Tag Archives: non-profits

New York Times: Restore Philanthropy


I am appalled that The New York Times dropped philanthropy and nonprofits as a full time beat, saying it will be handled “across news desks.”

There is so much that’s interesting in the charity community as

  • compliance and oversight tighten
  • new types of organizations blur the line between corporate and charitable
  • tax reform looms
  • the estate tax’s future remains uncertain
  • the charitable deduction is in the cross hairs
  • the economy creeps out of recession
  • illegal lobbying and political activity charges emerge in an election year
  • the Republican nominee announces a charity platform
  • nonprofit hospitals await the final word on healthcare reform
  • state and local governments continue to look for new revenue
  • 20- and 30-somethings become more involved in social change
  • baby boomers get deeper into retirement
  • measuring “impact” grows in stature
  • new social networks like Pinterest emerge
  • religious organizations slowly lose fundraising market share
  • climate change worsens and environmental and healthcare groups react
  • Syria erupts and social justice and humanitarian groups react
  • Arab nations reform and women’s groups react
  • Vladimir Putin regains the Russian presidency
  • European countries’ austerity measures leave needs unmet

Added on March 13, 2012 – since this was published yesterday:

  • Philanthropy is a top growth industry
  • Oklahoma State University cannot recoup millions lost in insurance fundraising promoted by T. Boone Pickens

Precious few of these are stories that will grab the news desks’ attention. They emerge as trends over time and will get displaced each day by the urgencies that fly across news desks.

Philanthropy and charity, our third sector that represents about 10% of the U.S. gross domestic product, demands someone who is each day thinking about that beat, sifting the news for patterns and looking at the day’s happenings through the lens of the charity community.

You’re not going to get that without a devoted, full time reporter on the beat.

The Times should restore philanthropy to an exclusive national news beat and put Stephanie Strom (or someone with equivalent experience and contacts) back on it.

This two minute clip sort of captures my sentiment.

Nonprofit Radio for March 9, 2012: Conversations with Marc Ecko, Craig Newmark & Naomi Levine

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

Sponsored by GE Grace corporate real estate services.

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Conversations with Marc Ecko, Craig Newmark & Naomi Levine

Interviewing Marc Ecko
First, thoughts on branding–and other business lessons applicable to charities–from Marc Ecko, founder of the very consistent brand Ecko Enterprises.

 

 

 

 
Interviewing Craig Newmark
Then, Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist and CraigConnects has ideas about simple communications and knowing when to stop talking. I interviewed Marc and Craig at the NextGen:Charity 2011 conference.
 
 

 

 
With Naomi Levine
I close with Naomi Levine, executive director of the Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University. Last May, at a reception for my show, we talked about professionalizing fundraising and enhancing its stature; the role of trustees; government oversight; motivation for small charities; and the future of the charity community.

 


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Hello and welcome to the show it’s tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host it’s friday, march ninth, twenty twelve i certainly hope very much that you were with me last week because what you would have heard was b f d board financial dilemma. What do you do for board members who can’t read your balance sheet? The authors of the board members easier than you think guide to non-profit finances answer that andy robinson and nancy wasserman explained why understanding finances is critical so boardmember is, preserve your good work and protect themselves. We helped your board achieve financial literacy this week. I’ve got three conversations all pre recorded with marc ecko, craig newmark and naomi levine first thoughts on branding and other business lessons applicable to charities from marc ecko, founder of the very consistent brand echo enterprises, then craig mark the found of craigslist and craigconnects has ideas about simple communications and knowing when to stop talking. I interviewed mark and craig at the next-gen charity conference last year, and we closed with naomi levine, executive director of the heimans center for philanthropy and fund-raising at new york university last may, at a reception for my show, she and i talked about professionalizing fund-raising and enhancing its stature. The role of trustees, government oversight, motivation for small charities and the future of the charity community. In between. Those segments, at roughly thirty two minutes into the our tony’s, take two. Something different this week of a vintage standup comedy clip from july two thousand eleven. Of me, this show is supported by g grace corporate real estate services. And i’m very grateful for their support. Right now, we take the break. And when we return conversation with marc ecko, stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way. Look forward to serving you. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom, too. One, two, nine, six, four, three, five zero two. We make people happy. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com welcome back. Right now, i have a conversation prerecorded with marc ecko. Hope you enjoy this. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the next-gen charity conference were at the tribeca performing arts center in downtown new york city. With me now is marc ecko, founder of eco enterprises. Specifically, we’re gonna talk about some of his board leadership on ah, with ticket, a children’s home, sweat, equity, education and every loop he’s sort of a founder of each of those and is on the board. We’ll talk a little about that. And also his presentation today on how we make people feel at next-gen marc ecko, welcome. Thank you. Why don’t you tell us what the work it ah, tick of a children’s home is it’s ukraine? Yeah. Tick. The children’s home is in odessa, ukraine. It was kind of my first entree experience in tow. Philanthropy. I kind of say it’s like we did probably the first hostile takeover of an orphanage in ninety seven. There were no casualties. Not that i know of. And certainly not the orphans of the kids. But maybe some of the prior funders o k could be for the good. Yeah. It was in the end, it netted out really well. But that was my first kind of deep touch experience. Where got toe apply my marketing sensibility. Ah, kind of operational sensibility to things on a not-for-profits sector. Um, and i got the kind of i r r if you will, the return on investment emotionally of being able to see what the dollars were doing on the ground and the touch and feel with, like the kids that that provoked me tow want to come home and you have something that was ah, you know that i could have more of ah, instant feedback loop on ah, as getting to odessa the frequency of that it was quite hard. And i still i obviously go, you know quite frequently, but the operators really on the ground, they’re the ones that are on the day today. So i, ah, started investigate the education sector, um managed to become a boardmember of ah, big picture learning, which is an alternative high school program. Alternate high schools all around the country. Great operators of, i think, one of the best reimagined high school program in the country. And i won that i don’t think it’s enough credit for it. Ah, but that provoked me to launch sweat, equity, education and sweat equity. Education is ah, and its core design. Ah, curriculum development programme where i was taking the access that i had in in the consumer product industry and kind of making it open source to the eu space. So how do you teach kids to the open hyre versus teaching them to the test? What did that look like like, for instance, could ah, ah, young kid in high school, high school age really was our core focus of cohort. Um what? What is that? They need to know to be a footwear designer in our industry. And what are the information management tools? And how would you measure success? And, you know, not stuff that you would abstractly touch, but, you know, practically touch. So it was kind of, you know, one part reimagining vocational education and another part just kind of increasing the relevance meter on considering products on dh tying that to jobs directly to job. They’re designer, et cetera. Yeah. For where watches fission products, you know, as a consumer product guy, um, that was always the coolest parts of my learning. And then my continued learning in life is that when you idea it’s something you have that you germany an idea, the idea comes back, you know, typically in the way of package or a box. And because that idea’s a sample and the samples all wrong and problem solving to get it right, where were you wrong? And where was the, you know, on the manufacturing side? Wrong. And how do you manage that information loop? And how do you home that? What kind of efficiencies can you get it learned from that so kind of, like, really demystifying my industry? Ah, inside of a curriculum product. So let’s, talk about some of your your board service because you want to tie your work to the to the audience and maybe their relationship with board members. Um what? What do you see? The shortcomings that you have become aware of in the in the way that the the executive director’s or, you know, administrators of the of the non-profits you’re on in the way they relate to our use, their board members. What advice do you have around that? Well, i think today you know, i think the next generation of charity is is ah, is to not think of yourself like a charity. You know, my great experience around sweat equity education was moving from who was, you know, an organization that was run by an executive director kind of classic form e d um, slightly academic. Ah, really good person. Ah, really, really, really good person. But the orientation was an operational. The orientation was muchmore kind of entrenched in the kind of the kind of seeing the world this flat from an operational point let’s talk about let’s talk about having developing this operational perspective. Just have a few minutes that that partly that part laid into me reset, restructuring the organization so that we had a c o o and we’ve reconfigured the organization to get someone out of business to kind of come in. And ah ah, operationalize and bill deficiencies in the organization was a big that’s, a big learning experience for me and one that i think has been ah, very fruit phone is informed. Ah, you know, other boards that i sit on in the non-profits check on dh. How have donors reacted to that at the organising some donors it’s interesting, you know, i’m someone i’m completely self made, so i take every dollar that i spend very seriously. Ah, i don’t have build gates money, but i certainly i think, for the percentage of my net worth and how much i’ve given up from work-life pay over the last decade has been it’s ah it’s been significant, so i take my spends very seriously, and i think there’s some donors to the orientation might be on the foundation side where they’re not necessarily personally stroking the check i mean personally, but rather from a foundation. So they’re an executive at a foundation or from high net worth individuals who, you know, it’s it’s kind of like a loss leader for them. So some folks have ah, don’t like that kind of business orientation, they get threatened by it. They kind of are nostalgic for a certain structure and modeling, which was that that model is coming out of date exactly. And so those are not donors that are relevant to my efforts. Yeah. Ah, and i try to get with like minded folks folks that want to try to ah, build efficiencies and ah! And build ah, you know, i don’t want to say the b word because it sounds maybe a little bit ah, and pathetic a latto being in the philanthropic space, but building the business of charity. Yeah, okay, now. And it takes a certain kind of rigor that we could extrapolated from operating business is to make them run more efficiently if they’re going to be small, medium size. We have just about a minute or so left before i know, i know you have to go and but while you were on stage, you made a point of talking about how how we make people feel. Yeah, and i was thinking of does i was listening to you. I was listening, i was think about donors how we make donors feel about they’re they’re giving, but can you share what, some what you shared on stage? Yeah, you know, i just i i’m a big believer that’s not what you make in life. It’s, it’s. You know, tell you make people feel i think, when when you die that’s what people? Remember, you know, it’s the that’s, the magic and building kind of real authentic connections between peoples i think putting an emphasis on the touch in the field and the and the and the kind of emotional stickiness because that’s what drives and motivates people to kind of want to show up the next day and the next day, you know, ah, brand is really nothing but ah, a fancy way of kind of saying, ah, you know, i’m going to build the the easiest solution to get people to understand my values if they are those folks are my consumers or people that work for me or people that don’t know me, like, within an instance, you know, it’s kind of a little bit like in this maybe a little bit, maybe egomaniacal, but a little bit like believing that you are building a religion and ah, you know, when you think about what steve jobs or walt disney did in terms of the religion of their brands, it’s very easy to become indoctrinated so like a fair manager, and if they operate in the name of apple on the ground, you don’t need jobs in the room to kind of channel that energy and that’s what great brands do good, they kind of informal culture oh! And they inform culture of leadership, clarity of message concensus. Ah, and ah, you know that that in order to build those often in the non-profits back sector, the ones that do get over that hump, they manage to do that are the ones typically have a much larger scale. It’s very hard to do that without kind of the powder to take it, you know, to scale. So, for instance, let’s say a united way is a very effective, you know, um, you know, uh, organization terms of building its brand saved the children. Okay? Ah, well known, but even a smaller organization, i could still have this kind of effective leadership. And, uh oh, there’s, no doubt sharing of culture. And now you there’s no doubt, there’s no doubt, i think it’s but, you know, it’s kind of just pierced its appear like it’s a numbers game, right? Like, the more it’s, hard to scale, a brand that no one knows, like, you know, kleenex, right? But you don’t know, like, you know me nick’s, right? Like, if i said, oh, i used me next you’d be like what? You don’t mean so there’s ah, you know ah. What? I think it could be said for that and i think an an an anecdote for folks in the non-profit space. They need to go around and find other like minded organizations and, you know, should i see this all the time you just came from aa? You know, big summit and ah, get out the vote groups like all around the country and from the rock, the vote, folks toa much smaller kind of local regionalized groups that are more maybe focus around a demographic or a region of the country. But you know anything that they could share and create a kind of an umbrella around to kind of create that scale. Right? I often say to two non-profits to check their charities at the door, check their brand rather at the door. And one of the great ways for them to grow is to find like minded organizations that are willing to kind of operate under the same name. Ah ah ah, if you find, you know it’s kind of odd to me that, you know, i just came from a two day summit where i met someone on the west coast that’s trying to do is get out the vote, play with a digital platform and then someone on the east coast trying to do it to get out the vote play with a digital platform it’s kind of like, aren’t you? Isn’t there some burr dunaj run done and sees here? So even if you like used, we could probably take make-a-wish you guys operate on the same basic digital, like the digital tools, and you guys could re label like white, label them or or be powered by your brand? But how do you build those efficiencies when you’re operating in-kind of small silos and very fragmented co-branded helps give cover and, you know, often the you know, there’s, there is strength in numbers and strength in that kind of alignment of missions, so ah, i feel like that’s. What? Ah ah lot of its one of the achilles heels of the of the non for-profit sector marketa, whose founder echo enterprises. He has just a short time. So we have to wrap. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the next-gen charity conference. Coming to you from tribeca performing arts center, lower manhattan. Mark. Thank you very much. My pleasure. Thank you, thanks for saving. Thanks. They didn’t think the tubing getting demanding things. You’re listening to the talking, alternate network, waiting to get me to thinking. Cubine are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam lebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative dot com mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free psychic readings. Learn how to tune into your intuition, to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. No. Welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent right now, i have my interview with craig newmark, the founder of craigslist and craigconnects from also neck from nextgencharity conference last year hears that. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the next-gen charity conference two thousand eleven at the tribeca performing arts center in downtown manhattan, and joining me now is craig newmark. Craig is the founder of craigslist and craigconnects greg, thank you for taking time today. Hey, i’m glad to be here. It’s a pleasure to have you craigconnects is ah fairly new venture but you and i talked about it on the show maybe six months or so ago. How has it been evolving? It’s been working out pretty well on a personal basis. It’s help me focus what i want to do in the sense of what causes i should be supporting what group size should be supporting in support of those causes, that kind of thing. It’s helping me better understand how tow really do an exceptional job of supporting some specific non-profits also finding ways for non-profits tto help themselves with the eventual aim of getting very large numbers. Of people connected to social media. All right. And so what have you been learning from the personal perspective in terms of how you should be or how craigconnects should be supporting non-profits well, there’s a bunch of small lessons, okay, one of the one of the most difficult is haven’t finding ways quiet ways to get people in the same space non-profits in the same space to actually talk with and work with each other collapse been a tough one. I’ve also ah realized in a deep way how difficult it is often for small, effective non-profits to be really bad getting the word out about themselves, since often they don’t know how to deliver a good, tight elevator pitch and that’s a bit of a computer industry cliche. Nevertheless, they need to be able to talk about themselves and real quick and tight. So how is craigconnects helping with the collaboration and also helping non-profits deliver their own message? Well, in those specific examples, it’s mostly me speaking directly across people in different groups in terms of what they’re doing, i’ve devoted most of that energy to groups which support military families and veterans um, but very recently and i really mean, last couple days i’ve been starting to devote that now intensely two groups who believe in the future of journalism and that one way to restore trust to news media is to start checking the facts again. S o u mean investigative journalism investigative journalist plays a role, but the idea is that often a politician, for example, will make a statement to a reporter. The reporter will know that he’s being lied to and the reporter should have within relatively easy reach. Someone is check the facts, and it can then challenge the politician is needed um, and in terms of ah non-profits supporting themselves are really helping themselves to convey their own message. Doesn’t that still have to be an elevator pitch, but conveying, ah, cohesive mathos message? What is your advice there? Where you see shortcomings? Well, basically, the idea is that a speaker on behalf of a non-profit or pretty much any organization just has to clearly identify what they’re doing and just try to get it out there in about forty five seconds and then keep repeating until they can do that if they don’t know how to, they need to. Ask someone for help in terms of that craigslist foundation, in fact, does teach that and it’s a boot camp, but that’s only available maybe once or more year. The idea is it’s a matter of applied common sense if you’re doing something and if you’re good at it, you just have to be able to boil it down and to articulate the gist of it really fast. And then no one to stop talking. Yeah, okay, that i was gonna ask you something else. But now that you just said, you know, when to stop talking overselling can be a problem. Yes, it’s quite possible that i’ve just spoken with some folks who had a difficulty knowing when to stop difficulty. No england tio? No, when they were over selling something. Okay. And so how do we, uh, do you have any advice about knowing when to stop or should we be practicing this in front of others? How do we stop? People? I’d say practice in front of people who will be slightly unkind. You okay? Because you need friends who are good enough friends to let you know what you may not want to hear. Yeah, don’t. We learn a lot when we’re challenged when, when we’re told, you know, that’s not quite right sometimes the only way you learn is from people who like you enough, teo tell you, when you’ve gone a little too far, that applies, not lucas speaking, but in my case, my sense of humor. Okay, i won’t ask you to try it out, but but no, but it’s it’s absolutely true, we do learn when we’re when we’re challenged on dh challenge in a good way. Yeah, no so craigconnects is focused mostly on aid for military families you mentioned there. There are other categories of not sure all right craigconnects is working more than one, any one particular area with military families and veterans, but there’s also areas like water and sanitation, micro finance, peace in the mideast. One big area just beginning to be explored is ah helping out those groups which measure the effectiveness of non-profits because there’s a lot of non-profits who do a lot of good but there’s also a substantial number of non-profits hoo ah, tell a good story, but never really get anything done. No outcomes. Another area is this whole idea of restoring trust to the news to news media by restoring fact checking i mean, i’m not in that business and i’m not going to tell him how to do their job, but i want news i can trust again. One area unannounced on the site is voter protection. There are people actively seeking to disenfranchise various groups, young old latinos and other minorities. We’re in america and the effort to to disenfranchise people needs to be stopped. You mentioned the sights or the organizations that evaluate charities or rate charities that’s the guide star helping groups like guidestar, charity navigator is that is that the population that’s exactly right? Guidestar in charity navigator have been around a long time. They’re good at looking at financial effectiveness. They’re moving towards measures of accountability, transparency and then eventually measuring just how good a charity is that serving his client population. I’ve had ken burger on the show ceo charity navigator, and we’ve talked about jerry navigator two point oh, and then what’s coming in three point of the outcomes assessment that’s the deal now for the here and now there’s something called great non-profits stud organ that’s user reviews for non-profits kind of like what yelp does that’s a hero now, and i really do encourage people to look at it and then to write in their own little reviews of non-profits they know something about for charity’s listening if they would like tio if they feel they fall within the missions that craigconnects is working with, how do they go about getting getting the your attention? Well, if you go to craigconnects that or ge there’s a connect link and that’s how to submit something, we need a little bit of a break because we’ve been successful enough to get to be overwhelmed with requests, okay? And let me just ah, closing moment ask you generally what? What what are you planning to share this afternoon with the with the next-gen audience? Basically common sense stuff? They’ve asked me to talk about things i’ve learned doing craigslist in craigconnects that maid apply to people in general, like the craigslist business model ultimately is doing well by doing good in meant that when making it a new company, i decided to step away from a very large amounts of money, not altruistic. Itjust means following through his stuff i already believed in and another founding principle. I think craig was just simplicity, just a little about that. Well, yeah, insights, orn presentation or anything, people don’t really need the fancy stuff, they need something which is simple and fast, all right. Craig newmark is the founder of craigslist and craigconnects craig you very much for being a guest. Thanks, mom. My pleasure, then mar. Pleasure having you. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the next-gen two thousand eleven conference at tribeca performing arts center in new york city. I want to thank craig, mark very much for sitting for an interview and also market go. Right now, we take a break when we returned tony’s, take to a clip from my standup vintage clip from my stand up stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com dafs welcome back, it’s. Time for tony’s, take two. I’ve been doing stand up comedy since july two thousand eleven. Here is a vintage clip from july two thousand eleven. I did this set at gotham comedy club in new york city. Here it is, durney. When i was in seventh green, i had a terrific krauz lisa magic and i chose the moment to ask her to go steady. To be our seventh grade dance. I can still smell that high gloss varnish on the gymnasium floor. I was there in my powder blue leisure suit. The contrast ing thread on the lapel. I saved my last dance released. Lisa saved her last dance for albert moran. The pain of watching that spectacle when they parted buy-in walked up to lisa. I got close to her mind, hands were sweating, my chest pounding. I got so close, i put my hands on her shoulders in the middle of the dance floor, and i asked, monisha would you go steady? With all her seventh grade charm and sweetness, she said, you are standing on my dress. Years later, albert and lisa, man. Then, sadly, they separated and divorced. Dahna attorney. And i handled that divorce. Handup lisa has been paying the press waiting that is tony’s take two for friday, march ninth, two thousand twelve, the tenth show of two thousand twelve. There is more of that exact that clip mohr that set, i should say on my blogged at tony martignetti dot com right now i have my interview with naomi levin she’s, the executive director of the heimans center for philanthropy and fund-raising at new york university from last may at a reception that i hosted for my show here is that interview. Naomi levine is the executive director of the george h heimans junior center for philanthropy and fund-raising at new york university. For twenty two years, she was in use, senior vice president for external affairs and helped raise over two and a half billion dollars for the university. She is a graduate of columbia law school. She was previously the national executive director of the american jewish congress. Now she is special advisor to the president of venue, and she chairs the board of the edgar bronfman center for jewish student life and the tab center for israel studies. Please join me in welcoming mrs naomi levine. Mrs levine, what do you see as the non-profit role for our society? Let me put this in a kind of perspective that i always used. I don’t think that most people in our society recognized the importance of the non-profit world in our civil society, if you close your eyes for one minute and look at the skyline of new york city, do you hear me? Yeah, you will see that if you took away lincoln center, the hospitals and why you, fordham, columbia and all of the other universities, medical centers, cultural centers, theatres, dance a group, you will see that this would be a very different society, and most people really don’t think about that when they think of the way we all run. They think a government, they think of the corporate sector, and they don’t think of the non-profits but why is that? That that means non-profits are not fulfilling their work in spreading their the message of their good works? I mean, do you think the blame falls on the non-profits for people not being aware, i think i would suspect so let me lead into that as we progress in our conversation because the truth is, i’m not really sure i know that most people don’t realize it and what they don’t realise moore is not one of those organizations could exist without fund-raising they require financial support, and yet do you know a shingle mother who will say to their child, you know, dear, when you grow up, i want you to be a fundraiser. Nobody says that my own mother, my own mother in the last years of her life, when she was living at a place called cat a house in the bronx, i would come to visit her and she’d say to me now remember, when we go down for lunk, if someone asks you what you do for a living, tell them you’re a lawyer, not a fundraiser. She was embarrassed at her law review daughter was raising money. People think of it as selling cookies for the girl scouts, and you ask me why it is that i must tell you i’m not sure, but one thing i am sure if you let me adjustment, just put that on the table is that unless fund-raising is viewed as a profession, a legitimate profession that has talked within? The university not with in all kinds of organizations that provide courses, but within the university, it never will be given the kind of status that it deserves. Dentistry at one point was nothing. You went to an apprentice, yet you learnt how to pull a tooth. That was the end. Lawyers like john adams of your read his book. You know, he was an apprentice in a law office. But once causes were given within universities and got to stamp a university academic approval, they became professions. And the reason i created the heimans center is that i really want to see people take cautious, learn and make this area a profession that even my mother would be proud of you so that’s, hard to go. Let me tell you and you make a very good point that i don’t know any fundraisers who it’s. For whom? It’s. The first career. You know, in my office we had a big staff and we had people who were from every discipline around. They were from journalism, from archaeology, from everything in the world. Nobody studied. And yet if you think about it, i know that i learned an enormous amount. During those twenty five years and every time i prepare for a class, i learned more, i confess to you, i never spent time with my staff talking about ethics. What did we talk about? We talked about what you go, how much money where’s the money, etcetera. Yet when i started to prepare the course on ethics and red doug white’s book on charities on trial and a few other things, i said, you know, that’s, a very important area, and i should learn about it because if you don’t know the law and you don’t know the ethical component and you don’t know board governance and fiduciary relationship, you’re going to get in trouble. That’s perfect and doug white was a guest on my show, talking about his book about ethics, but so now we’re talking about the fundraiser and fund raisers, and you’ve just made a great transition. How about the role of the trustees? What? What are they trustees heir not really fully aware of their roles, don’t you think with respect to the organization, trustees are also fund-raising is if you sit on a board because it’s a nice, prestigious thing to do and it looks good in your obituary in the times it is a wrong reason to be on a board boards have responsibility. They have the responsibility to keep their organization financially secure. That means boardmember sze have to be fundraisers also, you know, larry tisch usedto have he was the chairman of gnu during the time that i was vice president and he had a very simple and crash way. I assume of running his board. He used to say to me, look, we’re not harvey, we’re not princeton. When i put someone on the board, they not only have to be dedicated, decent people committed toe hyre read, but they have tai run my board by the three g’s that people have to give money, they’re not a big amount, but give something to show their commitment to. They have to help get money, and if they can’t do that, they should get off the board because boards have responsibilities. And when you talk about a boardmember they have to be, they have to understand their responsibilities, fiduciary, legal, come to meeting, to read and order to report. Read a budget report there are a whole list of things if this was a class that i could list for you that boards have to do so. The relationship between the fundraiser and a boardmember is really a very close one. What was number three? You said he had three, three, three requirements, money get money there, you get off the moca or get off the board. That was number three, not in a harsh way. I’m not suggesting you tell your boards that i’m telling you you have to try to persuade them to give and then had people onto your board that will shut an example. I never suggested it toe fund-raising they come in and get rid of their boardmember you’ll be in trouble. On the other hand, you have tohave board training on the sarbanes. Actually, the corporation board have been instructed to do that to a close are instructed to give board training, training aboard and what their responsibilities are. Doug and i and and ruth ellen reuben is here. We go around to different boards were invited to talk to them about their obligations under the law federal law state law i venture to say if i went around this room today and most of your fundraisers air sit on board, you would not know a ll the laws that are involved in fund-raising state and federal. I learned that on lee when i started to teach i did not know that when i was raising money. Don’t you think that the trend also is that this is only gonna get worse at the booth state and federal level? That oversight from those levels of government is going to just increase among among non-profits i don’t like the fact that you used the word worse in my book, i would say that’s better, more, more. I know you advocate for even greater oversight. I know you do far more oversight and far more regulation. It is an area that everybody thinks so. We don’t have to regulate the non-cash offiicial very good people. The red crossed of good things university how dare we suggest that they be regulated more. Let me tell you that there is a cz much mismanagement, excessive salaries, all kinds of conflict of interest area occur in the nonprofit world that a car in a profit within the nonprofit sector fights your advocacy of deeper oversight. The non-profit schecter buy-in it’s. Not eager tohave. More regulation. I will confess to you on my staff and friends know this for seven years i have gone up to albany fighting for one lousy bill. One bill that would say that if you’re hired as a professional fundraiser, you should take one course in the a clutch of your entire career in law, ethics and board governance. I think you should do that. And every year it gets through the senate and assembly up in albany and then the non-profits come up and they argue against it in their mind. It’s a slippery slope. You’re going to start regulating your going to stock with more rules. We don’t want that. And the governors who don’t want to start up with such good organizations as the heart association of the red cross, they vito and it drives me insane. Ken berger is going to be a guest on my show in in july. I think. It’s the july first show, the executive director of charity navigator what do you see is the role of charity navigator and similar rankings ratings of charities. Well, i think that anything that helps a donor get on understanding of an organisation is a good thing i’m not in a position to discuss the details of those organization, but i know if their organizations around that help it donor-centric stay and more about the organization in my book that’s fine, more disclosure, more honesty, more open dealings, more accountability, all those words and now on the table when i started in fund-raising i’m a very old person, i’m eighty eight years, so i have lived through different parts and different segments off fund-raising the fund-raising world, and in the beginning, you never heard such words. I never heard such words, but now you hear it more amore schnoll organizations like that play a role onda, of course, it’s controversial because the role that they play helps define what people decide to look at. And of course, donors now are more interested in looking at outcomes, and that becomes very difficult latto measure donors are also interested in, um, percentage of budget that goes to program versus administration, but for some charities, it could be very legitimate toe have a very high percentage going to administration because they’re doing things in, but if they’re going abroad and doing things on the ground in, you know, in other continents, i have always been very conservative. I believe that when a person gives money, not more than thirty five percent maximum should go for overhead and a russian gulf of the program. Now there may be exceptions, and you may be right, but by and large, i think that people should feel comfortable in knowing that the book of their money goes to the project that they want to support. Now there are exceptions, and i think that when you sit down with the donor, like we used to have to sit down with someone who gave us two million dollars for a chair, we had to explain that some of that would go for the over head of that school. You’ll have to be able to explain it, but we never never spent more than thirty five cents of thirty five percent that was maximum mr tisch required even less on, you’ll have to be very open and honest about that talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Hi, i’m carol ward from the body mind wellness program. Listen to my show for ideas and information to help you live a healthier life in body, mind and spirit. You hear from terrific guests who are experts in the areas of health, wellness and creativity. So join me every thursday at eleven a, m eastern standard time on talking alternative dot com professionals serving community. This is tony martignetti aptly named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent technology fund-raising compliance, social media, small and medium non-profits have needs in all these areas. My guests are expert in all these areas and mohr. Tony martignetti non-profit radio fridays one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication, and the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office needs better leadership, customer service sales or maybe better writing are speaking skills? Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes or get your human resource is in touch with us. Website is improving communications, dot com that’s improving communications, dot com improve your professional environment, be more effective, be happier and make more money. Improving communications, that’s. The answer. Talking. The audience for the show is small and midsize non-profits the tagline is big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent, what would you like to leave small and midsize charities? With what message for small shops, elections? You’re not different because how you raise money for a big organization and how you raise your trish more fundamentally are not different when we teach courses in our heimans center we, my approach is at the principles of generic, and they involve developing relationships if you know your fund-raising you know that last year, out of the three hundred three billion dollars, it was raised about eighty three percent when you include request come from individuals and individuals will give to small groups, and i’ll give to big groups, so the rules on how you raise that money, the art of the ass is the same. In a little group, you use the same technique to get twenty five dollars, as you will use to get a million dollars, it is developing a relationship, knowing howto ask knowing how to devise your mission statement, knowing the process and the rules and fund-raising knowing what you’re bored should do and that should be and knowing the ethical issues, whether you’re dealing with a little group or a big road, which harder with a little good bye don’t knock it you also perhaps will you social medium or with a little girl? I’m not sure i’m no expert on social media we brought on to our staff of the heimans center last year, marcia vanik she’s, an expert, and she has tried to persuade me that things like facebook and twitter and all that stuff have some value. I am totally illiterate there, but i respect the fact that the coming generations will use it more, particularly the small organizations, and i tell the small organizations, don’t ignore your financial status. Be sure if you can’t afford an audit, at least have very strict rules and how your money is handled. Doug white’s book has a whole list of cases in which organizations big and small got into terrible trouble because they weren’t careful and how they handle their finances. And that is true in little groups as well as big rooms, and that doug white book is charity on trial and that but that goes back to the trustees relationship and trustees obligations even for us, even for a small shop there’s a board and maybe a board of only three or four people, but they have the obligation to be aware of the things that you’re talking about under the law. Whether you’re a big organization are a little charities bureau, which is the hand of the attorney general in the state of new york will look atyou and look atyou carefully and don’t make mistake. I’m not here selling doug’s book i couldn’t give any i’m not interested in that. The only reason i pointed out is that it has in it the cases that are very important for you to understand, and you have to know all the people that got in trouble. Let me give you one example, the american red cross during the nine eleven tragedy, they got in a lot of money, and they used a whole bunch of it for the purpose that nine eleven required that a little bit of money he left over the director of the red cross, one of the most terrific people in the field used that money for the blood drive. She didn’t put it in her pocket. She was fired. Why was she fired? Because the law says if i take money from you for a and i use it for b you’re wrong. I have to use that money for a unless i write to you and i say to you, do you mind if i use it, etcetera? So they’re a little things like that that if you were a fundraiser in this room or a boardmember you have to be very sensitive to whether you’re a little gay root for a big room. We have just a minute or two left. What is it that concerns you most about the charitable sector over the next couple of years? One to two years? Where? What do you think about most what keeps you up at night? Well, i think that competition is very it’s going even increase and the government are cutting back drastically. And so on the shoulders of the non-profits we have to provide for the help that the poor need the abused women or the st joseph’s, full kitchens and all the social services that keep our society going. There’s a book that somebody called claire got eonni road that has wonderful. Chapters on how capitalism could not exist in this country on regulated capitalism without the help of the non-profits we provide the helpful the people that fall between the cracks in our society, and i worry that with the government cutting back and the competition the way it is it’s going to be hard and hard and harder also europe which never was here before, is now facing the situation where their governments are cutting back. They never had a non-profit sector, they relied entirely on government support. Every university in europe is supported by the government. Oxford cambridge is so bone, everyone now oxygen has an office in new york, cambridge has an office in new york and everyone overseas we have more people in our class is now trying tto learn fund-raising from europe, asia, china, every place that’s going to give you a great deal of competition, and so i don’t spend nights worrying about it, but i am certainly concerned about it, and i would hope you find may end that i’m too old to see the end of it, but i would like to see fund-raising fundraisers given the recognition that they deserve and huge. Haven’t you in this room have that obligation to be proud of what you’re doing to make certain that when you work in any agency, people know that without you, that agency is going to close that? This is a dignified profession, and you have to carry that flag. Naomi levine is the executive director of the george heimans center junior junior center for philanthropy and fund-raising at new york university. Thank you very much, mrs loving. Do we have time for where i think you have time for maybe just one or two is your question? Go ahead. Carol weaver, please just shout it out. I’ll repeat it. Go ahead. What do you think about in-kind fundrasing coming together to create a voting we are. Your economy, i i’m told of if we bound together issues way could be a voice in already for your force, which of course, i’m very hyre and for other things, like maybe creating a bank for non-profits you know, i think it’s the variance say, when you make a finger together, you make a fist way have concerned with go ross the industry could we not consider, and i can’t think of a better well, but there are s o the question is generally about how the non-profit sector could organize to be a more cohesive voting bloc now, but their organization like independent sector, you know, so there’s that what else would you like to sell? Well, i can say is most of those organizations are run by their executives, as most organizations are in the average member plays a very minimal role in your right. If the average member played a bigger role and then insistent, i’m sure you think then you would have more effective involvement in albany and other places, but you have the organizations around there’s, a million of them it’s just said in my book there, not doing anything, uh, along the lines. And i think that should be done, yeah, does independent sector is that one of the groups that opposes broader on government oversight, so nobody should fortuny chelation hearts of then that would be, yes, doug white does, even though you panned his book, doug white support, sir, we’re gonna have dug it up for rebuttal after this. Is there another? Is there one more question? If we have time before mrs levin leaves? All right, please join me in thanking her again. Naomi living. And my thanks to naomi levin and her team at the new york university heimans center next week, it’s feared more than death, not the dentist public speaking lori krauz public speaking and presentation skills coach will help you through the fear of your next appearance in front of an audience then scott koegler, our tech contributor, will introduce us to pinterest pinterest dot com the skyrocketing social media property what’s in it for your non-profit keep up with what’s coming up sign up for are in sad or email alerts on the facebook page, like the page you can listen live our archive for i carve listening, go to non-profit radio dot net and that’s where you’ll find our itunes paige, if you are an itunes listener, if you’re if you’re getting this podcasts and subscribing, could i plead with you to goto non-profit radio dot net and leave a review there on the itunes? Paige? I know you don’t have to go backto. 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A Conversation With Naomi Levine

She’s the free-spoken executive director of the Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University. We sat down for a lively chat last year at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel, where I hosted a reception for my radio show. (We were in the Leona Helmsley suite. Woo hoo!)

Mrs. Levine shared her thoughts about professionalizing fundraising and enhancing its stature; the role of trustees; government oversight; motivation for small charities; and the future of the charity community. The video is below.

I’ll also play the interview on my show this week (along with Marc Ecko and Craig Newmark interviews).

My YouTube channel has over 70 high def videos with the likes of Seth Godin; Majora Carter; Rachel Sklar; Charles Best; and my stand-up comedy. Check it out!

Nonprofit Radio for March 2, 2012: BFD: Board Financials Dilemma

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

Sponsored by GE Grace corporate real estate services.

Listen live or archive:

My Guests:Andy Robinson and Nancy Wasserman: BFD: Board Financials Dilemma

Andy Robinson
Nancy Wasserman
What do you do for board members who can’t read your balance sheet? The authors of “The Board Member’s Easier Than You Think Guide To Nonprofit Finances” can answer that. Andy Robinson and Nancy Wasserman explain why understanding finances is critical so board members preserve your good work and protect themselves. Do their eyes glaze over when the numbers come out? We’ll help your board achieve financial literacy.

Please take a moment to take the survey for this week’s show with Andy and Nancy!

You’ll find it below. If you could also share it with other nonprofit professionals, I would appreciate it. The more people who take it, the better the results and the better the show! Thank you!

 


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Here is a link to the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QGRZ57C


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Dahna hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent, i’m your aptly named host and its march second, two thousand twelve well, i hope you were with me last week because there were some excellent interviews last week like this one take on teens aria finger she was that she is the ceo of do something dot or ge, and she had ideas for motivating teens and getting their passion points, finding their passion points to get them engaged in your work. Also pursue your hero’s journey. His journey took him across the u s in a vw microbus, inviting two hundred of the country’s most famous and powerful to coffee. Eric sapper stine is chief creative officer at living wonder, and he shared some of his amazing lessons. Both of those were pre recorded at last year’s next-gen charity conference, then last week also had going greater into google search. Maria simple, the prospect finder and our regular prospect research contributor, dug deeper into google search how do you search results different when you’re logged in or not logged in? Plus advanced search tips? It was a short course on search to help your prospect research this week b f d board financials dilemma of course that’s what b f d means what do you do for board members who can’t read your balance sheet? The authors of board members easier than you think god to non-profit finances, i can answer that. Andy robinson and nancy wasserman explain why understanding finances is critical to board members so that they preserve your good work and protect themselves to their eyes glaze over when the numbers come out, we’ll help your board achieve financial literacy also, roughly thirty two minutes into the hour on tony’s take to my block this week is our irs is helping you. They’ve got some helpful web content on a new site for non-profits i’ll talk a little about that we’re live tweeting the show this week as we do every week. Join the conversation, use hashtag non-profit radio if you have questions for our guests, send them bye twitter using that hashtag this show is supported by g grace corporate real estate services and i’m very grateful for their support even though i just flubbed that sentence, i really am grateful for their support now we take a break. And when we return, b f d board. Financials dilemma. Stay with me. Yeah, you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Durney are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you, too? He’ll call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight, three that’s two one two, seven to one eight, one eight, three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com. We look forward to serving you. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help bilich we take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom two, one two, nine, six, four, three five zero two. We make people happy. Hyre oppcoll. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com. Metoo welcome back, it’s, b, f d board, financials dilemma andy robinson provides training and consulting for non-profits in fund-raising board development, marketing and earned income. He specializes in the needs of groups working for human rights, social justice, environmental conservation, historic preservation and community development. Nancy wasserman has over twenty five years of experience in community finance and social enterprise development her particular skill is working with clients on projects that must satisfy both financial and social or community goals. They worked together to co author of the book the board members, easier than you think i’d to fund to non-profit finances published by emerson and church, and i’m very glad that their collaboration brings them both to the show. Andy nancy, welcome. Thank you. Thankyou. Tony. Pleasure to have you about both. Andy. Pleasure to have you back. Good talk with you again. Thank you, nancy. Why is this important for board members to care about the financial condition of a charity? Because that’s, really? What? Your charges as a boardmember. You have the responsibility to make sure the organization is achieving its mission. And the way the best way to do that is to make sure it. Has the resource is it needs to do it, and the financial statements and the finance non-profit finances how, you know, pretty quickly, what’s going on, especially if you’ve you’ve got that information. You also have some responsibilities to the community to deliver non-profit and that does achieve its mission and does it in a responsible and raducioiu fiduciary appropriate way so boardmember czar have a fiduciary duty to the charity, right? Absolutely. To the charity and to the public at large. Okay, s so why do you say the public at large? What? Because the in the u s the internal revenue service typically gives charity’s a ah non-profit designation, which allows them to receive contributions and issue tax deductible receipts and because they us is forgoing that tax, um, on knows on those dollars and giving the public a public benefit, the irs exercises oversight of non-profit charities and make sure that they really are delivering on their charitable purpose. So there is some public money in here it’s foregone before gone tax revenue at at a bare minimum, often there’s also direct public money from government grants or government contracts. And how about financial problems that can occur within the within the within the charity, like you bring out an example in your book of people not getting their salaries paid things like that, you know you there. Is that that oversight potential here you you are running a small business on dh. You want to make sure that your employees they’re well cared for, that you’re achieving your mission in the world at large sometimes in charities will see folks, you know, giving up salary on dh or deferring payment out of the goal of achieving the mission of the organization in the long term that seriously hurts the organization because people are really watching what’s happening with the money. Where is it coming in? Where is it going? Out? And andy isn’t their potential personal liability for board members when when their problems like this. Like nancy’s describing? Well, let me first cubine disclaimer here, which is that neither nancy nor i or attorneys then we can’t give people legal advice. Okay, well, there’s, no way haven’t nobody’s given you. The listeners have not given you a retainer fee, so you know, okay, i won’t play this. Um, if there is nonpayment of payroll taxes for example, of accusation goes into debt, doesn’t pay the irs or state taxing agencies boardmember czar individually liable for that? Um, most expenses boardmember czar protected from being personally liable on, but there are some exceptions, so i don’t know that that’s what drives this conversation? I mean, four members are simply looking at the balance sheet as a way of making sure that they’re not personally liable. That’s one level on this conversation, but there’s a whole lot more levels having to do with stuff that nancy was talking about. You are we being efficient? We meeting our mission? Are we tracking our work so that we know we’re being effective and that’s really what financial management is about? Indeed, okay, there’s certainly a whole spectrum of reasons why boardmember should care. I just wanted to bring out the last one, which is there is the potential of personal liability. Um, let’s see, wei have just about a minute before a break, and i’m hoping, nancy, why don’t you introduce the idea of the the financial dashboard? And then we’ll talk a lot more about it right after this break? Sure, the financial dashboard is something we introduced. That really gives you a one page sense of how’s, the organization doing what what i’ve found happens with a lot of non-profits is that they, um, they give their boards just reams of paper. And all of a sudden you get the budget and the the performance in the balance sheet and there’s, fifteen pages of financial statements and most boardmember zeev unwanted, who do know how to read. Financials don’t plow their way through it. And so the dashboard is is essentially a one page opportunity to get a sense of how are you operating financially? Are you being efficient, and are you having an impact and let you do it in a fairly simple way? And we’ll talk a lot about that one pager right after this break, i hope you stay with us. E-giving ending duitz e-giving ding, ding, ding, ding. You’re listening to the talking alternate network e-giving. E-giving good. Are you stuck in your business or career, trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one, two, seven, two, one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people be better business people. Hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative dot com mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free psychic reading learned how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen. Every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed, i and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Welcome back for b f d board, financials dilemma my guests or andy robinson and nancy wasserman, co authors of the board members easier than you think guide to non-profit finances and well, we’re live tweeting the show and we have a guest live tweeted this week. She is mazarene treyz is from austin, texas. Mazarene hello, thank you for doing the live tweeting today you can follow mazarene her ideas at wild woman fund on twitter and you conjoined, of course, the conversation right now using the hashtag non-profit radio and andy, i want to throw a question to you quickly. We got a question on twitter from mazarene what if an executive director was found stealing one of the things nancy and i were talking about that kind of fraud issues earlier? Would you give them a second chance? Oh boy, well, i’d be curious to hear nancy’s answer to this. My initial response no, followed by it depends and, um actually was on the board of an organisation where we found the opposite problem, which was the board of executive director was pouring money into the organization. He emptied out his retirement account, but it wasn’t telling. Anybody? He did this because thie grants weren’t coming through, and he was too embarrassed. So that’s a that’s, a that’s, a problem of being over generous, though it is paying for it himself. Yeah, we ended up filing the guy. Yeah, and the reason was he wasn’t disclosing to the board with the board needed do its job, right? Right. And i would say the issue in that case isn’t so much as, uh, misdirection lying. So i am. I am, you know, obviously kept is a bad thing, but the board needs full disclosure from the executive director to be able to do their job. Well. And i know that’s really where i would go on that. How about you, nancy? Andi was curious to hear your answer. I know. I would say again, like andy, it depends probably depending on the amount of severity and this situation. You know, if if the executive director was borrowing twenty dollars, from the petty cash when they forgot to bring their wallet toe work one day um, clearly that’s not not egregious enoughto fire somebody. But if they’re helping themselves to the to the checking account and redirecting grants into their own bank account? Yeah. Probably caused tio tio fire them even if they pay it back, right? That really? Because they pay back with interest, that really doesn’t matter, does it? I mean, the thing about non-profits is, you know, they’re not your own private fiefdom or your own private business there. Is there a community engagement where the reason you know you have? Ah, board of directors that are the final legal responsibility for the organization. So you really shouldn’t be operating it like your own private business. Let’s, talk a little about the dashboard now, nancy, the financial dashboard we introduced earlier it’s a one pager which i think will be a relief to people that they’re not getting a sheath of financial forms and balance sheets. But what? What do you think? What key parts that should be in this financial dashboard that sort of streamline the overview for board members. I would say that that there’s really three parts to it there’s a financial part where you’re looking at, you know, sort of what’s our total budget. Um, you know, every board member of every organisation should be able to very quickly say whether the organization is a three hundred thousand dollars a year organization or five million dollars a year. Organization. That’s sort of a basic sense of scale. Um, are we making money or not? Do we have net income? Hyre, uh, do we have cash on hand? Those kinds of questions do we, uh, do we have network? So we you know, if everything had to be liquidated today, um, would there be any, any money leftover or any value left? Geever um, that that was tangible value? Not just, uh, goodwill? Um, we also want to be looking at at how efficient the organization is and efficiency changes, depending on what the organization does it it’s really sense of being able to measure you you against yourself or against industry standards and it’s, you know, the level of what it costs to deliver services, for example, to severely challenged populations versus what it takes to deliver services toe highly educated people in an urban area where they’re all easily able to get to something. The costs levels are going to be different, and and we’re not saying that they should be the same, but to know what it costs for you. To serve your clients, what it costs to have volunteers and then the impact and i don’t know, andy, if you want to talk a little bit about that impact, how you measure whether you’re meeting your mission or not, and they’re often knew miracle measures that you can think about, you know, if you’re a land trust, how many acres air you preserving? If you do mentoring with children, how many adult children matches do you have? I sometimes this is long term tracking, which is hard for a grassroots organizations to do, but in most field there are ways of measuring your impact in terms of the number of clients you’re serving, or the number of audience members who are involved and hopefully there’s some measures that you can come up with that act, the quality of your work as well. Okay, so people here is we could get this all on one page. He would have data from two years ago. You’d have data from last year. You’d have data from the current year. He could lay them out and see what the trends are. All right, that’s, the financial dashboard i love how you guys have this little dance worked out where nancy talks about the financial and efficiency parts, but then she throws it over to her co author, andy for impact, and you have it all worked out, sort of sort of taking the show over, but okay, it’s, in a good way, which which leads me to a question i said, i have to ask when two of when you co author a book, how do you decide whose name comes first? Did you just do alphabetical order? Did you flip a coin or i see i’m too narcissistic to co author with anybody but but how did you guys work that out? How did you decide that? Andy andy’s alphabetically? First on first names on last names on the honest truth is he did a lot of the writing work where as i did helped him with content, so it was very easy for andy to go. All right, so if i had come in, you wouldn’t have looked only at martignetti you would have lost her, looked at toni, and then i’d have fallen maybe to the bottom, which is probably what i would have had much to contribute to this. So you’re wise not to take you anywhere, even though i pitched you. Otherwise, you name is well known in a certain community. We might have put you first on the your publisher would never have approved that one of the questions that we ask before the show that relates to what we’re talking about now is, do you believe all your board members have at least a general understanding of your financial position? And seventy percent said yes, thirty percent said no, so that’s, pretty good, seventy percent, but the thirty percent. They’re not really very confident, right genera, and that was just a for general understanding. Okay, so the, uh, that’s the dashboard. Andy, should these things be devoted only to you the authority of the finance committee? No. I mean, i think a really good use of the finance committee is, well, stuff down. Rest of the board can understand. It provides thing and support to the rest of the board. Serve as mentors and back-up for the people on staff. We’re doing this. This book is not about house staff. Members need to do financial management mohr effectively. But the reality is a lot of people who are executive directors or even finance directors need help. And one of the goals of finance committee is to give them that help when they need it. So away to think about this is excuse me. If the board is operating at a high altitude and the staff is down on the ground slashing through the week, the finance committee is sort of in the middle there, providing a bridge between those two groups of people. And so that means that financial dashboard is for the whole board to review, right? Yes, absolutely. Was that a heck? Yes. Was that you could say? Hell, yes. Okay. Okay. Wei have another question on from twitter. Reminding listeners you can join the conversation on twitter using hashtag non-profit. Radio board members need to look at the impact of the organization. Andy, i guess this is for you since you talked about impact, how do you measure if you’re meeting your mission or not? I guess she’s looking for a little more detail. Okay, well, obviously depends what your mission is. There are some standard benchmarks for how you’re doing. Uh, if you work with substance abuse, there are networks that do that that can talk about ways of tracking your impact. For example, how many people come through a program, get clean and stay ugly if you are a food bank and you’re delivering food to the community? There’s a number of metrics there that come out of arika america’s harvest, i forget the name of the national network, but they’ll tell you how much money you should be spending more or less based on the population that you’re serving and how much when he pounds of food you can put out into the community pretty much every non-profit, um, subset has symmetric that irrelevant, and the trick is to learn the ones that are relevant. Your type of organization and then trying to adapt them to your particular need. And that would be important for the executive director toby recognizing certainly, and then right. And then conveying that too. Lord. Yes. And in some cases, depending on the size of the organization, there is some board work to help find those numbers. I mean, i work a lot with really small organizations who has a staffer overwhelmed and it be great to say to a finance committee on a volunteer basis, i’m trying to figure out what the relevant metrics are for i type art type of organization who would be willing to do some research and bring that back to us. Doesn’t aboard metoo. But, you know, in the larger organization, yeah, that’s gonna fall staff one of the other questions we asked pre show was, does your board have a committee devoted to financial issues? About eighty percent said yes and the remainder roughly twenty percent said no, nancy does there? Does there have to be a finance committee? There does not have to be a finance committee. I think it really depends on the size of the organization. The level of support. That the director might need you know, how complex the organization is and a zoo also how savvy the board is. If most of the board understands financials and feels quite comfortable with it in a small organization, you could get away without a finance committee. I’d say you want one in any organization that’s about to undertake any kind of major financial growth or change or, uh, new initiative in a larger organization. It just is a great way to assist either the finance manager or the executive director and developing budgets and exercising oversight, because things don’t happen exactly as people planned them with me today. Or andy robinson and nancy wasserman, co authors of the board members easier than you think guide to non-profit finances, let’s, let’s talk some about diversifying income sources. Nancy, you make a point of of having that in a couple of chapters of the book, why is that important? First, you never want to be totally reliant on just one thunder. You don’t want to be in a situation where if that one funders suddenly says, we don’t like what you’re doing, um, that you’re suddenly scrambling in having to find other. Ways to support your activities and your programs on what you do for this, folks. I think we’ve seen a lot of that in our recession. Agencies that rely exclusively or too heavily on, say, government fees for services or maybe even government agency grants, oer and oer foundation grants those of all sources that have been cut back. Indeed, that’s, true and that’s, part of what it’s both diversifying types of financial support but also the number of supporters within each types. So you’re not totally reliant on just one foundation or won a charitable donor-centric donors on dh foundations and government and your own revenues. If there’s a way for you to do that, we have a comment again from twitter. I’m just going to point out tio, the person who wrote that, john, that we did talk earlier about individual personal liability for non-profits. You may have missed that part of the show, but you can always catch it on the archive on itunes on our itunes pages non-profit radio dot net. Then what are andy some of the sources of income that non-profit might look to that that they’re not currently exploiting. So there’s three big buckets here, tony, the first buck, it is private e-giving private giving is foundations, corporations, individuals and, of course, lets people leave behind when they pass away the big category there’s individuals within private e-giving about eighty percent of the money year after year comes from people, and most of the groups that i work with don’t invest enough time and energy using money from individual donors. So that’s the first category second category is public funding that goverment funding from the state local, regional, municipal, all the government levels. And as you already indicated, this is a shrinking resource right now and the groups that i think you’re getting hammered the worst during the recession or they were relying on government. The third bucket is earned income, which is non-profits arching for the services they provide or in some cases selling goods, unity, and of the three that’s the biggest of all this is sort of the surprise for people is that earned income is about the same amount as private and public funding. Put together when you look at all the non-profit across the country that’s. Interesting. Yeah, you don’t generally see that in in fund-raising reports like e-giving yusa, because earned income is not part of their there. Sorry about private philanthropy there now very clear, the numbers a little skewed, because if you’re a private college and you’re charging tuition, that shows up has earned income. If you’re a private hospital and you’re charging non-profit hospital in, you’re charging for medical services that shows up as earned income, so those numbers really sort of skew the data. But i’ll i worked with a number of organizations where i’m always pushing him to say, is there something you do that you could package up cell? Do you have some skill that people would buy from way have to take a break? We’re going to talk more about earned income right after this break, stay with us. Dafs you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com i said we’d come back immediately and talk about earned income, but even though i am narcissistic, i forgot it’s it’s, my this is my turn now so it’s time for tony’s take two for a moment or two. My block this week is our irs is helping you. They’re new site is called i r s stay exempt and of course there’s a link to it on this week’s block post, and that site has courses and webinars and other resource is that the irs has produced for new organizations and for existing organizations, and then they have a section called also in depth topics, and i have links not only to that site but to a few of the topics that i know that charity struggle with and that i’ve had guests on to talk about applying for tax exemption, unrelated business income and four o three b retirement plans and the unrelated business income actually is sort of a spin off topic from what we’re about to i’m about to talk about with my guests earning income so the content from the irs it’s all plain language, it’s really very easy language. Teo to grasp it’s a little hokey in some places. There’s, an instructor named coach in a bunch of the bunch of the content you’ll learn from from that guy coach. But, you know it’s, an enormous bureaucracy trying to be accessible and helpful. And i admire that so on my block this week, our irs is helping you, my blog’s that tony martignetti dot com and that’s the new girl from what it used to be. Tony martignetti dot com that is tony’s take two for friday, march second, two thousand twelve it’s march already. And this is the ninth show of two thousand twelve. Andy robinson and nancy washington. And with me, we’re talking about b f d board. Financials dilemma. Andy earned income. What? What kind of charity possibly do? What’s a should be looking at tio. Try to make some money off their activities. Their work? Well, the question i always have groups that air wondering about this is what you have. What, you two or what do you know somebody else onto have or do or no most non-profits during the service business way deliver services. Sometimes we have expertise in that area and, you know i mean there’s a structure brainstorm that people could do around this. A lot of what we do in the nonprofit world is give it away, and the really entrepreneurial organizations look at what they’re giving away and they say, it’s paying market for this and, you know, we can we can spend the rest of the show talking about this. I don’t know if you want to, but, um, there’s a lot of opportunities there, and i see many, many organizations could be more self sufficient financially if they got at figuring out what they know and how to package it up. Okay, is there an example you can share with us? Ah, charity that didn’t realize what they had and and then ended up being able to exploit it and make some money from it. Well, i’m the author of a book on the subject about selling social change, and but my favorite ample of this, um, you know, for a group for years in tucson, arizona, caldnear search their seed bank on made of american crops and you know, what they do is protect eats from going extinct by planting them and growing them and distributing them and probably thirty percent. Of their of their income, its seed sales. I mean, there’s the bank and they receive selling what they recently started doing, which was fascinating as they opened something they called state school. And these are people who want to learn about how to protect seeds, grow them as amount of the next generations, really about sort of biological and genetic buddy, okay, money, and they come to arizona for a week and they get trained and everything you need to know to run your own. C back and it’s, an organization that was sitting on this for probably thirty years, only recently realized that people would pay for that knowledge in a classroom setting. Oh, they have been doing that all for free while they hadn’t been training other people. They’ve been taking care of this, but they hadn’t been teaching on. I said, okay, and they realised there are there, you know, the whole renaissance of local agriculture in our country right now. And they thought we could tap into this there’s a market here for people who want to learn how to do this. And so they started doing this, and they’re doing this four or five. Times a year and it sells out, and they’re starting to move it around to other parts of the country. So i mean that’s one example that’s an example of knowledge, they had a knowledge and a skill that was very marketable that’s, right? And until you have you know what, you need a finalist for better words, does he need someone in the organization who had an entrepreneurial gene who can look around and say, you know what, somebody’s going to want to buy this and not every non-profit is blessed with people who think that way, and i think part of what nancy and i are trying to do in our professional lives is to get more of that thinking out into the non-profit community. Andy related. Teo diversifying income. I had a comment from linkedin this woman had just had a board meeting this earlier this week regarding the need for transparency and distribution of responsibility when it comes to finances, bookkeeping and reporting function of their historic non-profit theater, they’ve been doing their thing, they’ve been doing things their way a long time on dh one big problem is that they have a banker on the board and he doesn’t see the problems s so it sounds like and and then she says i was able to get the check writing privileges moved to another person. This is sort of segway ing into ah, conflict of interest conversation. But it sounds like maybe he was the only one writing checks. Um, i secured a nice grant from a foundation and they want a financial audit. I’m moving for a review. However fear we won’t get any more money once it’s known how ignorant the board is about accountability. Nancy drew and he’s laughing. Nancy let’s, bring you back. What would you what would you say there? Well, you know, how are we defining accountability here? Is there a lack love? But what a financial audit might uncover is in propriety. But it sounds like that’s, not the case. More likely, it’s going to it’s, not the financial audit per se, but the form nine. Ninety that you filed with the irs. Which asks you now to tell us who does the board looking financials. Um, how does is the board of informed? Has the board seen an audit? Uh, did they review it and approve it? It’s really? You know, there there’s sort of two sets of questions, the very pragmatic did did you get an audit? Did you review? What did you look at it? And then the the more important question in my mind, which i think is the question we’re trying to answer with the whole book, which is, does the board really understand what all these numbers are telling them? And ideally with with a financial audit and accountant has come in and spoken directly with the board of directors and walked through each and every page of it and talk about why the financials are the way they are and what they mean? Um, and i think both andy and i have seen, you know, numbers of organizations where there’s a lot of people sitting around the table on dh, they leave it to the banker or the investment professionals, too. You know, they well, they know about numbers, and they handle it and it’s really something that everybody needs to know how to do if only to make sure that the mission of the organization is fully addressed by by the board and the organization. This also relates, teo, the conversation about diversifying income and hear this woman, i believe she’s a fundraiser there, a volunteer fundraiser on dh trying to diversify income source, getting a grant but fearful that the grantmaker not be renewed because there isn’t the transparency and accountability that thie the the grant source will probably be. Yeah, and this is another point that was raised. He sort of came out sideways is this question about separation of duties, which is, you know, in a healthy organization, people break up that work, one person opens the envelope, somebody else writes the checks, and somebody else approves them and somebody else, uh, get the, uh, bank statement and balances the checkbook, and the idea here is that you’re trying to avoid mischief, yeah, and fraud. And if somebody says, oh, i’ll take care of all of these things, you know, maybe they have good intentions and they’re going to be perfectly honest about it, but you really need to break that into separate pieces so people can have oversight over each other, let’s, segway into conflict of interest, andy define for us what conflict of interest is we hear it so often. Yeah, well, my sense of it, at least in terms of the context we’re having here, is that if you serve on a non-profit board, your job is to put the needs of the organization above your own personal needs. And where this plays out sometimes is people who try and receive a benefit from serving on the board at the personal benefit it has nothing to do with advancing the mission of the organization where they get tricky is that in a lot of voluntary organisations, there are inherent conflicts of interest. If you goes to a private school and you’re on the board, your job is to advocate for policies that are going to benefit the children in the school, and in some case, that means they’re going to benefit your kid individually and sort of sorting those things out can be challenging, but the bottom line is the decisions you make have to put the needs of the organization in front of your own personal needs. Nancy, how can we try to avoid conflicts of interest? One of the best ways is tohave ah, a written conflict of interest policy, where you’ve already addressed some of the situations that are likely to happen before they happened, where you sit there and say, you know, no defined what it is that is seen as either a riel conflict of interests or a perceived conflict of interest. Um, which might be a case where somebody was, for example, um, can somebody bid someone who serves on the board of directors bid on a project while they’re still on the board of directors or not? Or do they have toe resigned before they even submit a bid? Or do they only resign if they’re awarded the bid? Or do they have to resign? Or can they simply step out of the room for the discussion? Those are the kinds of questions that got kind of can get kind of challenging um, particularly when any member of the board stands to benefit financially from any decision of the board that’s an outright in my mind it outright conflict of interest and, uh, in most boards, you want to make sure that person doesn’t participate. And it’s it’s always easier to have that discussion when there isn’t ah, hot potato sitting in the room, that’s somebody’s thinking that they have every right to be part of the discussion on do you have to therefore bring up both the fact that somebody in the room is feeling uncomfortable that this person is present and it gets a little bit more tense in those sorts of situations prevention, having a written policy that folks have already talked through and everybody feels responsible for making sure it’s so prevention ahead of time, much better than dealing with it when it’s a crisis or potential crisis and, you know, it also is the transparency issue. You want to make sure that your presentation to the community at large is bonem it is as unaccountable organizations that that gives everybody equal opportunity to benefit from three organizations purchases. Is this the kind of policy a boardmember should sign and review every year or something like that? It’s not a bad idea, you know, it depends on the nature of the organization. I you know, i worked with a community loan fund and that’s absolutely required that you disclose your conflicts of interest each and every year and that you review the conflict of interest policy every year bonem the other thing that you know, incredibly important, disclosed, disclosed disclosed way have just a minute before a break, andy, anything you want to add to conflict of interest discussion. I think the main thing is that if you see it, you have to name it after. If you’re boardmember and you smell something like this, you have to have the courage to bring it up and nancy said, it’s much easier to do this if there’s an existing policy in place first, if somebody sees something like this andy again just a few seconds before break, who should they bring it up to your i’ma boardmember who do i talk to? Well, i would probably go to the chair first and say, i think there’s something fishy here, let’s, talk about it and i would start there, and then presumably, the board, the chair will bring it to the full board. Andy robinson and nancy washington are my guests. We’re going to take a break. When we return, we’ll dive into some financial statements to wrap up, stay with us, talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Hi, i’m carol ward from the body mind wellness program. Listen to my show for ideas and information to help you live a healthier life in body, mind and spirit. You hear from terrific guests who are experts in the areas of health, wellness and creativity. So join me every thursday at eleven a, m eastern standard time on talking alternative dot com professionals serving community. This is tony martignetti aptly named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent technology fund-raising compliance, social media, small and medium non-profits have needs in all these areas. My guests are expert in all these areas and mohr. Tony martignetti non-profit radio friday’s one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcast are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication, and the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office needs better leadership? Customer service sales or maybe better writing are speaking skills. Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes or get your human resource is in touch with us. The website is improving communications, dot com that’s improving communications, dot com improve your professional environment. Be more effective, be happier. And make more money. Improving communications. That’s. The answer. Talking. Welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on tony martignetti non-profit radio. Nancy let’s. Talk a little about financial statements. What? What? Uh, what are the basics? First what’s the overview. There’s. Really? Two major statements that everybody has to deliver once the balance sheet, which is a snapshot on any given day, typically the end of the month or the end of the quarter. The end of the year. Um, which outlines what the organization owns and what they owe and what they’re worth, which is the difference between everything they own. Less everything they owe as faras it’s paper value is what they would be worth on that day. Uh, the other major statement is the statement of activities also called the profit loss or a p n l which is? Where do you get all your money? Your income your revenues from and then what does it goto pay for all your expenses and the bottom line? There is your net income at the end of end of a certain time period. The statement of activities is more like a movie. It covers a period of time. Uh, typically, uh, the beginning. Of the year to the end of the most previous sorry, the most recent months. So if we were on a board today, we probably wouldn’t see the thie statement of activities through the end of february because somebody would have had to have it all cleaned up as of yesterday. But we could expect to see something through the end of january and depending on what your fiscal year, wass would determine the begin of the beginning period. We talked earlier about full disclosure, so i’m going to make a disclosure the on ly accounting course that i’ve ever taken i dropped out of because i was i was i was going to fail, so so i’m like perfect for this book, this it’s very informative, and it is an easy read, and it is helpful guide um, nancy helped me understand i this was always seem like magic to me on a balance sheet. How is it that the assets equal the liabilities? How does that always come out so equal? I mean, its intended that way. Obviously. How does that possible? Seems like magic. Now you’re asking somebody who was not trained as a classically trained accountant. You can’t pull back now. Your name is on the book, you’re name is there. I’m looking right at it, says nancy wasserman’s. But it’s, um, it’s based on double entry bookkeeping, which was developed by the chinese and it’s follows up from the abacus. And i was sort of, uh, uh, amplified by the italians in the renaissance. Essentially, when you put an entry and double entry bookkeeping, everything that goes up, something has to go down and it all balances out in the end, in the cash comes out. And if your balance sheet that’s like number one is the balance sheet, if the total assets does not equal the total liabilities and equity, it is an incorrectly prepared balance sheet. There’s a reason they call it a balance right about yes, exactly. I love that my italian forebears had something to do with confusing me. Now in the current day. Um okay. What? How can we help? Boardmember is nancy who whose eyes kind of glaze over when they get to the balance sheet. Aside from looking to see whether the two the assets and liabilities equal which they always do right step number one is a balance number to do your total current assets. In other words, what? What? Khun b cash within a year’s time exceed your current liabilities. The things you have to pay off with cash in a year’s time. And so are you liquid or not? Do you have? Do you have cash available to do things? This’s? The place where you’re looking for those payroll liabilities or payroll tax liabilities? If there’s a number there that’s frighteningly large, you’ve got a big problem. And if its payroll tax liabilities, he was a boardmember maybe personally liable. Um, what are your long term liabilities look like? Is that that’s your debt? Basically. And, you know, does it make tense to you? Is that number reflects the debt? You know, the organization has your net net assets now, you know, the language of accounting is kind of like greek. And i sometimes think they made up all these names to make it even more confusing. It would be so much easier if it was it was italian. It could be it would be. And where there’s a lot of cognitive is and it’s a romance language. I think it would be oh, i’m sorry, no problem, but that total net assets number, which simply means, you know what? What’s this organization more if it if it had two legged liquidate today and if that’s a negative number, you should be concerned. And certainly many of organizations where that is the case. So those are the big things on the balance sheet, you know, does it? Does it short of make sense to you to the fixed assets and their value? Um, feel like what you have if he suddenly see something that shows that you have a fixed asset of, you know, equipment worth one hundred thousand dollars, you’re scratching your head because you have no idea what you have for equipment something’s wrong with and you should and should ask that question. Absolutely. You mentioned earlier frighteningly large numbers mean is part of what we should be doing is looking for anomalies. That’s really what you’re looking, you’re looking for things that you know that don’t make sense or don’t feel right or that you can’t if you can’t, if it doesn’t feel right and you can’t really explain it, you want to ask questions from and the numbers you know, the thing about numbers, they’re pretty, they’re very ghetto. They’re either on or off and, um it’s harder to lie with numbers. So you’re going to know right away that you could have frighteningly large numbers with the complex organization, and that would be fine from if if they’re bad hosed out. If there’s cash in the bank, if it feels like there’s equity, this is ah critical subject. Another question that i asked on the on the pre show survey is for those charities that do have a board committee devoted to financial issues. Are you confident that each committee member is fluent in your numbers and understand your financial position? Only twenty five percent said yes, the remaining seventy five percent were either no or not sure on dno was pretty large about sixty percent way have to stop there. Andy robinson and nancy wasserman are co authors of the board members easier than you think. Guide to non-profit finances published by emerson and church andy. Nancy, thank you very much for being guests. Thank you. It’s. Been a real pleasure. And also thanks to your publisher, kathleen brennan at emerson and church for her promotion assistance for the show next week you know his company and you may be wearing his name on your hoody market go ceo of the very consistent brand echo enterprises has ideas on branding and other business lessons applicable to charities, and craig newmark, the founder of craigslist and craigconnects, shares his thoughts on simple communications. Thes were both pre recorded at last year’s nextgencharity conference keep up with what’s coming up! Sign up for our insider email lorts on the facebook page like that page the pages, the timeline check it out! We got a new banner banner photograph, which will be rotating on dh the whole new timeline format like like it look at it and like it khun, listen, live our archive if you haven’t didn’t catch us live archives from itunes, you’ll find our itunes paige at non-profit radio dot net subscribe listen, any time on the device of your choice on twitter, you can follow me or you can follow the show’s hashtag non-profit radio my thanks again to mazarene treyz for for live tweeting today’s show the show is sponsored by g grace and company if you’re worried about the rising cost of rent for your organization. Or, if you need a plan for real estate that you’re non-profit owns, grayson company will give you a thorough and complete board analysis so that your real estate decisions are made transparently and thoroughly. George grace has been advising non-profits on their real estate decisions for over twenty five years. Gee, grace, dot com or eight, eight, eight, seven four, seven two, two, three, seven. Our creative producer was claire meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is the owner of talking alternative broadcasting. Janice taylor is our line producer. The show’s social media is by regina walton of organic social media and the remote producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is john federico of the new rules. I hope you’ll be with me next friday, one to two p, m eastern here at talking alternative dot com. Dahna i didn’t think that shooting. Good ending. You’re listening to the talking alternate network, get him. Dahna cubine looking to meet mr and mrs wright, but still haven’t found the one. Want to make your current relationship as filling as possible, then tuning on thursdays at one pm for love in the afternoon with morning alison as a professional matchmaker, i’ve seen it all with distinguished authors. Industry grew ours, and experts on everything from wine to fashion join us as we discuss dating, relationships and more on talking alternative dot com. Hi, i’m julie, hi, i’m julia, what are you wearing? Welcome to j and j’s. Secrets of style and beauty. We know there’s, beauty and style, and all you do, whether it’s a job interview, first date or wedding, we also know that not everyone understands what works best for him or her. We’re here to help. Think of us as your personal beauty style and grooming guru’s, as industry experts will give you the best information for men and women on howto look phenomenal tuning tuesdays at eight pm tto. Learn how to look your best. Are you fed up with talking points, rhetoric everywhere you turn left or right? Spin ideology no reality. In fact, its ideology over in tow. No more it’s. Time for action. Join me, larry. Shock a neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven easter for the ivory tower radio in the ivory tower will discuss what’s important to you society, politics, business and family. It’s provocative talk for the realist and the skeptic who want to know what’s. Really going on? What does it mean? What can be done about it? So gain special access to the ivory tower. Listen to me. Very sharp. Your neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven new york time go to ivory tower radio dot com for details. That’s, ivory tower radio, dot com for every time i was a great poster. Every tower radio dot com e every time i was a great bust. Every tower, radio dot com every time i was a great bust. Every tower radio dot com the average guy was a great pushed avery tower radio dot com e every time i was a great place to visit for both entertainment and education listening. Tuesday nights nine to eleven it will make you smarter. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com. We look forward to serving you. Talking all calm.

Our IRS Is Helping You

I feel bad for the Internal Revenue Service. It’s disliked because it collects taxes and feared because it enforces tax collection. Loathed and feared is no way to go through life.

But IRS has programs to help 501(c)(3) charities. Their website, IRS Stay Exempt, has courses, webinars and other resources for new and existing organizations, as well as “in-depth topics.” Here are four that cover areas I know charities struggle with:

Applying for Tax Exemption (Teaches a lot in just under 17 minutes. The Q & A dialogue is hokey, as an enormous bureaucracy tries to be accessible and friendly; kudos for trying.)

Unrelated Business Income (Learn from Coach, a self-assured “knowledgeable and straight-talking IRS agent.” He’s also modest. You can also learn from Gene Takagi and Emily Chan, legal contributors to my radio show. We covered UBI last August.)

403(b) Retirement Plans for Employees (If you work for a charity, you may have one of these plans as part of your employee benefits. I find many people don’t know what they have, even as they’re contributing to it.) (12m)

403(b) Retirement Plans for Employers (How to keep this part of your benefits package in compliance.) (13m)

I’m not an IRS insider. I’m more on the fear-and-loathing end. I learn about IRS offerings by getting their Exempt Organization Update emails. You can subscribe here.

Learn more. Loathe less.