A large institution that provides hundreds of millions of dollars in grants every year shared a secret with me. They would be reevaluating nearly 1,000 recurring grants to determine whether their nonprofit recipients were fiscally and operationally sound enough to carry out their intended impact. In other words, nonprofits that have been counting on a large grant year after year might get nothing very soon. True Read More
Three Things Financially Resilient Nonprofits Do
If there is anything a two-year global health and economic crisis has shown nonprofits is that financial stability is fragile. Even with good nonprofit financial planning, organizations survive on the thinnest of margins, focusing all resources on the philanthropic mission, often with very little wiggle room to maneuver out of a emergency. An untimely mistake or an unanticipated loss can require a sufficient cash Read More
What’s on the Fixed Income Menu: An Array of Solutions for Nonprofit Reserves
Imagine a toolbox with only one tool: a hammer. The hammer is versatile for projects big and small, but if you’re building a house, as we all know, a toolbox with a lonely hammer won’t get the job done. In the same way, building a financially resilient nonprofit needs a variety of financial planning tools to fund the philanthropic mission. Yet several small to midsized nonprofits park all their funds—whether for Read More
A More Robust Nonprofit in 3 Steps
A community museum had it made. A local philanthropist was passionate about the museum’s mission and made substantial annual donations to the nonprofit for close to a decade. These major gifts allowed the museum to keep exhibits fresh, throw lavish annual galas and pay staff above market salaries. So when this vital donor decided to retire out of state and cease donations all together, the museum’s operational Read More
