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Your Nonprofit May Have a License to Print Money
In this pandemic year, many not-for-profits are scrambling to find new sources of revenue to replace donor contributions and other lost income. If this sounds like your charity, you might want to consider licensing your name and brand to a for-profit business. Ensuring success When licensing arrangements work, both charities and companies can experience significant…
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Financial Dashboards Can Steer Your Nonprofit Toward Financial Success
Not-for-profits increasingly are adopting a corporate world tool: financial dashboards. A dashboard is a summary of an organization’s progress toward a specific goal over time — or a snapshot of its current situation. Dashboards are designed to help boards and other constituents visualize important metrics, or key performance indicators (KPIs). But to facilitate informed, timely…
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How Nonprofits should Classify Their Workers for Tax Purposes
Employees or independent contractors? It’s not only for-profit companies that struggle with the question of how to classify workers for federal tax purposes. Not-for-profit organizations must withhold and pay Social Security, Medicare and unemployment taxes for employees, but not for contractors. (There may also be state tax responsibilities.) But be careful before you decide that…
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Private Foundations Need Strong Conflict-of-Interest Policies
Does your private foundation have a detailed conflict-of-interest policy? If it doesn’t — and if it doesn’t follow the policy closely — you could face IRS attention that results in penalties and even the revocation of your tax-exempt status. Here’s how to prevent accusations of self-dealing. Who’s disqualified? Conflict-of-interest policies are critical for all not-for-profits.…
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Should Your Nonprofit Accept that New Grant?
Current financial pressures mean that your not-for-profit probably can’t afford to pass up offers of support. Yet you need to be careful about blindly accepting grants. Smaller nonprofits that don’t have formal grant evaluation processes are at risk of accepting grants with unmanageable burdens and costs. But large organizations also need to be careful because…
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Is Your Nonprofit’s Tap Running Dry?
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has put enormous financial stress on many not-for-profits — whether they’re temporarily shut down or actively fighting the pandemic. If cash flow has dried up, your organization may need to do more than trim expenses. Here’s how to assess your financial condition and take appropriate action. Put your board in…
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When Nonprofit Contributions are Quid Pro Quo
Charitable contributions aren’t always eligible for tax deductions — even when the not-for-profit recipient is tax exempt and the donor itemizes. Take “quid pro quo” donations. These transactions occur when your organization receives a payment that includes a contribution and you provide the donor with goods or services valued for less than the total payment.…
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To Survive the Current Crisis, Your Nonprofit Needs Multiple Revenue Sources
One of the strongest predictors of a not-for-profit’s long-term survival is multiple revenue streams. Many organizations with only one or two found that out that the hard way when they failed during the 2008 recession. The same is likely to be true for nonprofits that do — or don’t — survive the current novel coronavirus…
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Improve Your Nonprofit’s Strategic Planning With a “Real-Time” Approach
Real-Time Strategic Planning (RTSP) offers not-for-profits a fluid approach to identifying, understanding and acting on challenges and opportunities to advance their missions. Is this process right for your organization? Let’s take a look. What is it, exactly? RTSP was first introduced by nonprofit consultant David La Piana as “a coordinated set of actions designed to…
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Matching Gifts Double the Impact of Donors’ Contributions
A majority of large U.S. companies offer matching gift programs to boost the impact of their employees’ charitable gifts. Double the Donation estimates that $2 to $3 billion is donated through matching gift programs every year. At the same time, between $4 and $7 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed annually. Is your not-for-profit doing everything it can to claim…
