Category

Nonprofit

Nov 23
0

Around the Holidays Consider Fundraising For the Members of Your Community

By | Fundraising, Nonprofit | No Comments

iStock_000011346681XSmallYour nonprofit is always considering their bottom-line, and how your organization can benefit from fundraising. However, when the holidays are around the corner does your nonprofit stop and consider community members who may not be able to afford a turkey and all the trimmings for Thanksgiving?  Or that nearby families they are grasping at straws in trying to figure out how they can provide for their family a wonderful Christmas. They don’t know how they can pay all of their bills let alone purchase presents for their family members.

Fundraising is not always about furthering your mission and your incoming revenue. Around the holidays consider fundraising for members of your community. To begin your fundraising project organize a meeting with all of your upper management. Discuss how your organization can come together and raise funds for the community. Ask them to discuss the fundraising project with their departments. Then plan a meeting in the next 7 days to begin your project.

While your organization is gathering ideas, consider doing the following projects:

  • Adopting a Family for Christmas- There are many individuals that adopt an entire family for Christmas. What makes this project unique is that you are able to provide a wonderful Christmas for the whole family not just the children. Typically it is the goal of the organization to provide gifts for the children and assist the family with their Christmas meal. If this sounds like a program your organization would be interested in, use a search engine and search for adopt a family for christmas. Include your city and state in your search to find a nearby organization.
  • Adopting a Family for Thanksgiving is always an option also, but Thanksgiving is a few days away and may no longer be an available project for 2013. However you can consider this a community service project for 2014.
  • Conducting a food drive for the holidays is also an alternative, but with this choice you are helping a nameless and faceless family. If you are considering making a greater impact, consider one of the options above.
  • Another alternative to helping those in need is to contact nursing home and independent living facilities. See if there are senior citizens in your community who your organization can sponsor. You can purchase gifts but perhaps you can make it a community service project that goes beyond helping an individual during the holidays. Maybe you can sponsor a senior year-round by making weekly visits, remembering their birthday, and other special occasions.

Once your organization discusses the community service project and decides on a fundraising project, the next step is getting the employees involved. Send an email to all employees describing your community service project. List the dates that your organization will be collecting funds. Put the project in your company newsletter to ensure that all employees are notified of the fundraising project and have time to donate to the project.

During any other time of year, it is logical for your organization to focus solely on collecting revenue and your mission, but during the holidays a fundraising campaign to benefit the community is a fresh change of pace, and rejuvenates your employees.

Nov 17
0

Abila Advocate of Distinction Awards

By | Abila, Nonprofit | No Comments

Advocate of DistinctionAbila has announced that nominations for the Advocate of Distinction Awards will open in December 2013.

This is an exciting opportunity to be recognized or nominate someone to be recognized for his or her work on behalf of a nonprofit organization.  The award is available to any individual who work for, or volunteers with a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Nominations will be accepted beginning December 2013 and Abila will begin announcing monthly winners.  The winner will be rewarded with a $1,000 donation to the nonprofit (501c3) cause or charity of their choice.

Do you know someone deserving of this reward?  Then be sure to nominate them for a chance to be recognized as they deserve but also for the opportunity to affect a $1,000 donation to charity.

Click here for more information

Nov 03
0

Why Every Nonprofit Needs Appropriate Fund Accounting Software

By | Nonprofit | No Comments

iStock_000023610470XSmallMost nonprofits start small. Someone has a dream or vision for how they can bring hope or help to their small corner of the globe. Over time, they get the word out and others get on board. Donations flow in, the money gets deposited in the bank, and thank you notes are sent out. As an impact is made, an organization grows out of someone’s home office or garage. Eventually, someone decides that it’s time for the organization to “grow up,” to set up a Board, file for 501(c)(3) status and “do things right.”

It’s usually at this point that someone on the brand-new Board asks about the financial records. Usually—although not always—founders are more interested in getting out their message, and getting on with their mission, than they are in making sure each penny is accounted for. This tends to mean that financial records have not been a priority—not through any intentional negligence, but through having other, higher priorities on which to spend limited time. Whether jotted down in a notebook, random scraps of paper, or in a simple Excel spreadsheet, chances are that the basic information is there, but that it’s not going to stand up to any sort of auditing process.

This is why the use of appropriate fund accounting software is crucial to the growth and success of any fledgling nonprofit. While setting up an accounting system may seem like a daunting task, professionals are available who can help convert those Excel spreadsheets and notebook entries into an accounting system that’s geared specifically for nonprofits. Systems such as this will actually improve organizational productivity, including:

  • Knowing how much money you have in each fund at any given time, so you know how much you have to spend
  • Making the monthly bank reconciliation process easy and painless
  • Generating meaningful and useful reports for the Board
  • Automatically producing donor information and even thank you notes, rather than relying on a separate manual process

These are just a few of the reasons why any growing nonprofit should move to professionally-designed nonprofit fund software. To learn more ways fund accounting can help your nonprofit grow, contact us today.