Governance
A board that acts as a fiduciary, not a social club. Small enough to decide, and every member gives.
“We can’t make our budget again this year.”
“Every penny goes to the mission.”
“Let’s go back to the same donors.”
More money won’t save your nonprofit.
Tactical finance for nonprofit boards and executive directors. Read the first chapter of Beyond Hand to Mouth free.
Why do nonprofits fail? Because they deserve to.
That is where the book begins.
Chapter 1 opens at a lunch. I was a major donor, and I offered a struggling charity a plan to build an endowment. The executive director asked for another check instead. I never wrote another one.
This book is about tactical finance for the nonprofit organization. It is about making it into the few that thrive.
Fair warning: it is blunt. If it makes you nod, you will find the rest of what I write useful. If it offends you, the rest will too.
“This book is a must read for any non-profit leader and board member.”
Stuart Hirstein, Amazon review
Mind-forged Manacles
It is in how you think.
Most nonprofits are undone by habits no one questions, because everyone assumes that is how a nonprofit is supposed to behave. They are chains we forge in our own minds.
“The bigger the board, the better.”
A board of thirty is an audience, not oversight.
“We’ll raise the rest in December.”
Spend first and pass the hat later, and the first bad year becomes a crisis.
“Profit is a dirty word.”
A surplus is how an organization pays for tomorrow.
“Overhead is waste.”
Starve the accounting, and you will never know what anything costs.
The way out
Tactical Finance
Discipline in six places is the answer. This is what the book covers.
Pricing
Know what each program costs, and charge for it. Free is not generosity when it keeps you dependent.
Reserves
Budget from your weakest recent giving year, not your best, and keep cash for the year that goes wrong.
Fund-raising
Treat donors as customers. Show them what they are buying and what it costs, and talk to them like adults.
Endowments
Permanent money, including the board-designated endowment, and the discipline to leave it alone.
Borrowing
When debt makes sense, how much your operations can carry, and how a lender will look at you.
Ultimately finance is about people.
Send me Chapter 1 →Who’s writing
I am not a philanthropist. I am an investment banker.
For over forty years I have financed hospitals, universities, schools and public works, and helped turn around organizations that were failing. I look at every nonprofit the way a lender would. My first question is not about your mission. It is whether you are financially viable.
Mission is the engine that propels the car. But if the car runs out of gas or loses its transmission, it will not levitate because of good intentions.
More about Nick →“A quick read, packed with insights and helpful examples to illustrate his points. Our finance committee has read this book.”
Adam, Amazon review
Reviewed in Independent School Magazine. Read the review (PDF) →
Rather read the whole book now? It is on Amazon →