Burnout in the nonprofit sector gets a lot of attention. But neurodivergent burnout is a different conversation entirely. Here’s what leaders need to understand before it’s too late.
Most nonprofits think they have a CFO function — but really have a strong accounting function. Learn the difference between a traditional and strategic nonprofit CFO, why the shift is happening now, and how to know which model your organization needs.
Nonprofit accounting teams are stretched thin — but AI is changing that. From faster month-end close to predictive forecasting, explore 7 practical ways artificial intelligence is improving nonprofit finance and freeing CFOs to focus on strategy.
Most nonprofits don’t need more accounting — they need better financial leadership. Discover what a nonprofit CFO actually does, how the role differs from a nonprofit accountant, and how AI is accelerating the shift toward strategic finance.
AI isn’t replacing the nonprofit CFO — it’s raising the bar. Learn how artificial intelligence is shifting the CFO role from financial reporting to strategic decision support, and what that means for your organization.
Nonprofit leaders are facing a moment of reckoning: Is federal funding still worth it?
Delayed opportunities. Agency confusion. Shifting compliance rules. The politicization of DEI language. For many, walking away from federal grants feels like the safer route.
But Fielding Jezreel says hold on.
In this episode of A Modern Nonprofit Podcast, Fielding—Founder & President of Jezreel Consulting and one of the nonprofit sector’s top federal grant strategists—joins Tosha Anderson to make the case for why you shouldn’t give up on federal grants.
Because right now, funding isn’t just funding. It’s advocacy. It’s access. And it’s about staying visible in a system that’s changing fast.
Fielding shares what she’s seeing behind the scenes with her clients, including:
Still, she encourages nonprofits to stay in the game. Because stepping back sends the wrong signal: maybe we didn’t need this money after all.
Many of the financial challenges that derail nonprofits—unexpected capital expenditures, seasonal fundraising gaps, timing mismatches—aren’t included in the original budget.
Forecasting gives nonprofit leaders a strategic advantage by allowing them to:
It doesn’t have to be complex. Start with your existing budget. Then, update projections monthly or quarterly. Replace budgeted numbers with actuals and monitor both net income and cash flow impact. The goal? Shift from reactive firefighting to proactive planning.
She urges organizations to ask not only are we eligible, but are we willing—to adapt language, challenge executive orders, or even fight back through the courts if necessary.
For those new to federal grants, Fielding advises patience. This is a time to learn, build capacity, and get your infrastructure tight. And if you’re applying? Bring your policies, legal support, and even your PR team—because compliance is on blast.
This isn’t about chasing dollars. It’s about staying in the room, and fighting for the communities we serve.
Website: https://www.jezreelconsulting.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fieldingjezreel/
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Budget tracking is the process of monitoring your nonprofit’s income and expenses to ensure they stay within your planned budget.
For many nonprofits, a full financial audit can help ensure the accuracy of their financial recordkeeping.
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Imagine this: your nonprofit is busier than ever with fundraising events and field work to help make your community a better place. So busy, in fact, it’s time to hire a few new employees. But despite your job postings, you’re not recruiting as many candidates as you hoped.
If this sounds like your organization, it might be time to analyze why your recruiting efforts aren’t paying off. Hiring new employees–and retaining your existing ones–is a challenge for nonprofits and for-profit businesses alike. In this article, we’ll look at three reasons you’re not recruiting the talent you need and how to fix it.
It’s no secret that most nonprofits have limited budgets for employee payroll. A constrained compensation budget might be the main reason you’re not attracting talent to your organization.
Many people who work in the nonprofit sector join an organization because they have a passion for the cause. While passionate employees are essential for driving your mission forward, passion can’t pay their bills.
In addition, most workers place high value on jobs with comprehensive benefits in addition to reasonable wages. A good health insurance plan and paid time off are requirements for a lot of great employees.
Compensation and benefits that are significantly below industry standards can deter employees from joining your organization. Likewise, if an employee’s salary cannot keep up with the cost of living in your area, they will likely look for a different job.
There’s really only one solution to fixing low wages: adjusting wages and benefits packages to meet industry and local cost of living standards. You’ll need to assess and adjust your payroll budget to stay competitive in the job market.
While you can’t make money appear out of nowhere, your nonprofit accountant can likely help you determine how to make compensation more competitive. They’ll go over comparable salaries from other organizations and review your budget. Working together, you should be able to find a solution that compensates employees fairly without wrecking your budget.
Marketing and branding your nonprofit isn’t just great for bringing in new volunteers or raising funds. Brand recognition is a huge part of attracting great employees to fill open roles.
For example, a person follows a nonprofit closely on social media. They enjoy the mission and support the work the organization does in the community. When a new job comes up within the organization, the job seeker already knows it’s at an organization they respect.
Job seekers tend to avoid applying for jobs with companies or organizations they don’t know. Skipping unknown organizations helps job seekers avoid scams. In addition, a lack of employee reviews can put job seekers off and have them scroll past your job ads.
If you’re having problems even getting applicants, you may need to take a look at your marketing. Effective marketing efforts should include a strong online presence, such as a website and active social media pages. You also want to be sure your organization has a compelling mission narrative and recognition within your community or industry sector.
Some ideas for marketing and recruitment campaigns include:
Like any sector, nonprofit employees seek opportunities for career advancement, growth, and professional development. Nonprofits that fail to communicate career paths or advancement opportunities will likely deter candidates from applying or joining the organization.
Without a clear advancement path, job seekers may worry that the job is a dead-end role or has limited advancement opportunities. Worse, some job seekers may assume the organization is intentionally hiding career paths.
Qualified, ambitious candidates are much more likely to apply and take a job with an organization that will invest in their growth and offer paths for advancement.
This is one of the easiest recruiting issues to solve–you simply need to be transparent and clear about a role’s future opportunities. Additionally, you should highlight professional development opportunities for employees. Even if a role doesn’t have a direct advancement path, cross-training and professional development resources can help prepare employees for new roles within the organization.
You should also highlight the success stories of employees in your organization. Maybe a volunteer or intern came to work for you full-time and now works as a manager. Or, you might have someone who started in one department and used the provided resources to move into a more impactful role.
The three reasons above are only some of the issues you might have when recruiting employees. There are plenty of other potential problems that could be hurting your recruitment efforts.
To find the root of your recruitment problems, dig deep and engage current employees, potential candidates, and volunteers to find out:
In addition to asking others, it’s important to self-evaluate your hiring process. With a little introspection, you might find something that’s deterring candidates. Then, you can create a solution to the problem and start attracting the talent you need.
If you find your recruiting efforts hindered by financial issues, reach out to The Charity CFO today.
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Investing in a nonprofit accounting software can seem like a great idea. However, you have to be careful not to fall victim to these common mistakes
Nonprofit grants can be vital to the growth and sustainability of your organization. In the following guide, we give you everything you need to know
In times of crisis, disaster relief grants can help you keep the doors of your nonprofit open. Here are some tips for how to capitalize on funding options
Are you using social media to generate an audience around your nonprofit so that you can maximize donations? Social media is a must-have tool for nonprofits, as it can help you expand your reach and share your important mission.
For some tips on how to optimize social media for nonprofits, keep reading. In this guide, we’ll go over some things you can do to grow your social media presence so that you can grow your profits.
On social media, engagement is everything. To receive engagement from your audiences, you need to begin posting interactive and creative content. This content should be something that asks your followers to make an action rather than passively watching or viewing something.
Sprinkle this kind of content throughout your scheduled posts to boost your engagement rates so that you can get people involved with your brand and your mission. The more engaged your followers are, the more likely they are to make a contribution to your organization. Some ideas for boosting engagement could be running a poll, posting a Q and A session on your Instagram story, creating a Facebook survey, or asking your followers to share something about themselves.
This is a great way to get your current following engaged while also creating some buzz around your brand that can lead your followers to share your posts with others. Getting your audience involved will also help you gain insights about your target audience, which can help you optimize future posts.
Hashtags are a great tool for finding new followers that are within your target audience. Using branded hashtags when posting your social media content is a great way to generate organic leads as it allows your content to be visible to those searching for the hashtag, or following certain hashtags. These individuals will likely already have some kind of connection to your brand or your cause, and they can then follow you to find out more and make a donation.
You can also create your own branded hashtag that others can use when discussing your charity online. You can encourage your followers to share your hashtag to spread awareness about your cause. Using your followers that are already loyal to your brand and mission to market your nonprofit is a great way to utilize user generate content.
You should make sure you create a strong hashtag that will easily catch on, and use it across all of your active platforms to spread brand awareness. You can also use hashtags that are related to your cause that are already popular to reach new audiences. Testing out a handful of relevant hashtags can help you discover which terms are being searched and are resonating with your audiences.
You will also be able to see how well certain hashtags resonate with audiences on different platforms. This will give you the insights you need to someday run your own hashtag nonprofit social media campaigns.
To properly run your social media accounts, you can’t rely on follower engagement alone – you must also actively work to engage with your audience on a consistent basis. You should think of your social media accounts as places to offer your target audience amazing customer service. This means that you should respond to all of your private messages and post comments efficiently.
If someone wants to get involved with your nonprofit or is asking how to make a donation, you’ll want to make sure you’re there to answer their questions before they forget or change their mind. You should check in on your accounts daily and work to respond to as many messages as possible to show that you are a reliable organization that cares about its donors and supporters.
In today’s convenience-driven world, nonprofits should make it as easy as possible for their followers to make a donation to their organization. To do so, you will need a “donate” call to action area available on your accounts. A great way to do so is to add a link to the donate page of your website in all of the bio areas of your social media accounts.
Then, when making posts, you can let your followers know that they can head to the link in your bio to make a donation to your cause. Additionally, on Facebook, nonprofits can add a “donate” call to action button that makes it easy for followers to pitch in. This gives your followers a clear and easy way to get involved with supporting your mission.
To make sure your social media efforts are optimized, you’ll need to continually track and measure your analytics. This will allow you to find out whether or not you’ve met the goals you’ve set. It can also help you streamline your social media marketing strategy, as you will be able to see what content resonates with your audience and boosts engagement, as well as what efforts aren’t worth continuing.
When it comes to growing your following to boost your donations, social media for nonprofits is a must. Keep the tips and tricks in this guide in mind to create a social media presence that’s built to last.
Are you looking for an accounting and bookkeeping service that can help you handle your nonprofit finances? Request a meeting with us today to find the solution you need.
Learning how accounting for nonprofits works can keep you from making some of the common mistakes. Read this guide to learn all you need to know
Operational challenges can hurt every nonprofit organization, regardless of intentions. In the following guide, we teach what to watch for and how to overcome
Nonprofit finance issues can happen to the best, as you’re not in the business to make anyone money. Info is key, and reading this guide will help
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Whether you’re a struggling nonprofit or you’re looking for new ways to evolve, we have info on what risk might look like in 2021.
Are you looking to raise more money for your nonprofit and bolster your fundraising strategies?
When you run a nonprofit, knowing how to get money from your supporters should consist of one of your chief goals. Many nonprofits become born out of care for certain needs in the world, yet they can’t exist without a solid marketing plan. You need effective fundraising strategies to get the money you need to continue your initiatives and keep your talent.
So, how do you go about getting the proper funding? We’ll go into nonprofit fundraising strategies below. Keep reading to bring in more money for your cause today!
You may have a great mission, but you won’t attract many donations if your emails don’t look professional. Even if you run a small nonprofit, professionalism inspires confidence in you and your organization.
In turn, this prompts less hesitation about giving. When people believe you operate in a professional manner, they may trust you with more of their funds.
But how do you ensure your emails maintain a professional appearance? Get a mass email service. These platforms allow you to store your contacts’ information and even provide templates you can edit with your own text. This gives your emails a professional look.
If you just advertise your cause via email, you likely aren’t getting the most money you can. Instead, you should seek to get funds from other platforms as well.
You should start out by having a donation page on your website. Make sure people can navigate to this page from any other page on your site. Your donors should have the ability to find it without much effort.
You can also put donation buttons on each of your blog posts or news updates. This encourages people to give to causes after reading about them.
Some people even advertise their causes on social media. To do this, create posts targeted to raising money for specific causes and include links to donate.
You shouldn’t create random fundraising opportunities. Instead, fundraising works best when it gets planned out in detail. As such, you should dedicate much of your marketing endeavors toward creating nonprofit fundraising strategies that work for you.
How do you customize your own strategies? A lot of it involves doing research on how well different types of strategies work with your donor base. Any time you try something new, make sure you look at how well people received your new endeavor by viewing your analytics. The best working attempts will result in more donations, shares, or donor interactions.
Then, once you have an idea of what works well, incorporate it into your fundraising strategy.
Fundraising campaigns should comprise a lot of your fundraising strategy.
But what is a fundraising campaign? Think of them as a multi-component attempt to raise money for a specific cause. Fundraising campaigns harness the power of sending email messages to highlight your mission and the initiatives you want your donor base to give to.
For these, you shouldn’t send out one message. Rather, plan out several that build upon each other and encourage your donors to give.
To get the best results, you should start out with a soft launch of your campaign. These launches target only your committed donors. Ask them for feedback on the campaign and pay attention to the issues they raise. Then, you should implement these changes to your campaign before you send it to the rest of your email list.
You should also create thank you notes to send out to people who donate!
Did you know you can maximize your profits by launching campaigns at certain times of the year?
In particular, people like to give before the end of the year because they can claim their donations on their tax forms. Giving Tuesday kicks off this season. It lands on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, when people follow Black Friday and Cyber Monday with an opportunity to give. You should always start your end-of-the-year campaign on Giving Tuesday.
Then, send messages throughout the month of December. Finish the campaign with a last chance message toward the end of the month, and then follow up with a thank you statement in January.
You can also run fundraising campaigns around holidays.
People connect to stories. A well-told story pulls on the heartstrings of your audience and convinces them that they should spend their money giving to your cause.
The more specific the story, the better. Telling the story of one specific beneficiary of your services shows people the impact a donation to your organization can have. These stories also encourage people to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, encouraging empathy and furthering their dedication to your cause.
People want to make sure their money goes to the cause to which they intended to give. Most nonprofits manage their money well, but some don’t, and so it becomes important to have documentation to show how you spend your donations.
To do this, get reviewed by a nonprofit financial organization. These companies focus on reviewing the finances of nonprofit organizations and making this information public for any potential donors. Then, when potential donors contact you asking how you spend your donations, you can send them to the organization’s website so they can view the information for themselves.
This gives your donors confidence in your ability to handle money well and not use it for purposes other than your cause.
Nonprofit fundraising strategies become the crux of many nonprofit organizations. They enable them to raise money for the different initiatives they run and help them keep their lights on.
But you shouldn’t just fundraise and not manage your money. If you need financial assistance for your nonprofit, we offer a full team of accountants who can help you manage the funds you receive. Request a meeting today!
Cybersecurity is a major factor in any nonprofit’s risk management plan. Learn more about how to protect your company here.
Your community is where your donor base resides, so it’s time you start understanding it more. Listen to our podcast to find out how!
Your nonprofit organization is only as strong as its weakest link. And if your nonprofit was previously a solo operation, and now more recently evolving to a team, then you need to know the importance of scaling.
Every nonprofit will have to determine what and when they need to scale itself as an organization. When expanding your organization, you need to consider important points like its infrastructure, budget, team members and even strategy as it relates to your mission. These are so important!
However, “scale” can mean many things. To ensure that you can grow your nonprofit through the most successful way possible, you need to ensure that your organization has certain structures in place that will make for a long-term future you can be proud of.
If you want to learn all there is about scaling your nonprofit, then you need to listen to this episode of A Modern Nonprofit Podcast. In this week’s episode, Travis D. Johnson of the Nonprofit Architect Podcast joins forces with Tosha Anderson of The Charity CFO for an in-depth discussion geared towards board members, charity leaders and aspiring nonprofit professionals.
On this episode, the two converse about important questions such as:
Travis Johnson is this week’s guest on A Modern Nonprofit Podcast!
It’s a great episode for any listener wanting to learn more about reaching your organizational growth goals and how scaling will effectively manage your expansion, if done correctly. You shouldn’t take on the challenges of the nonprofit sector alone! And fortunately, you don’t have to.
We’ve had many new listeners request a free consultation with Tosha and her team of expert, certified public accountants at The Charity CFO after recognizing that their organization’s structure and bookkeeping were in desperate need for improvement across a variety of areas. Our team performs outsourced accounting work for hundreds of nonprofits and we want to walk alongside your nonprofit to help you save money, modernize and truly achieve its mission. Check out our services here.
Aside from Tosha, Travis Johnson is the current host of The Nonprofit Architect, which is the only nonprofit podcast dedicated to giving you the actionable steps needed to build a stronger nonprofit. He has interviewed tons of nonprofit leaders, business leaders, and consultants in order to help you say no to more work and say yes to more donations. Check out his podcast series here.
Lastly, make sure you subscribe to both A Modern Nonprofit Podcast and The Nonprofit Architect! Hear something that stood out to you in this week’s episode? Share your thoughts with A Modern Nonprofit Facebook Group, which you can request to join here. There’s hundreds of nonprofit professionals conversing about topics and challenges they face across their organization. It’s one big, exciting think tank. Don’t miss out!
You probably know that there are many different charities with many different causes. In fact, you might be the founder or part of the leadership team for a nonprofit yourself!
Nonprofit organizations have a lot of causes and missions. But, we can get even more specific than that.
Under Section501(c)(3) and the IRS, there are three main types of charities:
According to the IRS, the difference between a private foundation and a charity has to do with the financial support it receives. Private foundations usually have a smaller donor audience and generate income from invested endowment funds. Then, they rely on this income to distribute grants to advance the nonprofit work of other organizations. An example of well-known private foundations include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The most common type of 501(c)(3) is a public charity. Public charities can accept donations. These donations are tax-deductible. In fact, one can donate up to 50% of their income, while corporations/businesses may donate up to 10% before being taxed. Typically, pubic charities are governed by board members. Now, take a second to reflect: are you/are your board members working too hard on your accounting and bookkeeping? Are you, or someone on your board, trying to teach themselves accounting practices and specifics? You shouldn’t be trying to overwork yourself, nor feeling distracted from your mission. We encourage you to view our services and plans for outsourcing your nonprofit on our website, which can be found here.
Examples of public charities include churches, animal wellbeing agencies and educational organizations. What type of organization do you oversee? Share in the post comments of this article!
The last, and least common 501(c)(3) organization(s), is what we call a private operating foundation. Many see private operating foundations as a hybrid between a public charity and a private foundation. Both private foundations and private operating foundations aren’t criticized as much as other charitable foundations because donors have close ties to charities.
Board directors and other nonprofit leaders must be aware of specific laws that they might navigate alongside, or against, when working in the nonprofit sector. An insightful article from Nonprofit Hub outlines some key things your nonprofit shouldn’t do!
If you are ready to enhance, or begin, your nonprofit journey, we encourage you to check out A Modern Nonprofit Podcast, which is a weekly podcast series that The Charity CFO generates to help leaders, like you, maximize your mission. Also, make sure to check out A Modern Nonprofit Facebook Group, a community of leaders and professionals who converse about relevant topics every single day.
