Like a good recipe, your nonprofit budget requires high-quality ingredients, easy-to-follow steps, and a knowledgeable cook or two to put it together. Without those, it can be a struggle just to make a plate of spaghetti. But when you have all the pieces—accurate data, a clear process, and a finance team to put it together—you can make a three-course meal look easy. Here are a few simple steps to help you create a solid budget that helps your organization allocate resources effectively and makes your budgeting process easier. Always Start with the Mission in Mind Any good budgeting process sho ..read more

With multiple points of accountability and dynamic funding sources, accounting professionals in community health centers face complex challenges. Not the least of those challenges is the fact that there is never enough time in the day to get everything done. The right technology can be like an assistant, automating tasks and putting important data at your fingertips. Using technology to streamline even some processes can free up a tremendous amount of time, so you spend less time on manual reporting and tracking and more time analyzing and elevating actionable information that drives bottom-li ..read more

Communicating with students is a key part of the scholarship process. While it can be time-consuming and occasionally overwhelming, it is also incredibly rewarding to congratulate them on their scholarship awards, collect post-acceptance information and thank-you messages, and share those messages with donors. That is the heart of every scholarship program—empowering student success.  Yet in a Blackbaud survey, only 50% of institutions felt like their communications to students were streamlined efficiently. At a time when everyone seems to be doing more with less, how do you reduce admini ..read more

Whether your fundraising year is tracking ahead of schedule, right on track, or you’re off to a bit of a slow start, there’s no time like the present to consider what kind of experience you are delivering to both new donors and to long-time supporters. When it comes to the donor journey, a proper strategy can make all the difference. It should encompass friction-free and on-brand donation forms, personalized and automated communications, and integration of internal systems. When your strategy combines these elements, your team can be confident it’s delivering a meaningful donor experience at e ..read more

In recent years, relationships between nonprofit organizations and their auditors have seen positive change. Auditors are viewed less by nonprofits as once-a-year visitors and more as year-round trusted advisors. Your auditor’s year-end work will remain critical to ensure the financial integrity of your nonprofit’s books and records and compliance with ever-changing regulations. Audit firms have now, however, transitioned to long-term partners, particularly for nonprofits contemplating transformative system or operational changes. The Audit Relationship: Then and Now Change management has not ..read more

Choosing a new fundraising CRM is exciting–but also needs careful consideration. When embarking on a technology project, you should always start by outlining the key purpose behind the investment. If you are unclear about your needs, abilities, and opportunities, you will quickly find it difficult to vet vendors and evaluate CRMs, not to mention bringing internal stakeholders onboard or getting sign-off at key stages. To kickstart the process, you should make sure to answer the following questions: Nonprofit-Specific Questions #1 What is your nonprofit’s mission? The core purpose of your nonpr ..read more

There are millions of wonderful nonprofit organizations working to make this world a better place. And as a grantmaker, you’ve had the privilege of supporting many of them. But on occasion, a person will make a mistake or doesn’t follow the restrictions for the grant. Or even more rare, a bad actor will intentionally try to impede your impact—either by posing as a grantee or by stealing from your grantee. Even though these instances are few and far between, your grantmaking organization needs to be prepared. To mitigate risk throughout your grant cycle, you need to know your grantees through r ..read more

We sometimes forget that IT stands for Information Technology. As a society, we have become obsessed with the “Technology” half—the tools and devices that infiltrate our lives—and with producing, updating, and controlling these devices. But information is the fuel that drives any technology machine: it is what our devices collect, store, synthesize, and distribute. And every advocate for social good has much to gain by paying attention to the Information half of IT. We succeed when we provide just the right information to our end users, where they want it, when they need it, in a format that g ..read more

In digital philanthropy, it has never been more important to seek out and embrace innovations, especially innovations in online donation forms. Your online giving form is the primary instrument you use to process a donation, and it’s also the key tool you use for collecting valuable information about your donors. You’re expecting a lot from your donation form.  On the giving side, donors also are expecting a lot from your donation form. They demand the online giving experience to be nearly instantaneous, easy, secure, personalized, mobile-friendly, and reflective of your brand and mission ..read more

The ongoing FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) delays have left students with less time to compare financial aid offers and make a college decision than in a typical year. In response, many colleges have postponed their commitment and financial aid deadlines for the 2024–25 academic year. According to the US Department of Education, about 330,000 federal financial aid applications will need to be reprocessed following yet another data error. This development continues a tumultuous cycle of glitches and technical difficulties with the updated “Better” FAFSA that are havi ..read more