He was the executive director of the local United Way. He had also served as mayor in their small town of Milton, Florida for 20 years. By all appearances, he was an esteemed community leader and philanthropist. He was also perpetrating a nonprofit fraud by pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen donations meant…
Read MoreYou are probably thinking, “It’s about time you wrote a post on restricted grants!” We weren’t ignoring you. Really. Restricted grants are a huge, complicated area. So huge and complicated, in fact, we decided we needed to create a course to cover this topic. Everything from understanding the many different types of grants to learning…
Read MoreWe agree – on our list of Least Favorite Things is studying nonprofit accounting by yourself. Nonprofit accounting can be tedious and boring. (Alright, SOME of you accounting nerds out there love this stuff. Just bear with us.) What’s the point of memorizing a bunch of rules about debits and credits? Now consider a nonprofit…
Read MoreThe employees of your nonprofit organization have worked hard all year for way less than they’re worth. Wouldn’t it be nice to give each one a holiday bonus as a thank you? Cash Bonuses Each holiday season we see nonprofit organizations pay cash bonuses to employees outside the normal payroll process. We need to address…
Read MoreLet us guess. What you really want is not just basic 1099-MISC instructions. You want the inside scoop on how to deal with this task so you can cross it off your list. You want peace of mind that you are complying with IRS requirements. And if you’ve ever been through a “hair on fire” January…
Read MoreIf you are struggling to understand a nonprofit balance sheet and other financial statements, then this post is for you! And it’s especially for you if you are not a “numbers person.” Chances are you’ve looked at your organization’s profit and loss report and never thought much about the balance sheet. If that’s the…
Read MoreIn our last two ports of call on our Chart of Accounts Grand Tour, we visited Accounts and Pledges Receivable and also looked at Accounts Receivable Aging and Due Dates. Today we visit a related topic, bad debt, and take a look at the bad debts entry you need to make in your books. We find…
Read MoreIn response to our blog post Managing Travel in Nonprofit Organizations, Kate Feibusch from Peten Health asked: “My NPO’s mission is to train health workers in Guatemala. May we pay airline costs for volunteer teachers? If those teachers also give a donation to the organization which is roughly the amount of their airfare, may we…
Read MoreDoes your nonprofit reimburse travel for staff and volunteers? One of our clients, a youth soccer organization, sends players to a national tournament. The trip entails paying for airfare for the teenagers and chaperones as well as meals and lodging while at the tournament location. Plus there are miscellaneous expenses such as mileage or cab…
Read MoreWe have noticed a lot of people searching for more information about ASU 2016-14. If your organization is on a calendar year, you may be going through your annual audit over the summer and having to deal with the new requirements. So we thought we’d give you a giraffe’s eye view of what you need…
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