by Suzanne Bakker | Jan 27, 2024 | finance management, fundraising, nonprofit management | Finance Management, Nonprofit management
The thing most nonprofits dislike most about money is the bureaucracy. Or maybe it’s just a feeling of bureaucracy around managing money properly. The endless form-filling. Signing this or that. Why can’t it be easy???? Let me tell you what’s good about paperwork for...
by Suzanne Bakker | Oct 27, 2023 | building trust, finance management, finance systems, financial controls, project finance | Finance Management
“Ahhhhh no, do we really NEED this?” This is usually how someone asks me the question: Why are financial controls important for nonprofit organizations? What’s the problem? The reason why I often hear desperate ‘ahhhhhhhs’ is that most nonprofits are small. So most of...
by Suzanne Bakker | Aug 26, 2023 | project finance, project grant, project management, unearmarked income | Finance Management
You can go bankrupt even if you have project money if you make a mistake with how you spend your money. Spending outside the project budget For instance, if you are spending money on services and goods that are not part of the budget. Or if you are overspending...
by Suzanne Bakker | Apr 24, 2022 | budgeting, donor relations | Finance Management, Project Design
What if you are implementing your grant and realize that you have made a mistake in your budget? What if your project budget doesn’t include everything you need? Four reasons why your project budget may not include everything you need There are several reasons why...
by Suzanne Bakker | Dec 12, 2021 | annual accounts report, budgeting, call for proposals, expenses, finance management, income, project design, year-end accounts report, year-end goals | Annual Reporting, Finance Management
December is for many of us the final month not just of the calendar year but also of the book year, the fiscal year. If you work with finance in your nonprofit, you are focusing on being sure you have all the needed data for closing the book year. So how to go about...
by Suzanne Bakker | Nov 28, 2021 | budgeting, call for proposals, expenses, finance management, human resource management, income, non-profit management, project design, team management | Finance Management
Now that you have developed ways to have insight into your expenses, we can start looking ahead. It is good (great, even!) to have insight into what you spent, but remember, this is the past you’re looking at. And you also need to look at the future. What resources do...