Financial Management

New! Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Tax-Exempt Organizations

Basic Guide to Nonprofit Financial Management : Addresses basics and getting started, board treasurers, nonprofit bookkeeping and controls, criticial operating activities in the yearly accounting cycle (such as designing a budget and managing cash flow), financial statements and analysis, annual reports, and many more related topics to be used as a primer or reference for nonprofit managers and board members. By Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, for MAP for Nonprofits.

Charitable Contributions- Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements: An IRS publication explaining the federal tax law for charities and churches that receive tax-deductible contributions and for taxpayers who make contributions.(pdf 16 pps)

Coping with Cutbacks: A Strategies Checklist. The Amherst H. Wilder Foundation has offered a very timely, online checklist from their book, Coping with Cutbacks: The Nonprofit Guide to Success When Times Are Tight. The book can also be ordered from this site.

Strategic Budget Cutting : Since most organizations have little in the way of unjustified spending to eliminate, there are few easy targets. Managers must approach budget cutting with care, so as not to harm the organization's capacity to achieve its purposes. The toughest question they face is how to reduce the budget without compromising the organization's mission. By David Maddox in The Grantsmanship Center Magazine.

Credit Card Acceptance. FAQ from the Alliance for Nonprofit Management.

IRS Nonprofit Audit Targets : Is your organization in the cross hairs? Here's what to watch out for, from The Grantsmanship Center Magazine.

How do we prepare for an audit? This information from the Alliance for Nonprofit Management covers choosing an auditor, what information is needed for an audit and additional information.

Unrelated Business Income Tax for Charities & Nonprofits : See also IRS publication 598 (Rev. March 2000), Tax on Unrelated Business Income of Exempt Organizations (PDF Download, 20 pages).

Sarbanes-Oxley: How Will It Affect Nonprofits and Higher Education Institutions? The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was signed into law on July 30, 2002, largely in response to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals. While the Act does not currently apply to non-public companies--including nonprofit organizations--it establishes new or enhanced standards for corporate accountability. In fact, some believe that colleges, universities and other nonprofit institutions should consider adopting some of these new rules as they look for ways to enhance institutional accountability and responsibility. Is this the right course for these institutions? This is the text of an interview with Jack McCarthy, leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers' National Education and Nonprofit Practice, and John Mattie, who leads PwC's Education Advisory Services practice.

For more on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, please refer to the Legal & Risk Management section.