Category: "Best Practices"
March 31, 2016
Nonprofit Impact and Efficiency Through Innovative Performance Management: 3 Important Reasons for your Nonprofit to Demonstrate Impact.By Thilo Bracken, Performance Management Practice Manager and Director Client Success at JMT Consulting Group, a national consulting firm serving the needs of nonprofit organizations in the US. Five years ago many would agree that we need to demonstrate impact in order to engage the target population, secure funding, and validate that we serve the…
March 29, 2016
Debunking the term ‘Data-based decision making’ for NonprofitsThe phrase “data-based decision making” has woven its way through seemingly every industry and every functional area within, and nonprofit organizations are no exception. A standard leadership response to the inquiry about whether or not the organization bases its decisions on solid, proven data is almost universally affirmative. What many leaders consider appropriate data upon which to…
March 23, 2016
Nonprofits, use your Budget process as a Crystal BallBy Jacqueline Tiso, CEO & Founder of JMT Consulting, a national consulting firm serving the needs of non-profit organizations in the United States. I had the pleasure of having lunch recently with a number of Nonprofit CFOs and finance staff where the topic of budgeting came up. Specifically, the discussion centered on the tools everyone…
February 1, 2016
How JMT Helps NonprofitsAt a recent conference, JMT’s own Andy Harleman was interviewed on a variety of topics including how JMT helps nonprofit organizations with fund accounting software for the finance department, donor management and fundraising solutions for the development team as well as a variety of other tools and services designed to help organizations manage and maximize…
January 22, 2016
Board Fiduciary ResponsibilityAll nonprofit board members have a fiduciary responsibility to diligently oversee the financial operations of the nonprofits they govern. Failure to receive timely, accurate information from the organization’s finance team can prevent the board and the finance committee from successfully executing on this responsibility, possibly creating disastrous consequences for the board when there is financial…
September 3, 2015
Heart Transplant SurgeryMany finance leaders rightfully look at implementing a new financial management solution the same way any of us would look at scheduling a heart transplant: I absolutely won’t do it unless it’s a life or death situation It will be hugely painful and disruptive to my life There is a chance it won’t take and…
July 15, 2015
The Nonprofit Starvation CycleAccording to a recent study conducted by NTEN, 3.2% of the average nonprofit organization’s budget is spent on IT and IT projects. This is roughly the same as the last study and, by some measures, a third less than similarly sized for profit businesses. Nonprofit organizations famously under-spend on infrastructure and other strategic investments for…
April 20, 2015
Technology = Investment in MissionA recent article in Philanthropy Journal featured advice from Mike Mann, a self-described “social capitalist and serial entrepreneur”, who has dedicated himself and his companies’ profits to help charitable organizations establish strong business models and expand the impact of their programs and services. There were three things in the article that stood out to me…
April 13, 2015
Why A Table-Driven Chart of Accounts MattersWhat’s Wrong with Your Chart of Accounts and the Solutions you Need to Make it Right When implementing a financial accounting and reporting system at a nonprofit organization, few would disagree that an optimized Chart of Accounts design is critical to success. Being able to produce accurate compliance reports and meaningful management reports is the…
March 31, 2015
Software vs. Solution: Why work with an independent value-added reseller versus a software publisher directly?If you have ever approached a software vendor about their product, it probably went something like this: “Do you have budget for a purchase?” “When do you plan to buy?” “Are you the decision-maker?” “Who is our competition?” “Have you seen a demo?” Often, there is only a mild interest in reason why you inquired…
March 24, 2015
Why Best-of-Breed Works for NonprofitsWhy Best-of-Breed Works for Nonprofits For years it seemed like the Sophie’s Choice facing every nonprofit manager was whether to go with a single vendor for all of their business applications (accounting, fundraising, HR, etc.) or source them independently and sacrifice meaningful integration. The story went that if you didn’t buy from a single vendor,…
March 17, 2015
Why Evaluating and Reconfiguring Your Financial Management Software is CriticalWhy is everything so hard? Things used to be great. The data entry made sense. The reports were all configured to give us exactly what we needed. Month end processes were efficient, routine and predictable. Now it seems like we’re doing more and more offline in Excel spreadsheets. Coding is confusing. Month end is…
