough Times
  • Do Foundation Giving Priorities Change in Times of Economic Distress?

• Lucy Bernholz blogs at PHILANTHROPY 2173, where she regularly comments on the future of philanthropy.  Lucy shares some predictions on the possible short-term impact of the economy for foundation and individual giving, as well as ideas for innovating the business of giving.
  • Stirred, Not Shaken
  • Foreclosures, Falling Economies, and the Future of Philanthropy
  • Resetting Philanthropy
  • What Will You Do?

• Philanthropy Potluck, from the Minnesota Council of Foundations, regularly includes resources and news stories on the economy for grantmakers and grantseekers.

• Special Address, On Third-Sector Funding and The Economy, from Tom Suddess

• Greenlights Nonprofit Town Hall Meeting:
  • What the (Near) Future Holds
  • Raising Money in the Downturn

• New York Times
  • Giving Section
  • Facing Deficits, States Get Out Sharper Knives