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16May 2017 by William Simi No Comments

Performance Measurement for Nonprofits

Business Advisory, Not For Profit, Uncategorized

There’s a great deal your nonprofit organization can glean from the operations of a successful for-profit business. In particular, learning to measure the performance of your nonprofit can help you shape your programs and improve your nonprofit’s overall effectiveness. Implementing a performance measurement program requires the development of an information feedback system. By this we mean a system that allows the management to identify, monitor, and take action to improve select KPIs (key performance indicators) that relate to the primary performance areas of the organization. In this post, we will discuss how to identify these performance areas for your nonprofit, and how to implement your own performance measurement system based on your mission statement. Don’t Try to Measure Everything at Once It’s important that you drill down into the performance…

08May 2014 by William Simi

Principle 11: Board Diversity

Business Advisory, FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets, Non Profit Principles: Steering You in the Right Direction

In order to obtain board diversity, the board of an organization should include members with diverse backgrounds (including, but not limited to, ethnic, racial and gender perspectives), experience, and organizational and financial skills necessary to advance the organization’s mission. A board should have a variety of skills, expertise, backgrounds, and perspectives in order to make informed decisions. Boards of charitable organizations generally focus on including members with expertise in budget and financial management, investments, personnel, fundraising, public relations, and marketing. Every board should have expertise in budgeting and financial management. The board must ensure that all financial matters of the organization are conducted legally, ethically and in accordance with proper accounting rules, therefore making an effort to ensure that at least one member has financial literacy. Some organizations seek to…

06May 2014 by Fred Crooks

Principle 10: Board Size And Structure

Business Advisory, Non Profit Principles: Steering You in the Right Direction

Every charitable organization needs to establish the structure and size of their board. There should be enough board members in order to have different ideas and thoughts on governance and other organizational matters. This doesn’t pertain to smaller charitable organizations in which they should have at least five board members. -The charitable organization’s board size should be based directly on the needs of the organization. -The way for determining board size is the function that they serve. The structure and size of the board will naturally be different as time progresses, thus the size and structure should be reviewed as the organization grows. -Other things can affect the size of the board, such as the need for diversity, workload, phase in the life cycle, legal mandates, and maintaining a manageable group. LEGAL AND…

19Mar 2014 by Fred Crooks

Principle 6: Protection of Assets

Business Advisory, Non Profit Principles: Steering You in the Right Direction

The board of a charitable organization must be certain that the organization is organized and has a good system to protect their assets. Such assets include property, financial, human resources, programmatic content, material, integrity and their reputation. These all must be protected from loss or damage. Thus, the board should be regularly reviewing the organization’s need for general liability and liability insurance for their directors and officers. CORE CONCEPTS -The board manages the organizational assets. -Every organization should have adequate risk management. -Risk can be either assumed, eliminated, protected, or even delegated. -The board, the organization, and those associated with the organization all need to be covered with liability protection. LEGAL AND COMPLIANCE ISSUES -The board is responsible for watching the activities of the organization. -Each board member has duties…

05Jun 2013 by William Simi

Principle 12: Board Independence

Non Profit Principles: Steering You in the Right Direction, Not For Profit

The majority of the board members of a charitable organization should be independent. Two-thirds of them should be independent and they shall not be entitled to compensation, receive any financial benefits, and should not be related to anyone one in the organization who does. -All members must have loyalty to the company and put the organization’s interests above their own. -Pushing for a nepotism policy will help elude favoritism among the board members. LEGAL AND COMPLIANCE ISSUES -IRS Form 990 asks how many of the board members that are independent. -The IRS defines what independent board member is. -A few state laws set a minimum number for independent board members.

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