A really interesting and topical article from Bridgestar tackles the challenges of getting everyone in the organization to grasp its financial workings.

A worthwhile read (registration required).

How to Talk About Finances So Non-Financial Folks Will Listen
Nonprofit staff members almost universally understand the importance of achieving the mission of the organization and are trained in delivering direct services such as feeding the hungry, educating low-income children, or advocating for a more sustainable environment. However, many of these individuals, while highly skilled in a particular program area, do not have a lot of training and experience in working with financial data. Understandably, when prioritizing their work, nonprofit line managers will often choose to spend their time feeding the hungry over examining numbers on a departmental budget spreadsheet.

The challenge and opportunity for the nonprofit chief financial officer (CFO) is to learn how to make numbers come alive for those on the frontline of the organization, and help them embrace numbers as a critical step on the path to achieving the mission of the organization. The following are ideas and advice from a variety of CFOs of nonprofit organizations and technical assistance providers on how to talk about finances so non-financial management and staff will listen. The summary is: It’s not easy, but with some creativity and perseverance it is possible to get people to understand and to care about the numbers.

HandsNet: Effective Nonprofits Reach Beyond Their Own Organizations, According to Article in Stanford Social Innovation Review
According to an article in the Fall 2007 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review, the most effective groups are those that are able to go beyond the scope of their organization and serve as a catalyst for broad social reforms.

The article, “Creating High-Impact Nonprofits,” by Heather McLeod Grant and Leslie R. Crutchfield, is based on the authors’ forthcoming book, “Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits” to be published this October by Jossey-Bass.

Philanthropists would benefit from the development of an online “marketplace” of information to help them make more informed decisions about which organizations to support, the president of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation said in an essay accompanying the Foundation’s 2006 annual report, which was released this week.

Likening such a marketplace to the robust financial information available to private investors, Hewlett President Paul Brest said the creation of such online sites to provide accurate information about nonprofit organizations’ finances, strategies and accomplishments ultimately would help the best of them get the most support, increasing the effectiveness of philanthropy in solving problems.

“Regardless of whether you are attracted to the metaphor of social returns on investments,” Brest said in his essay, “it is disquieting that philanthropists have access to so little of the kinds of information that private investors rely on.”

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