Most nonprofits run with minimal administrative infrastructure, so when cutbacks strike, overhead usually rises in proportion to program costs. Emil Angelica offers practical advice for weathering the current "perfect storm" of economic hardship and for explaining our suddenly higher overhead costs to funders.
How many rights are Americans willing to forgo to feel safe? How are we to be safeguarded from mistakes or official abuse? The USA PATRIOT Act and PATRIOT-II are taking the answers out of our hands.
Calculating overhead costs is a tricky part of grant proposal writing, especially since funders often want these costs kept to a minimum. Learn to determine the true overhead costs for a program idea, then decide if the proposal will genuinely benefit your organization or run you ragged because it included too little overhead.
Some variations in how organizations report management and general expenses on their IRS Form 990s defy plausibility. Based on the largest study to date of overhead costs in the nonprofit sector, this article explores the consequences of these inconsistencies.
Boards of directors frequently confront a host of conflicting demands and obligations, each requiring its own distinct response. The Competing Values Framework introduced by the authors clarifies these demands and provides cues for choosing an appropriate response.
Large multi-year grants may take years of consistent effort to secure, but if a grant arrives in a lump sum, it will have to be reported as revenue that year, causing fundraising costs to appear much higher as a percentage of revenue in non-receipt years. Be sure to explain this fluctuation to your funders.
Could a $1 million challenge grant be a bad idea? If your organization isn’t staffed to raise the match, or if the grant comes with too many restrictions, it could do more harm than good. Understanding your capital structure is key to making wise decisions about any major change to your balance sheet. Clara Miller explains the elements of capital structure and why this often-overlooked element of financial planning deserves greater attention.
