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Keynotes for Nonprofits -
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WORKSHOPS, WEBINARS & CONFERENCES
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Professional Development for Busy Professionals
Lunchtime Learning Sessions in St. Cloud
Resource Training & Solutions presents Take it in Thursdays. These lunchtime learning sessions include dynamite presentations on important topics affecting your work each day. Upcoming sessions include:
- iPad/iPod Apps for Business
Thursday, April 12th, 12:00 – 1:00 PM
- Highly Effective People
Thursday, May 10th, 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Cost is $15 per session or $12 if registering two or more guests and includes lunch and materials. Visit www.resourcetraining.com or call 320/255-3236 for more information or to register.
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Archived Webinars and Materials:
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FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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Initiative Foundation Moving to Online Grantmaking in 2012
The Initiative Foundation makes grants for projects and programs that advance our mission to unlock the power of central Minnesota people to build and sustain healthy communities. We do this through our programs, Innovation Fund, and community and donor advised funds.
Our Innovation Fund grants (totaling approx. $200,000 in 2012) will be awarded through a competitive process. In an effort to make it easier and more efficient for grant seekers to apply for Innovation Fund grants, we will be transitioning to an online grantmaking system in 2012.
Inquiries and full proposals will be accepted through this new system.
Inquiries are accepted on an ongoing basis and reviewed quarterly. If the proposed project appears to fit within priority funding areas and meets funding criteria, you will be invited to submit a full proposal for the next available round of funding. If your organization is invited to submit a full application in response to your LOI, the appropriate materials will be forwarded to you.
Inquiry
Due By:
| Notified for
Invite /
Decline of
Full Proposal:
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Full Proposal
Due: |
Final
Decision
Made By: |
Jan 31
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Feb 7
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Mar 2
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Mar 30 |
Apr 27
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May 4
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Jun 1
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Jun 29
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July 30
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Aug 17 |
Aug 31
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Sept 28
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| Oct 26 |
Nov 2
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Nov 30
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Dec 31 |
Instructions and the link to our new online system can be found at www.ifound.org/grants_howto.php.
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THINGS TO KNOW / RESOURCES
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Nonprofits Assistance Fund Starts Open Office Hours
Need help understanding your cash flow needs? Have follow-up questions after one of our trainings? In January 2012, Nonprofits Assistance Fund introduces Open Office Hours for nonprofit staff who have financial questions or need technical assistance.
What: Nonprofits Assistance Fund provides financial assistance sessions to help nonprofits answer immediate questions, increase understanding of an organization’s financial situation and provide insight to financial concerns.
When: Thursday afternoons 12 - 7 p.m.
Where: By phone or in-person at Nonprofits Assistance Fund’s office:
2801 21st Avenue South, Suite 210, Minneapolis, MN 55407
How: Nonprofit staff can call 612.278.7180 to schedule one (1) hour sessions on Thursday afternoons on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Click here for more information.
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Start-up Nonprofits Beware: Ensure your Tax Preparer is Registered with the IRS
By Ellis Carter, Charity Lawyer, January 10th, 2012
Charities should be aware that it is now illegal for anyone to receive compensation for preparing a return for someone else if they have not obtained a PTIN from the IRS first; a paid preparer who is not registered with the IRS is perpetrating fraud. If a charity chooses to work with an unregistered paid preparer, it opens itself up to IRS scrutiny and, possibly, denial of tax exemption plus additional attorneys’ fees to resolve any issues arising from the initial filing. Charities also need to keep in mind that the organization, regardless of whether or not a paid preparer was used, is ultimately responsible for the information in its exemption application. View article...
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Grant Management Tip
From Kathy Grochow, Bremer Nonprofit Resource Specialist
I came across a great tip from “The Grantsmanship Center” in its December 2011 newsletter related to the challenges following the receipt of a grant. Here is the tip:
As soon as you're notified of a grant award, you should convene a meeting with everyone in the organization who will have any involvement in carrying out the grant obligations. This includes administrative support staff as well as program staff. Everyone should be clear about their roles in recordkeeping, data collection, processing of transactions, reporting, and the decision-making chain of command. After that first meeting, schedule regular meetings to monitor progress on the grant implementation and to address any problems that have arisen.
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The Audit Dance: Nonprofit and auditor roles are distinct but complementary
By KDV Nonprofit Advisor - October/November 2011
nonprofit-advisor@kdv.com
A nonprofit and its external auditor are somewhat like dance partners performing a well-choreographed routine. To execute the dance properly, each dancer must complete specific moves and coordinate timing with his or her partner. Likewise, your organization and its audit firm each have particular duties in the audit process but share the same end goal: a set of financial statements that fairly present your financial condition and operating results.
Defining responsibilities
Your auditor is responsible for expressing an opinion on your financial statements. The opinion is based on planning and performing an audit in line with required standards to obtain reasonable assurance that your financial statements are free of material misstatement — whether from error or fraud.
Your nonprofit, on the other hand, is responsible for preparing the financial statements and for related tasks, such as developing estimates (an allowance for bad debts, for example) and adopting accounting policies. It’s also your job to establish, maintain and monitor effective internal controls over financial statement reporting and to prevent and detect fraud, as outlined in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ standards.
In designing the audit plan, the auditor considers the internal controls you have in place to guard against risks. But, in the audit opinion, he or she provides no assurance on the effectiveness of those controls. The auditor may advise on appropriate accounting principles and their application, and may even assist in the preparation of the financial statements at your request outside of the audit as a matter of convenience, as long as he or she has determined that your not-for-profit has the ability to understand and approve those statements.
The responsibility for the financial statements remains with your organization. You also are responsible for adjusting the financial statements to correct material misstatements.
Your auditor must maintain independence, in both fact and appearance. Although he or she can provide suggestions to help your not-for-profit develop policies, your auditor can’t assist in selecting and implementing those policies.
The auditor also can’t make the adjusting journal entries that might be required to close your books. Your nonprofit has the responsibility to maintain, adjust and close the financial records before the audit.
Using your board as a resource
During the engagement, your board of directors — the audit committee in particular — can be a valuable resource for your not-for-profit. The board’s significant fiduciary responsibilities dovetail with many of the audit-related duties. And a well-represented board may have members with accounting experience who can assist.
In particular, qualified board members may be able to confer with the independent auditor during the planning process, prepare the financial statements and reconcile accounts to limit the number of adjustments needed during the audit.
Well worth it
The time your nonprofit spends preparing for the audit can be significant, and coordinating the roles of your auditor and your organization may be a bit ticklish. But the end results — a fair assessment of your financial health, viable options to address any exposed vulnerabilities and transparency for your public — make it well worth the effort.
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Reframing Governance
By David Renz, The Nonprofit Quarterly, January 25th, 2011, article adapted from its originally published version in the winter 2007 issue of NPQ
The article Reframing Governance highlights shifts in nonprofit governance models, authority and decision making that have led to the new governance model we see today. Read this article on nonprofitsquarterly.org.
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IRS Releases New Online Search Tool for Tax-exempt Organizations
By Ellis Carter, Charity Lawyer, January 21st, 2012
The IRS launched a new online search tool, Exempt Organizations Select Check, to help users more easily find information about tax-exempt organizations. View article...
Users can now go to one location on IRS.gov to search for:
- Organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions (formerly listed in electronic Publication 78). Users may rely on this list in determining deductibility of contributions, just as they did with Pub. 78
- Organizations whose federal tax exemption automatically revoked for not filing a Form 990-series return or notice for three consecutive years (Auto-Revocation List)
- Form 990-N (e-Postcard) filers and their submissions
View article...
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A Baker’s Dozen: New Year Resolutions for the Development Officer
By James Toscano http://thegoodcounsel.com
- I will always remember that it’s the donor’s money.
- I will always remember that fundraising is about the donor, not me.
- I will always remember that donors need to be thanked and feel wanted as a vital element in the organization.
- I will learn to cherish volunteers.
- I will always remember that Board members can often be very helpful.
- I will always remember that individual, personal peer solicitation gets the best results and should be the model for all that I do.
- I will always remember to do all that I do with enthusiasm, energy and ethics.
- I will always remember that sitting in my office is not the activity for which I am paid.
- I will always remember to not only plan but to actually ask for a gift, always asking for a specific amount, perhaps more than once a year.
- I will always remember that there are many ways for a gift to be given.
- I will learn that demographic change means significant change in our future constituency.
- I will always remember that there is something new to learn every day, starting, perhaps, with Spanish.
- I will always remember to never say die.
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Creating Effective Webinar Presentations
When researching how to create an effective webinar, a colleague stumbled across this page that is full of webinars for nonprofits: http://www.synthesispartnership.com/resources3.html. Scroll down the page; they appear to have some useful information.
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Conducting a Program Evaluation for the First Time
By Idea Encore Network www.ideaencore.com
This is the second part in a two part series on evaluations for your nonprofit. These evaluation resources offer good tools for nonprofit professionals with little previous experience in evaluating programs.
- Thinking about Evaluating Your Program? These Strategies Will Get Your Started from Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation covers identifying and documenting outcomes, activities and indicators to be evaluated.
- If You Evaluate It, They Will Fund: Program Evaluation Essentials, a presentation by the Leavenworth County Development Corporation for Nonprofit Webinars, discusses the importance of program evaluation in attracting grants and funding.
- Center for Nonprofit Management in Southern California's Organizational Self-Assessment: Putting Your Finger on What Needs to Improve is a tool for staff leadership, organizational infrastructure, work processes, interpersonal relationships, resources and structures.
- Evaluation: Measuring What Matters in Nonprofits describes three performance metrics useful for evaluating nonprofit performance, including resource mobilization, staff effectiveness, and mission fulfillment.
- Evaluation Design: Methodological Approach and Sampling from the Online Evaluation Resource Library goes over some more technical aspects of conducting an outcomes evaluation such as deciding what data to collect and choosing a sampling method.
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Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Minnesota – Recruiting Kids of Military Families
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Minnesota is very excited to announce that we have been awarded a contract from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America to serve 70 children who have a parent/guardian in the military.
We would really appreciate your help in spreading the word to military families and helping us to recruit/identify mentors to be matched with these children. Please see the press release announcing the award of this contract, and a flyer to help recruit children of military families.
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This newsletter is designed to share funding opportunities, resources, and conferences or training events of common interest for program participants and supporters of the Initiative Foundation. For more information about these and other training opportunities, contact Cathy Hartle.
If you wish to be removed from this mailing list or if you have other names/e-mails to add please contact Tricia Holig.
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Nonprofit Succession Planning : Workshop Toolkit
Is your nonprofit ready? This was the question presented at the February 2008 workshop: Succession Planning, Creating Sustainable Leadership in Nonprofits.
The nonprofit sector is facing a significant transition in leadership over the next few years. In rural areas this situation has the added complexity of a much smaller resource pool of human resources. Planning for a smooth (and inevitable) transition is a critical function of a healthy organization to ensure the future leadership of their organization.
Presented by Gary Dietrich of NorthWay Group (Grand Rapids), this workshop provided the critical framework necessary for nonprofit organization's present and future leadership.
Workshop Toolkit:
> Presentation
> Workshop Handouts
> Emergency Succession Plan Template
> "Staying Engaged, Stepping Up" (by the Annie E. Casey Foundation)
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