Making sure that your nonprofit is going to be around long-term requires
financial leadership. This means creating a financial vision for your
organization and planning how you'll get there. Financial Leadership for
Nonprofit Executives gives you the framework, specific language, and
processes to lead with confidence. With it, you'll learn how to protect
and grow the assets of your organization and accomplish as much mission
as possible with those resources. The good news is you don't have to be
a trained accountant, earn an MBA, or have run a for-profit business in
another lifetime. You already have many of the skills it takes to be a
financial leader. This useful guide makes the process understandable and
doable. You'll find clear, logical steps to learn how to get accurate
financial data--in a format you can understand; use financial data to
evaluate your organization's health; plan around a set of meaningful
financial goals; and communicate progress on these goals to your staff,
board, and external stakeholders. You'll also find five foundational
financial leadership principles; three overarching questions every
financial leader needs to be able to answer (and where to find those
answers); two fundamental budgeting principles; and five steps to
building a strong annual budget. At the end of each chapter is an
evaluation tool. You can rate how your organization is doing relative to
the component of financial leadership covered in each chapter. Each
attribute is scored as being red, yellow, or green. "Red" items are
below standard and require immediate attention; "yellow" items are
widely practiced though not generally ideal; and "green" items are
considered best practice. Over time, as you and your partners on the
board and staff move the organization toward "green" in each of these
areas, you will create an environment in which financial leadership can
flourish.
