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Editor’s
Note:
We are starting to compile nominations for
our best fundraisers feature story. You know your peers and who
is a shining example of getting cash out of a stone. The
categories include: Younger Than 40; Living Legend; Direct Mail;
Major Gifts; Online; Special Events, Education; DRTV; Sector
Leadership. One big caveat ... your nominees must be
employed at a nonprofit. Send your suggestions, along with
contact information and a few lines about the person to
editor2@nptimes.com |
In This Edition:
News Update:
Tips of the
Week:
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Relief Coming For Nonprofit Pension
Plans
By Mark
Hrywna
Legislation introduced in
Congress could provide temporary relief for nonprofits faced
with huge increases in pension contributions in the coming
years.
Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) and
Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi (R-Ohio) introduced the measure. The bill
will either be taken up by the U.S. Senate directly on the floor
or it will go through the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee, according to Patricia Read, senior vice president,
public policy at Independent Sector (IS).
To read
the complete article click here...
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Accounting ...
Sample audits for A-133
requirements
Compliance with regulations will
always be present as a concern for nonprofits, especially at the
federal level. Audits are a fact of life.
At the AICPA Not-for-Profit Industry
Conference, Mandy Nelson of KPMG and Steve Glover of Brigham
Young University offered several observations from the federal
study on single audit quality related to sampling, citing
information from Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular
A-133 and applicable auditing standards and AICPA audit
guides.
The study’s authors believe
that comparable numbers of transactions for federal programs
should be tested in comparable single audits. Nelson and Glover
shared information on individual important considerations in
compliance testing.
These considerations
include:
- Items that might be large, risky or
unusual, and can include a spike in activity at the beginning or
end of a grant period; transactions processed at odd times in a
cycle; transactions related to sub-recipients that are new to a
grantee, especially newly formed entities; and, transactions
related to a prior finding or anything specified in the
Compliance Supplement.
- Identification of individual items
is not required by A-133 but is often a smart
approach.
- Auditor expertise and experience can
often identify risky items than can chance or random
selection.
- Anything that can increase
efficiency and effectiveness. For example, 10 items cover 80
percent of grant expenditures.
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Management ...
10 reasons why evaluations
are neglected
Evaluation. The very word gets your juices
bubbling, doesn't it?
If it doesn't, that's probably because most
organizations miss out on necessary evaluation. Why?
In their book "Evaluation in Organizations,"
Darlene Russ-Eft and Hallie Preskill list 10 reasons why
organizations do not perform evaluations. In the best traditions
of David Letterman, they list them from bottom through
top.
10. Organization members misunderstand
evaluation's purpose and role. Many people have not had formal
training in evaluation.
9. Organization members fear the
impact of evaluation's findings. They expect to be fired or
punished.
8. There is a real or perceived lack of evaluation
skills. This is true even where members would like to conduct an
evaluation.
7. No one has asked for it. Funders are starting
to ask, however.
6. Organization members don't believe the
results will be used; data are collected but not analyzed or
utilized. Employees are asked their opinion etc., but never see
any result.
5. Organization members view evaluation as
time-consuming and laborious. Good evaluation takes time and
energy but need not last months.
4. The perceived costs of
evaluation outweigh the perceived benefits. This perception is
related to time involved.
3. Organizational leaders think
they already know what does and does not work. How accurate is
this belief?
2. Previous experiences with evaluations have
been either disastrous or disappointing. This could be linked to
broken promises or blatant misuse of data.
1. Organization
members don't value evaluation. This is the aggregate of the
others. |
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Finance ...
Stay positive, but act
immediately
In this difficult economy, with cutbacks and
retrenchments, it can be difficult for any nonprofit to survive,
let alone flourish.
Despite the temptation to think in terms of
mere survival as crisis management, Patrick M. Rooney, executive
director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University,
argues that nonprofits should try to think positively, trying to
act now rather than wait for good times that might be a long
time coming.
Rooney offers several
suggestions.
- Rather than simply look to shed every
possible cost as a means of just staying afloat right now,
organizations should evaluate costs strategically. It's better
to spend smart rather than just be as frugal as
possible.
- It is important to look carefully at how a
fundraising program is managed and evaluated. Difficult times
might actually be a good time to reassess.
- Odd as it sounds, it might be better to
spend more on certain aspects of an operation and
infrastructure. For example, it is critical to continue to
invest in fundraising as a long-term support issue.
- Adding or maintaining a business
development specialist might be even more important in
challenging times to grow existing sources of revenue and
identify and develop new ones.
- If budget cuts have to be made, it is
important to evaluate what effect cuts will have on long-term
goals.
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