Dollars and Sense: Financial Management Best Practices for Nonprofits

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!! In order for nonprofits organizations to operate effectively, especially smaller organizations with limited or no staff, the organizations’ leadership must have a working knowledge of financial management. This includes understanding their fiduciary responsibilities, to being aware of financial issues that allow board members and executives to make consequential and responsible financial decisions. All board members and executives are not required to be full-fledged CPAs or finance experts. However, they must also not just rely on others to be the experts and to understand and “translate” for everyone.  Many smaller organizations work with professional accountants or consultants in their financial management. Knowing what to look for, and knowing the right questions to ask, is key to ensuring that the organization’s financial management is solid.

The purpose of this three-day workshop (1.5 hours per day) is to pace participants through a basic but solid foundation of nonprofit financial management and leadership. This will begin with an understanding of the vocabulary for financial management to help with comprehension and communication, followed by a focus on managerial and financial accounting.

Participants will learn about and better understand financial planning and budgeting, and how to read and understand financial reports. They will take away resources to help them create control systems – a set of policies and procedures designed to keep the operations of the organization going as planned. Finally, participants will learn about some specific mechanism and “oddities” of nonprofit financials, address some “hot” topics, and get some in-depth understanding of ethics in nonprofit management.

Presenter Anjali Zutshi, Executive Director of the Friends of the Texas Historical Commission, brings to this workshop her 29+ years of experience in nonprofit fundraising and management, both as a board member as well as an executive herself. While not a finance expert herself, Anjali has spent her time in the nonprofit sector understanding and building her knowledge of financial management, budgeting, exploring and implementing non-conventional financial mechanisms and structures to help nonprofits succeed in their mission.

DATES/TIME
March 11 – 13, 2025; 2:30 – 4:00 PM Central Time daily

REGISTRATION
$119 (Early Bird until March 4, 2025, 11:00 PM Central)
$139 (Regular until March 9, 2025, 11:00 PM Central)

PLATFORM
ZOOM (A link will be provided closer to the workshop day)