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Three simple steps to your monthly routine

by with One Comment Featured BlogNonprofitProductivitySmall business
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I love the saying: Where your attention goes, energy flows.

We want to put our energy into the right things to get maximum results with minimum wasted time. No entrepreneurs (especially those with kiddos) can afford to be wasting a single second right now, ya know?!

Where are YOU spending the majority of your time and energy right now? Trying to keep your head above water while simultaneously running a household, growing a business, raising children, and not forgetting to feed yourself at least once a day?

Yup, me too! 

I don’t know about you, but I certainly didn’t expect to be mostly quarantined well into summer and it’s thrown a bit of a kink into my routine.

If you feel this way too, you can get back on track! Today I want to share with you three steps I’ve been following this summer to help you revamp your  routine and put your energy and attention back into your numbers:

Do your bookkeeping. This is as simple as coding all of your revenue and expenses accurately and comparing your bank statement to your accounting.

Review your financial statements. Check out your P&L compared to last month and see how you’re doing. Calculate your profit margin compared to last month (Profit Margin = Net Income / Revenue). See how much money is in the bank.

Update your forecast. You probably have a plan for the rest of the year and revenue and expenses mapped out monthly (If you don’t, reply to this email ASAP and I will hook you up with a template!). Come back to this plan, make any adjustments, and go forth and grow!

Simple, right?! Because what we focus on expands.

How are you going to get into your own monthly finance routine today? 

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Interview with the Speak to Scale Podcast with Jessica Rasdall

by with No Comment Featured BlogFinancial ManagementMedia
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We recently chatted with Jessica Rasdall of the Speak to Scale Podcast on the challenges and tasks entrepreneur’s need to be performing to ensure you’re remaining solvent at the end of the day.

No one likes to talk about all of the fears, uncertainties, and worries that come with this unique path we’ve chosen….. Like: when is that next contract going to come in? When will we book that next speaking engagement? When are we going to get paid again? I know that after this recent COVID scare, all of us were feeling these emotions on overdrive. So why aren’t we talking about it?

In this episode, we’re digging deep into how to tackle our entrepreneurial finances and achieve a more predictable income.

Give it a listen and let us know your biggest takeaway!

Listen on iTunes

Listen on Spotify

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The grass really IS greener on the other side

by with One Comment Featured BlogProductivity
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Are you a victim of bad bookkeeping?

Perhaps you don’t have timely financials to review, your numbers aren’t tied up with a bow for your accountant or auditor, or maybe you’re staring down the barrel at thousands of uncategorized transactions, paralyzed with fear at how to begin.

It doesn’t matter how we got here, so let’s skip the blame game and just take a deep breath because there’s an easy way to get you to the other side.

And what does that other side look like?

Peace, calm, and ease when you’re looking at your cash flow forecast. Clarity and confidence when you’re making what used to feel like scary decisions. The grass truly is greener.

I’m taking you behind the scenes this month as we dive into closing the books for our own company! I sat down on Monday, May 4th for about one hour and did the following:

  1. Open up our monthly close checklist. Yup, even though we do this every single month for dozens of clients, we always refer to the checklist to ensure we don’t forget a thing.
  2. Download our bank statements.
  3. Code all of our transactions in Quickbooks. We make sure every expense and income is coded accurately so we get super useful reports. Sometimes Quickbooks makes incorrect assumptions at where things should go and you’ll need to review and update.
  4. Review income. We check out all of our outstanding invoices (Accounts Receivable Aging report) and make sure all of our incoming cash is matched up to the correct invoice and coded accurately.
  5. Reconcile bank accounts. Quickbooks has a super easy-to-use function to compare your bank statements to your Quickbooks transactions and make sure it matches perfectly.
  6. Run reports.  We always look at a comparative profit & loss statement, so we can quickly spot any differences (hopefully all GROWTH!) between this year and last year, plus a comparative balance sheet to check out asset (cash) growth.
  7. Update our projections. We take a few moments to update our forecast with this month’s numbers then sit with the projections for a few minutes to think about what’s coming. If we added a new client or anticipate bringing on another team member or incurring a big expense, we update our projections accordingly.
  8. Check-in with our goals and we’re done! I sometimes forget my big goals for the year (hey, I’ve got a lot going on!) so this is a perfect time to check back in on your strategic plan, make sure you’re on track, and change course if necessary.

So, you don’t have to be a victim to bad bookkeeping because it’s truly not a hard process. It just requires monthly focus and consistency. And on the other side is peace of mind, clarity, and confidence in your own leadership and financial management!

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3 metrics to help you soar

by with No Comment Featured BlogFinancial ManagementFinancial Statements

It’s November and that means we’re in the home stretch, my friends!

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All of you purpose-driven leaders are probably thinking about finishing up the next eight weeks to enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation with family at the end of the year.

What I would LOVE for you to think about during these next two important months in the life cycle of your organization is better understanding the story of your organization through the numbers.

Why? Because greater transparency around your financials leads to a more committed team and engaged community, AND you will be more excited to up-level your org next year.

Three easy metrics to assess financial health:

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Like I mentioned, these are super easy insights that you can glean from financial statements that you ALREADY run on a monthly basis. Grab our financial metric calculator here so you don’t have to do an ounce of math!

PS – Does thinking about metrics make you want to simultaneously hide but also get you excited to learn more about how to grow your organization? You may need a finance pro to help get you to the next level. Take our BRAND NEW QUIZ and find out which finance pro you need to make a huge impact on your organization’s growth!

Entrepreneurs: Take your quiz here! >>>

NonProfits: Take your quiz here! >>>

 

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Free resource list!

by with No Comment Featured BlogResources

As I wind down my month of celebration, I’m still in a little bit of shock that this business, dreamed up in a windowless office at a very boring job, has taken on the life that it has, thanks in no small part, to our tribe of purpose-driven leaders. A quick note of motivation for you today:

No dream is impossible, no ideas are too crazy, and there’s almost always a way to make something work.

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But if you need a little help making that dream happen, I have a handful of free resources for you today. In a little trip down memory lane, I combed through everything we’ve created and compiled the most popular resources that our purpose-driven leaders have read, downloaded, and loved!

  • 4 Finance Pros – take our brand new quiz to learn which finance people you need on your team
  • Profit Playbook – a guide and Excel template to help you create a roadmap to greater impact and income, like a CFO
  • Storytelling with Financials – a free masterclass to help you analyze your nonprofit’s numbers (plus a free Financial Metrics Calculator)
  • Our Top Tools – the tried-and-true software that we swear by to keep the biz running
  • Quickbooks Review – my take on the best accounting system out there
  • FAQ – a classic if you’re new around here and want to know how we roll

PS – Reminder! We opened up a couple slots on our calendar before year-end for Strategy Sessions. If you need to pick the brain of a CFO for 30 minutes about anything and everything numbers, make sure to grab one here! >>>

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How Increasing Nonprofit Transparency Increases Donations

by with No Comment Featured BlogNonprofit

Guidestar, the neutral database of all nonprofit organizations in the US with revenue over $200k, recently published a study that demonstrated that organizations who provided better and more information to stakeholders raised substantially more money in subsequent years than organizations who didn’t share information with stakeholders.

More specifically, nonprofits who went from not transparent at all to fully transparent via their Guidestar profile raised 53% more in contributions in the following year. And nonprofits who just upgraded their Guidestar rating one unit by being just a little bit more transparent still raised 26% more the following year.

But only 16% of nonprofits in the Guidestar database of 14,000 organizations actually take the time to actively be more transparent.

If the data is proven, why in the world isn’t everyone doing this?

First of all, let’s break down the drivers of nonprofit transparency to understand why there’s such a gap. This study concluded that the following factors were strong determinants into the organization’s level of transparency:

  1. Strength of organization’s governance and board – If the nonprofit has a large, active board that meets all of the standard measures of good governance (check out the governance section of the 990 for more info!), they’re more likely to be transparent with their financials.
  2. Performance of the organization – If the organization has strong growth and positive financial metrics, they will be more likely to share this information. On the flip side, poor-performing organizations are more hesitant to enhance their Guidestar profile for fear of increased scrutiny.
  3. Professionalism of the staff – If the nonprofit has a paid, full-time, professional staff they are likely to have the capacity and expertise to be more transparent, compared to organizations with smaller, volunteer staff.
  4. Organization’s reliance on contributions – If an organization relies heavily on contributions from the general public (as opposed to program service fees or large government contracts), they are more likely to respond to donor requests for transparency.
  5. State regulation environment – If the nonprofit resides in a state that requires an audit or other forms of transparency and disclosure, the organization will be more transparent in order to comply.

Based on the information above, not all nonprofits are created equal. With different levels and types of funding, different board and staff structures and capacities, many nonprofits are less inclined to be transparent with their financials and program metrics.

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Another factor I’ve seen firsthand in my work with nonprofits around the globe is that nonprofit leaders aren’t comfortable enough with the financials to be able to confidently share interesting, insightful information that will make an impact on their donors. So instead, they don’t share anything.

But even though this study shared that 78% of donors do not consult any third-party intermediary organizations before contributing (including Guidestar), they do provide more contributions to organizations with higher operating margins and efficiency ratios. Contributions increase when total assets, program ratio, and operating margin increases which is why it’s important to understand these metrics for your own organization.

You might think that communicating your financials is complicated, confusing, and time-consuming – and you may even question your ability as a leader if this doesn’t come easily to you. Let’s skip the drama and keep it simple and sustainable. Here are the metrics:

  1. Program ratio = program expenses / total expenses. The higher the better. (For reference, the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance requires organizations to spend at least 65% of total expenses on programs to be accredited.)
  2. Cost of fundraising = fundraising expenses / total contributions. The lower the better. (Again for reference, the BBB says no more than 35% of contributions should go towards fundraising expenses.)
  3. Operating margin = total revenue – total expenses / total revenue. The higher the better.
  4. Donor reliance = total contributions / total revenue

The great thing about all of this nonprofit transparency talk is that Guidestar makes it very easy to update their database with your newly transparent information, and thus increase your rating.

Here are a couple easy steps to increase your transparency and thus your Guidestar rating.

  1. Check out your organization’s rating on Guidestar. Are you not rated? Bronze? Silver? Gold? Platinum?
  2. Understand Guidestar’s rating system and what it takes to get to each level.
  3. Bronze is the lowest rating and requires only your contact information, mission statement and basic program info. This is a no-brainer!
  4. Silver requires everything of Bronze, plus audited financials uploaded to Guidestar or their basic financial statement filled in. Another easy-peasy!
  5. Gold requires everything of Silver, plus answering five questions (to which you probably already have the answers from a grant application or annual report!)
  6. Problem Overview – What is your organization aiming to accomplish?
  7. Goals – What are your organization’s goals?
  8. Strategies – What are your strategies for making this happen?
  9. Capabilities – What are your organization’s capabilities for doing this?
  10. Indicators – How will your organization know if you are making progress?
  11. Progress – What have you accomplished so far and what’s next?
  12. Platinum includes everything from Gold, plus selecting a handful of metrics from their list and updating with your organization’s numbers.
  13. Take 15 minutes to get your organization to Gold!

We are working with our clients to get them all to Gold this year. Transparency within and outside of your organization creates ownership and engagement, and I believe all nonprofit leaders would love more engagement from their stakeholders.

And remember, nonprofits who upgraded their Guidestar rating one unit by being just a little bit more transparent raised 26% more the following year!

Do you need help increasing your transparency outside of Guidestar’s framework? Grab our Transparency Tip Sheet here to learn how to share your financials the right way!

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Top 10 Money Resources to Save Time and Grow Your Bottom Line

by with No Comment Featured BlogFinancial ManagementResources

I get asked all the time for the tried-and-true tools that help me run my business efficiently and can help you too, no matter what type of organization you’re running. I’ve compiled a list of the tools I use every single day both in my business and with clients to help them streamline processes and grow their bottom line AND their impact.

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Here are my top tools and resources for busy, purpose-driven leaders:

 

  1. QuickBooks Online. As a CFO, you knew an accounting system had to be first, right? QBO is the perfect system for small businesses and nonprofits alike. It’s easy to use, intuitive (even if you dread your numbers), and affordable for pretty much everyone. Love it.
  2. Asana. We use Asana to organize all of our client workflows and I love how it is structured. I can get different views, like a task list or a calendar view, and this is one of the first tabs I open every morning to help plan my day.
  3. Acuity Scheduling. Every single leader I know is over-scheduled and it seems like half of our lives are spent coordinating meetings. I implemented Acuity years ago and I LOVE sending people my calendar link and letting them choose a meeting time that works. It literally cuts down on dozens of emails a week.
  4. Boomerang. I am a planner and that includes planning emails ahead of time. For example, I know I want to send an email reminder to a client on Monday but if it just sits in my draft folder, I will probably forget to send it, so then I write myself a note on a Post-It and before you know it, my desk is covered in neon squares. With Boomerang, you can schedule emails in the future and it will remind you if someone hasn’t responded!
  5. Gusto. Our favorite payroll provider, hands down. They pay your contractors and employees, handle all of the tax and compliance filings that no one wants to deal with, their platform is user friendly, and customer service is top notch. And they’ve also added benefits, time tracking, expense reimbursements, and vacation tracking – they’re truly becoming our HR hub!
  6. Bill.com. If you pay lots of vendors in different ways, then bill.com is my favorite place to keep it all organized. You can send paper checks or electronic payments and use their platform as a filing hub for vendor invoices too. 
  7. Expensify. Do your team members have company credit cards or lots of expense reimbursements? Expensify has a simple app where they can upload receipts, tell you what the expenses were for, and then import right into QuickBooks.
  8. Profit First. If you hate numbers but want to learn more about handling your financials with ease and clarity (like, how much should I be saving for taxes? What’s a good profit percentage?), this is an amazing book to read. It’s written so ANYONE can understand and is a practical addition to your bookshelf that you’ll reference for years to come.
  9. Profit Playbook. Our free template is the best and easiest way to make a plan to hit your revenue, profit, and cash goals. I walk you through how to build a forecast, step by step, so you have a clear vision of your financial future.
  10. Finance Pro Quiz. If you’ve ever Googled “what’s the difference between a CPA, CFO, CFP” then this quiz is a MUST. In just three minutes, I’ll help you figure out exactly which finance pro you need, no acronyms included!
  11. AmEx Credit Card. If you’re not using a credit card for your business expenses, to rack up points and rewards, you are missing out. This is my favorite credit card that I try and put everything on, then pay off each month.

Do you have a super fabulous tool or resource I should know about it? Share, so I can share with our community!

PS – We have tons of free webinars, podcast episodes, and other resources dropping practically weekly around here. Do you want to be part of the community to get the first dibs on the new stuff to help you grow your bottom line and your impact?!

#tools #resources #quickbooks #quickbooksonline #gusto #acuity #payroll

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How to Pay Yourself Consistently

by with No Comment Featured BlogFinancial ManagementPeople

I have a confession to make.

I used to be scared of spending money, including paying myself.

My consulting practice was consistently bringing in a few thousand dollars a month and I was terrified of taking any money out for myself, for fear that I wouldn’t bring in another dime.

I was also scared of paying anyone to do anything for me. After I toiled away at a custom branded PowerPoint template for what felt like days, I finally paid someone $50 on Upwork to create it for me. Not only did they finish in about an hour, but that was officially the first outsourcing I ever did for my business. And I probably debated on whether or not to do it for a ridiculously long amount of time.

You may have similar fears as I once did, or ask yourself weekly:

 

How do I know when to pay myself? How much should I pay myself? What if my revenue is unpredictable? How much should my expenses be?

While I believe that the root of the issue is the scarcity mindset (we believe that there is NOT more where that came from), everyone wants to make sure they are allocating their incoming cash appropriately so they can build a sustainable business they love AND get paid to do so.

Remember, if we are not paying ourselves, we have a hobby, not a business.

And if you’re not cutting yourself a regular paycheck, or making a regular owner’s draw into your personal checking account (even if it’s just $100/month!), you will begin to feel resentment towards your business, and trust me, it all goes downhill from there.

So let’s dive into how to ensure you can pay yourself consistently, even if you don’t yet have consistent revenue.

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Step 1 – Visualize your money. I don’t mean close your eyes and picture piles of cash a la Scrooge McDuck, I mean map out your revenue on paper.

Grab our template here.  Jump to the Budget & Forecast tab.

Step 2 – Fill in your revenue for the last six months. Add a line for each different revenue source you might have (wedding photography, newborn photography, product sales, etc).

Step 3 – Input your estimated revenue for the next six months (or beyond). Here’s where people freeze. But I don’t know how much money I will make in the next six months! Of course, you don’t. But you are a smart person who can make an educated estimate. Here are a few ways to estimate the unknown:

  • Look at your pipeline. What clients or work do you have committed? What clients or work are almost committed?
  • Look at last year. If you’re struggling trying to figure out how much money you’ll make in October, check out how much you made in October last year. Is it typically a busy or a slow month?
  • Look at your goals. If your goal is to make $120k this year and you’ve already made $80k, you need $40k for the rest of the year. Divide that by how many months are left and figure out the building blocks to get you there. For example, if your photography packages are $5k, you need 8 more. How many can you add each month?

Step 4 – Once your revenue is all laid out on paper, take a look at how it might ebb and flow from month to month. Are there big dips in revenue?

Step 5 – Here’s the fun part! Let’s do a tiny bit of easy math to figure out exactly how much you can afford to pay yourself, how much you should set aside for taxes, and how much you should spend on your business.

(Side note: If you’re super into this and want a great resource, Profit First is a good book to get started. I’m going to simplify it even more though, so if you’re not down for 300 pages of reading, stick with me here.)

Close your eyes for a second. Picture a bucket filled with money. This money is your total income for the month and this is how much we have to allocate every single month.

Let’s say there is $5,000 in that bucket. We want to divide up that $5,000 between a few other buckets:

  • *Taxes (for the IRS and, if applicable, state government taxes)
  • *Owner’s pay (that’s you!)
  • *Business expenses (everything you need to run your business)
  • *Profit (extra money to hold onto, invest in the business, save for a rainy day, etc)

*Each month, we will take our revenue bucket and divvy it up like this:

  • *15% for taxes
  • *30% for business expenses
  • *45% for owner’s pay
  • *10% for profit
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Step 6 – Set up different bank accounts. I recommend at least two business accounts plus your personal account. Your first business account is where all income will be deposited and where your business expenses will come from. Your second business account should be a savings account where you move your 15% for taxes and 10% for profit every single month. And of course, your personal account will hold your owner’s pay.

(Side note: Profit First recommends more accounts than this, but this is how I’ve set up my own business and it works well.)

Step 7 – See how you stack up. If you already track your expenses, owner’s pay, and profit, calculate the percentages (always calculate as a percentage of revenue) that you’re allocating from your bucket now. Make any adjustments necessary starting next month.

Step 8 – Deal with issues. But what if my expenses are higher than 30% now? What if my revenue is 0? What if I want to spend my profit on a big coaching program or new equipment? What if my expenses are lower than 30%; can I take more owner’s pay?

I know, I know. This formula isn’t entirely foolproof, no questions asked. Your business is a unique flower filled with nuances that you’ll need to work through. My quick answers?

  • Lower expenses when you can
  • Increase your revenue so you can pay yourself the 45%, even if that is only $20
  • Go ahead and spend that profit but only after you have a 3 month reserve in the bank
  • Absolutely adjust the percentages as fits your business, just use percentages and track it monthly!

Step 9 – Enjoy a business that fulfills your creative and professional goals, sustains your family and pays you consistently, and makes an impact in the world!

Talk To Us!
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How Nonprofit Transparency = More Donations

by with No Comment Featured BlogFinancial ManagementFinancial StatementsNonprofit

I just finished reading Thirst, by Scott Harrison, the founder of Charity: Water. It’s a fabulous book that reads like a novel and tells the story of Scott’s personal journey to creating Charity: Water, and all of the bumps and setbacks he encountered along the way. I drew so many parallels to entrepreneurship among other things, but what I want to talk about today is Scott’s and Charity: Water’s unparalleled transparency.

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Charity: Water is famous in the nonprofit space for transparently touting the fact that 100% of their donations go to programs (because they have an amazing group of people called The Well who fund operational overhead). Scott also mentions in his book several instances along the way where wells couldn’t be drilled or wells didn’t work or they had disagreements with major donors, and some might chalk these experiences up to major failures to be handled, then swept under the rug.

But not Charity: Water. They operate in a full disclosure manner and are willing to risk their reputation for the sake of transparency.

And guess what? Not only have they not lost credibility but they’ve actually GAINED credibility with their stakeholders and grown to a $50M+ organization.

So putting it all out there does NOT mean that you will lose donors, and in fact, a recent study found a direct correlation between transparency and increased donations.

The full study by Erica E. Harris and Daniel Neely can be summarized into one sentence:

“…transparency in the nonprofit sector is value-added to key stakeholders.”

Aren’t we, as nonprofits, always looking for ways to add more value to our key stakeholders (donors, board, institutional funders, staff, volunteers, etc)?

Transparency is our solution.

Guidestar, one of the charity watchdog organizations, recently published an article about this study and summed it up with two incredibly strong data points:

  1. donors give more to transparent nonprofits
  2. transparent organizations tend to be stronger organizations across a range of governance, financial, and operational dimensions

I think we can all agree how vital transparency is to our organizations. Our stakeholders need to know what’s going on behind the curtain, the great, the not-so-great, and the ugly, and when they do, they will feel more connected to our organization, our mission, and donations will increase.

But! How do you become more transparent overnight, you ask?

By sharing the right financial information to the right people at the right times! Here’s everything you need to know to increase your transparency, stakeholder engagement, and donations, using financial information you already have!

Download our Transparency Tip Sheet to help you share your financials the RIGHT way, then keep reading! >>

Who to share financial info with? Everyone! Staff, board, donors, volunteers. Financial information about your agency is relevant for all stakeholders. We’ll talk more about what information and how you present it below. What to share? For the sake of understandability, I would recommend sharing different types of information and presentations to different groups of people (using the same set of financials as your base, of course). Board: High-level dashboard – a birds’ eye view – of the quarterly financials and forecasts plus a full balance sheet and income statement for those who want more details Staff: High-level dashboard with highlights that are relevant for them (i.e. share about a new grant or program, or the fundraising results from last month’s gala). The more graphical the presentation, the better!Volunteers/donors/public: High-level and/or public information such as the 990, annual report, and audited financials when to share it?Annually: Annual report, 990, audited financials on website quarterly: Board meetings and staff meetingsMonthly: Board Treasurer and leadership team how do we make the information interesting and readable? PowerPoint. Graphs and charts. Bulleted talking points. Simplicity can be powerful!

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Do they know what accrued expenses or current liabilities mean? Probably not. Take five seconds to explain it and you’ll see a lot more head nods than heads buried in smartphones. Again, Excel graphs and charts are your friend. They’re super simple to create and for those of us who don’t get their kicks from black and white spreadsheets full of numbers, they help tell a much richer story of your organization’s financial health.

I encourage you to be transparent about your financials because transparency breeds ownership and ownership breeds engagement and engagement by all stakeholders will take your agency to the next level.

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Did you get the Transparency Tip Sheet to implement greater transparency in your organization? Download it here! >>

Want more about TRANSPARENCY? It’s one of my favorite topics and I’ve got you covered here and here.

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How Nonprofit Leaders Can Adopt a Growth Mindset

by with No Comment Featured BlogMindsetNonprofit

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Have you seen the pretty scary statement from the Nonprofit Times that “most charities are teetering on financial peril”? According to this 2018 study, 50% of organizations, created to do more good in the world and serve those in need, are disappearing, dissolving, or closing up shop on a regular basis which means that whatever need they were created to fill is still out there. Eight percent of organizations are currently operating in the red and 30% are on the verge.

Financial peril. That’s a strong statement, but one that hits home to many organizations.

I recently wrote an article about the five steps nonprofits should take to build financial sustainability, and avoid the stress of living paycheck to paycheck (or donation to donation). But what I got to thinking about was the WHY behind this.

Why are organizations operating on a shoestring when there is a world of abundance out there?

I believe it boils down to two things:

  1. Scarcity mindset. Believing that there is only a limited pot of resources to go around, creating small fundraising goals and trying to cram our expenses (and impact!) into that goal.
  2. Lack of a business growth mindset. Growth = survival, and when we play small we don’t grow.

Forbes published an article titled Eight Ways Nonprofit Managers Can Embrace A Growth Mindset and I love that these eight strategies all come from nonprofit leaders, people who understand our sector and have traded the scarcity mindset for one of growth and abundance.

Here are a couple of my favorite strategies:

  1. Stay curious. When I go into a new organization and deep dive into their processes and procedures, especially as it relates to financial management, I hear the phrase “this is how we’ve always done it” far too often. Change (and growth, and impact!) doesn’t come by doing the same things the same way.
  2. Keep your eyes on the future. “What are you doing today to ensure that you’ll still be here tomorrow? Strategizing and planning for increases, both financially and in terms of capacity, are critical success factors.” I love this because in order to ensure we will be here in 5, 10, 20 years, we need to make sure we have the balance sheet and income statement to support that. (Check out my article on five steps to nonprofit sustainability!)
  3. Think like a business person. Know how to read your financial statements! Yes, yes, yes! (Want to be super savvy with your financials? Check out my article on insights hiding in your financial statements.)
  4. Encourage the team to share your growth mindset. Yes! I always encourage organizations to adopt a collaborative strategic planning and budgeting process to allow the whole team to dream big AND understand the resources behind those big dreams. When the team is involved from the beginning, they are more invested and engaged in the process to making those dreams a reality! (Want to learn more about my collaborative strategic planning process? Find the article here.)
  5. Invest in professional development. When things get tight, professional development is usually the first thing to get cut. But I’m pretty sure that it’s been proven to increase happiness and longevity of workers AND help the organization (I can’t provide any stats on this, so you’ll just have to trust my gut!) We have an online course in financial management over here which is perfect to help nonprofit leaders understand the ins and outs of managing the financials of a growing nonprofit. The best part is that it won’t blow your professional development budget AND the knowledge is transferable to everyone on your team! (Click here to Master Your Nonprofit Numbers!)

What do you think? How is your organization and leadership adopting a growth and abundance mindset? (Click over to Forbes for the whole article.)

PS – Are you ready to dive into a collaborative strategic planning process NOW? Remember, involving your team in your plans will lead to more engaged employees ALSO focused on growth! Grab our free strategic planning template here! >>>