Category

Corporate Culture

May 09
0

What You Need to Know About Executive Orders

By | Corporate Culture, Nonprofit | No Comments
Executive Orders

While President Trump may not have signed the most Executive Orders out of all U.S. Presidents (that honor goes to Franklin D. Roosevelt), he has certainly made headlines with a flurry of orders limiting funds to various organizations, including institutions of higher learning and organizations funding nonprofits. If you are following the news closely, you know that it can be challenging to sort myth from fact when it comes to the impact of Executive Orders. Here, we sort through how these orders impact nonprofits, and what the President can—and cannot—do with the stroke of a pen.

Executive Orders Cannot Limit or End 501(c)(3) Status

One persistent myth is that the President, via an Executive Order, can limit or end an organization’s 501(c)(3) status. This is definitely a myth; the IRS governs 501(c)(3) status, and any changes to the rules regarding this must pass through a vote of Congress.

So, although the president may limit funds designated for organizations, he cannot strip that organization of its nonprofit status for any reason, including its adherence to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

DOGE May Investigate Nonprofits Receiving Federal Funding

Another rumor circulating in the nonprofit world is that DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, may begin investigating nonprofits that receive federal funding. This is unproven but could potentially be true in the upcoming months.

Blocks on Grants to Organizations That Focus on International Issues

Washington State has a high percentage of nonprofits that focus on international issues. There are rumors that the President will sign an Executive Order blocking funding from such organizations. If your organization’s mission encompasses such work, it is vital to watch the news and watch for any such orders that may impact your work. You may also wish to get involved now to make your feelings known (see the end of this article for action steps you can take to make your voice heard).

Orders Targeting Specific Nonprofits

Other orders may be coming that target specific nonprofits, including those linked to climate change activities and specific organizations named by the President, such as the Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and others.

What You Can Do

If you are reading this and researching other Executive Orders that may impact your organization, you may feel frightened or helpless. What can you do to protect your organization, its funding, and its mission?

You can take several steps:

  • Sign an open letter to the President: Coordinated by the National Council of Nonprofits, Public Citizen, State Democracy Defenders Fund, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, ACLU, and Americans Against Government Censorship, this letter states unequivocally that the President should not have the power to punish nonprofits based on ideological beliefs. You can find the letter here: An Open Letter Rejecting Presidential Attacks on Nonprofit Organizations.
  • Contact Your Congressional Representative: You can contact your representatives and make your feelings known about the impact these Executive Orders may have on the non-profit sector and your organization. Find Your Representative.
  • Prepare Now: Watch this video and read articles such as this one from the Nonprofit Quarterly on how nonprofits can prepare for changes due to Executive Orders.

It is unfortunate that nonprofits must prepare for situations in which their livelihood may be threatened, but this is the reality we are dealing with. Now is the time to understand the rapid changes at the government level and take steps to prepare for any potential impacts on your organization.

Welter Consulting

Welter Consulting bridges people and technology together for effective solutions for nonprofit organizations. We offer software and services that can help you with your accounting needs. Please contact us for more information.

Oct 09
0

From Number Cruncher to Strategic Leader: How Modern CFOs Are Mastering Cross-Functional Roles

By | Accounting, Corporate Culture, Nonprofit | No Comments
person at desk crunching numbers between printouts and laptop

Although the duties and responsibilities of the CFO and the finance team may appear to be the same on paper, in reality, they are rapidly evolving. Today’s finance team works across multiple disciplines and functional areas to provide cross-functional support for human resources, IT, sales, operations, and customer care centers. The reality is that financial leaders need to better understand a broad range of business disciplines to provide expert leadership and guidance for their organizations.

Why the Role of the CFO and Finance Is Changing

A McKinsey survey demonstrates the broad range of roles reporting to the CFO. These roles include everything from procurement to investor relations. More important than the breadth of the roles is the fact that the depth is changing too; it’s not just reporting lines but interaction that is increasing. The CFO must now be conversant in everything from the organization’s digital strategy to how it procures supplies.

This change reflects the growing awareness that in business, nothing occurs in isolation. Many factors contribute to an organization’s ability to make margin. Increasing margins may mean increasing gross revenues (while holding expenses steady) or it may mean decreasing expenses (while maintaining gross revenues). To help improve the organization’s revenues, for example, the CFO and finance team must understand the nuances of each service and program area, what is delivered, to whom, and the prices charged. All of this used to be the sole domain of either the program manager, the marketing manager, or both, but today, the finance team must understand it as well, to add to the conversation and provide guidance.

Cross-Functional Finance: How Finance Interacts with Each Department

Here’s why finance has become the cross-functional “go to” team—and why the CFO and finance leaders must work across teams with each department. Here are three examples:

  • Human Resources: Salaries and benefits are often the biggest expense on the balance sheet. Therefore, it makes sense to consult with finance when discussing staffing. Understanding both current and future plans, as well as the skill sets needed now and in the future, are all conversations that finance should be part of from the start.
  • IT (Technology): IT used to make all the decisions about the platforms the company needs but when choosing a nonprofit accounting platform, finance should be actively involved in the process, along with representatives from other departments. Additionally, the potential for financial data to be exposed in a data breach is a shared concern of both finance and IT. The two departments must work closely together on IT plans, continuity planning, cyber security defenses, and more.
  • Sales and Marketing: The finance team can help sales and marketing assess the profitability of donor campaigns. They can also provide added insight into pricing, budget allocation, and other areas.

Other departments, including customer service and operations, can also benefit from finance’s inputs.

Preparing Your Cross Functional Finance Team

To prepare your department to become a cross-functional finance team, you’ll need to make some adjustments. During the hiring process, look for applicants who may have cross-discipline skills. Such experience indicates an applicant with a flexible approach to finance, one who may already have ideas about how to collaborate with their counterparts in other departments.

Next, pave the way by making time for higher-level, collaborative work. This means using the automations built into your current accounting and finance platform (or looking for new software that includes these features). AI offers excellent potential to automate many tasks, including preparing first drafts of financial statements and audit reports. Automatic routing of messages, invoicing, approval notifications, and similar repetitive tasks can also save considerable time. Work with your team to determine which routine tasks take up the most time and which can be automated. This will free up time for more cross-functional collaboration.

Although there’s no one-size-fits all approach to the role of the finance team, CFOs and financial department personnel form an important leadership group within an organization. Their knowledge of financial data, combined with business acumen, can guide an organization into new areas of growth and potential.

Welter Consulting

Welter Consulting bridges people and technology together for effective solutions for nonprofit organizations. We offer software and services that can help you with your accounting needs. Please contact us for more information.

Aug 25
0

More than Numbers: The Changing Role of the CFO

By | Accounting, Corporate Culture, Nonprofit | No Comments
person standing in office space to represent CFO

The role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has been evolving for many years, and it is changing at the speed of light. Gone are the days when the CFO was solely responsible for the company’s financial health. Today’s CFO, while most likely holding an advanced degree in accounting or finance, must also be equally savvy in information technology. This role now interacts equally with IT, Sales, Marketing, and Operations, adding a valuable perspective to other areas within an organization.

Here, we look at the changing role of the CFO and what it might mean to your nonprofit.

The Modern CFO: Where Technology and Finance Meet

Throughout the accounting profession, technology has become an ever-present companion to the routine of credits, debits, invoices, payments, and payroll.

Smart accountants keep up to date with the latest tools and technologies available to enhance their productivity:

  • Cloud-based accounting programs that provide robust yet cost-effective financial management
  • Data and analytics programs that provide additional insight into forecasting, analytics, and financial health
  • Grant and donor management software which enables organizations to manage financial outreach activities more effectively and track activities to income
  • SMS and text messaging platforms that can be linked with donor management programs for immediate financial outreach
  • Artificial intelligence as incorporated into existing financial tools to pinpoint errors and speed lookup of important information
  • Developments in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and related fields
  • Cybersecurity, so as to protect critical information in the finance department from theft, hacking, and extortion
  • Best practices from the for-profit world in sales, marketing, and operations, which may be adapted to the nonprofit world

As you can see from the list above, the CFO, as leader of the organization’s financial team, needs to stay abreast not just of the typical regulatory compliance issues but the realm of software and technology.

CFO and CIO: Collaboration to Achieve the Same Goals

Although the daily tasks of the CFO and CIO may differ, there are many areas of overlap between their roles today. Shared goals among the C-suite leaders of an organization mean that the two roles must work in tandem to achieve positive outcomes.

The CFO should be included in any major software selection processes. Many become the Executive Sponsor of a software project, providing teams with a valuable link to the leadership team to represent their work. Their unique insights into how a particular platform or software will impact efficiency, productivity, financial health, etc. are invaluable.

Other areas where the CFO may be concerned with technology include protecting critical data. The finance or accounting team may process donations, membership fees, and other financial transactions that contain personally identifiable information. Such information is a tempting target for thieves. The CFO must know the basics of cybersecurity and work closely with the CTO or CIO to ensure data is kept secure. This includes customer information, donor information, credit card information, and sensitive organizational financial data.

Because the CFO understands all areas of the organization, they should be an essential voice in any decision involving technology. But don’t limit your CFO to money and tech. They also play a vital role in marketing, sales, and operations, sharing their experience and a keen eye for efficiency and cost savings with the team.

The changing role of the CFO has opened exciting vistas for this once-strictly financial position. Variety is the spice of life, and for those interested in finance and accounting, embarking on a career that leads to the CFO chair means an ever-changing field of growing opportunities.

‌Welter Consulting

Welter Consulting bridges people and technology together for effective solutions for nonprofit organizations. We offer software and services that can help you with your accounting needs. Please contact us for more information.

Mar 21
0

Managing a Hybrid Team? Here’s What to Know

By | Corporate Culture | No Comments
people in office on computer call with several others

Many managers found themselves facing an unusual management dilemma during the pandemic: hybrid teams. The skills needed to manage people in person differ from those needed to manage virtual and remote employees. Blending both teams together to work toward common goals requires a high degree of commitment, communication, and clarity. Here are our tips to hiring for hybrid and remote work and successfully managing hybrid teams.

Structure Jobs Around Responsiblities (Not Hours)

One of the biggest shifts in thinking when it comes to managing remote workers is thinking about their work in relation to the work product, or responsiblities, rather than the actual hours the employee puts into the job.

You cannot manage people who work remotely as you do people who work on-site. You will not have the ability to monitor their productivity, see how long they’re taking for lunch, or whether they are making personal phone calls throughout the day. What you can do instead is create goal-based work. In goal-based work, an employee and manager agree on goals and work outcomes each week. Typically, Mondays are days for meeting one on one or in small groups with virtual teams and coming up with the week’s goals. Wednesdays are a good day for a quick check-in, with work products due on Fridays. The work product may not be the entire project, but instead, milestones that can be easily achieved on a weekly basis.

This is a form of “agile” project management coined from the book Scrum, a system of project management and team management derived from the tech world that has been successfully deployed in many other industries. It is ideal for managing remote employees and hybrid teams, especially in highly skilled industries such as accounting, marketing, fundraising, operations, and so on.

While much more can be said about this style of management, as a manager overseeing hybrid and remote workers, it is imperative that you stop thinking about them in terms of hours spent on the job and instead think about what they’ve accomplished for the week. This distinction and focus will ensure that your hybrid workers have clear, unambiguous goals to reach which can then be used as performance metrics for evaluation.

Set Firm Boundaries and Expectations

With everyone on instant messaging platforms and connected 24/7 via smartphones, it’s easy to meld personal and professional time together in ways that a decade or more ago would have been unthinkable. Setting clear boundaries and expectations around communications is an important step in ensuring that hybrid teams work well together.

Establish guidelines for returning messages, whether they are on text or messenger platforms of email. One good rule of thumb is that all texts or messages must be returned within 24 hours on business days and by Monday, if sent over the weekend. Emails should be answered within one business day. Stating these guidelines will help the entire team understand their communication commitments and communicate easily and clearly with one another.

Make Hybrid Workers Feel Part of the Team

Lastly, it takes effort to ensure that hybrid workers not only feel part of the team but understand the company culture. Yes, even if someone works 100% remotely, they can still feel the company culture.

What is your company culture? What can you do to infuse it into a hybrid workspace?

First, be sure to take your time onboarding remote employees effectively. Provide an orientation to the company just as you would for an in-person role. You may not be able to physically walk them around the office to show them where the break room and supply cabinet is located, but you can orient them to the organization’s chart, so they know who does what, help them understand their tech stack, and locate items on the cloud drive.

Another important step toward ensuring that hybrid employees feel like they are a part of the team is to ensure they are included in all company get togethers. Plan virtual gatherings as well as in-person ones. Catering lunch in for birthday? Offer them Grub Hub (or whatever is available in their area) and get them on a video call to join the festivities. Keep them updated on company happenings and ensure that from day one, they feel part of the team, too.

Managing any workforce takes skill, but it takes a special manager to ensure that a hybrid team feels and acts like one cohesive unit. With time, patience, and consistency, you too can successfully manage hybrid teams.

Welter Consulting

Welter Consulting bridges people and technology together for effective solutions for nonprofit organizations. We offer software and services that can help you with your accounting needs. Please contact us for more information.