Financial audits conducted by outside experts are among the most effective tools for revealing risks in nonprofits. They help assure donors and other stakeholders about your stability — so long as you respond to...

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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...

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Employees or independent contractors? It’s not only for-profit companies that struggle with the question of how to classify staff for federal tax purposes. Nonprofit organizations must withhold and pay Social Security, Medicare and unemployment...

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Nonprofits 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...

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Current financial pressures mean that your nonprofit 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...

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Does your nonprofit have a code of ethical conduct? According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, establishing and enforcing an ethical code is associated with 50% lower fraud losses. Codes of conduct aren’t...

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Nonprofits sometimes team up with other entities to boost efficiency, save money and better serve both organizations’ constituencies. This can be a smart move — so long as your accounting staff knows how to...

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Want to increase your nonprofit’s revenue? First try analyzing current income as a professional auditor might. Then, you can apply your conclusions to setting annual goals, preparing your budget and managing other aspects of...

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Your nonprofit has a board of directors — so why would it need an additional advisory board? There are a few reasons. Some organizations assemble advisory boards to provide expertise for a specific project,...

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