YIKES! It’s Budget Time!You are all doing incredible work, finding ways to continue to provide vital services AND maintain viability even when confronting the reality that the current fiscal year’s budget is gaining greater irrelevance under the extraordinarily ‘abnormal’ operating conditions of the COVID-19 response. The current reality of what predictable expenses and revenue are, is not only different, but wholly unimagined.So then, what does a healthy & realistic budget process look like[…]

Nonprofit leaders around the country are working hard to continue to meet their important community missions in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. With this in mind, we’ve been engaged in analysis around which aspects of the Standards for Excellence program could play a role in helping prepare a nonprofit for the turbulent and uncertain times that we are all facing. We’ve heard from nonprofit leaders that they are grateful that the Standards for Excellence program helped them to develop policies,[…]

This is part of a special series, brought to you by the Standards for Excellence Institute, to provide nonprofit leaders with a brief nonprofit governance and management tip weekly over the course of 2020. We hope these short tips will be helpful to you and the nonprofits you serve. If you have suggestions for future topics, please forward these to acmadsen@standardsforexcellence.org.Not a week goes by when we don’t hear about some nonprofit that is tackling the impact of some type of disaster. […]

As a Standards for Excellence Institute Licensed Consultant, I sometimes see organizations crumble when faced with change. Both internal and external factors force organizations to change their way of operating and fulfilling their missions. When external changes arise, (such as changes in grants, donors, or volunteers) nonprofit organization are left to cope with limited resources. Internally, nonprofit organizations also cope with changes in technology, staff, and funding. These changes are[…]

Life is like a “choose your own adventure” book.With each choice we make, our adventure changes. With one big difference. In a “choose your own adventure” book, we don’t know where the decisions will lead us (unless we look at the end). But in real life, we’re pretty good at anticipating consequences – if we think of it. It’s one of the things that makes us human. Consider – if you look backward, you can probably describe the path that led you to live where you live, work where you work, love[…]

The following post was written by Standards for Excellence Licensed Consultant Arshad Merchant and is part of our “Ten Years of Advancing Excellence” blog series, celebrating ten years of the Standards for Excellence Licensed Consultant program. Arshad Merchant recently founded Boost Social Sector Consulting to help nonprofit and other socially-minded ventures address critical challenges and pursue greater good. Drawing on 20 years in consulting, Arshad brings substantial experience in strategy,[…]

Nonprofit program evaluation refers to the process of gathering data about a service or program an organization offers to determine its effectiveness. Nonprofits that thoroughly and strategically evaluate their programs show a commitment to the communities they serve by identifying their successes and challenges. More and more charitable donors now expect to see an evaluation plan in the programs they fund. The Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit[…]