Non-Profit

Six tools every CFO needs to ensure non-profit mission success

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There is a lot of general advice about how to run a successful non-profit organization, but the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has specific priorities set by the Executive Director and the Board of Directors. In general, a non-profit is focused on achieving the mission. The CFO’s responsibility is to manage and properly recognize revenue and account for expenditures. Non-profit accounting has its own set of unique rules. Tracking what funds are available for specific efforts can be complex. Fortunately, there are many tools for those who want to ensure non-profit mission success. Here are six tools that every non-profit CFO will need.

 

Questica has the expertise for how CFOs can ensure non-profit mission success. Since 1998,  has worked to make handling finances easier and better for non-profit and other organizations. We manage over $63 billion in annual non-profit and public sectors budgets, and we want to help you. Please visit our website for more information and consider signing up for one of our free webinars.

 

Six tools to help your CFO ensure non-profit mission success.

 

Short and long-term goals

One of the most important ways to achieve a non-profit’s mission is to set both short-term and long-term goals. Break down the greater long-term goal into more manageable short-term ones. Are you running a capital campaign for construction of a new building? What progress can you make toward that goal as revenue is recognized? This will help you visualize your progress and keep your focus on your goal and how to get there.

 

Diverse revenue streams

It’s important for non-profit CFOs to recognize diverse revenue streams because revenue will come from multiple funding sources. It’s about understanding how your fundraising sources perform and building a strategy that leverages each source uniquely. Thus, allowing the organization to reach your financial goals faster.

 

Transparency

Non-profits require the goodwill and trust of their donors and/or members. A way to ensure goodwill and trust is through financial transparency. Having the ability to demonstrate where every penny from every dollar raised was spent is critical. It’s not easy to do after the fact, so you need to organize your expenditures to allow for transparent reporting.

 

Visual data

Showcasing your financial data visually helps your staff, donors, members and board members to understand how their investment is being spent. If you are seeking investment or approval, you need to make the information easy to digest and easy to see how you arrived at your conclusions. It’s important to include visual learning as a means to help ensure that everyone is on the same page.

 

What-if scenarios

“What-if” scenarios allow for multiple future projections, so that your non-profit can be prepared with multiple strategies. The boardroom is not the place to be crunching numbers. You need to come prepared for any scenario and be able to show the impact for any strategic decision. This can all be done in advance when you use what-if scenario planning.

 

Intuitive financial planning interface

As a CFO, where you add the most value? It’s not the actual number-crunching or triple checking formulas. It’s in the analysis and ability to propose successful strategies. Traditional spreadsheets are often cumbersome and frustrating, but financial planning software is easier to use, because its specifically designed to meet your needs.

 

Questica software provides what you need to make accurate projections

PowerPlan, Questica’s non-profit budgeting solution offers CFOs the easy, intuitive software they need. We offer the ability to make projections and “what-if” scenarios as part of your budget planning. Questica understand the demanding needs of non-profits and we’ve built our software to address and accommodate those needs. We know you don’t have time to be struggling with a difficult interface, so our software is easy to manage and integrates with your existing financial and human resources systems. You can rest assured that Questica will help you and your non-profit plan and achieve your goals.  

We are a passionate team of technology experts and business specialists with decades of collective experience managing finances and budgeting software. You’ll be amazed at how much time and energy your non-profit will save with dedicated financial software like Questica’s PowerPlan. To learn more about Questica and how our software can help you, read a case study or take a product tour.

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