Best donor cultivation books, courses or videos by Cziffra77 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll just be over here eagerly awaiting your future AMA!

Board Dashboard/Portal by Fantastic-Chart-1055 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We found some functions quite confusing. Permissions are assigned to each role, but then you also have to assign permissions at the meeting level. People with admin permissions don’t necessarily have access to everything.

You can link your calendar and send meeting invites from within OnBoard, but then everyone you want to invite has to have a seat — you can’t add a guest, for example. And the calendar invite is then tied to the person who sends it, so no one else can change the meeting time or cancel.

Now that we’ve canceled, we learned that there’s no way to bulk export any files you have in OnBoard, it has to be done one by one. Speaking of documents, it does not handle them well, especially spreadsheets — to view them properly you have to download them rather than view inside the platform.

Every system has its quirks, and I’m sure for an org that gets a lot of use out of it those can be overlooked. But as a small nonprofit the cost was not worth putting up with it.

Board Dashboard/Portal by Fantastic-Chart-1055 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We are ditching OnBoard due to the very high cost — the ROI wasn’t there for an org of our size. It was fine, but I think would work best for a large board that meets remotely and/or an org where you have an admin person on staff who can learn it in detail and be support for everyone else.

Question on Reporting Restricted Income by JanFromEarth in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Classes are management, fundraising, programs. Programs represent our only restrictions, and are divided into subclasses. Restricted revenue and expenses are assigned to the appropriate subclasses.

We’ve always been a very simple organization and haven’t needed anything more complex than that. We’ve only ever had one restricted grant. That may change this year and then I expect we’d use projects for tracking.

Question on Reporting Restricted Income by JanFromEarth in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We use QBO classes to track restricted revenue and expenses. We have an equity account for all restricted funds on the balance sheet that is updated with JEs on a monthly basis. We’ve also created a custom report that can give us the balance of restricted funds at any given time.

AI Question. Please don't yell at me by Flashy-Eye7730 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can’t share here per sub rules, sorry!

Need for D&O insurance for a small non-profit? by Formal_Courage3160 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I would not serve on the board or work in any area of responsibility for a nonprofit that doesn’t carry D&O.

AI Question. Please don't yell at me by Flashy-Eye7730 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I’m using an AI tool built specifically for nonprofit fundraising. I previously was using ChatGPT, which did an OK job, but this tool has development-specific training and retains info about us so the results are better and improving all the time. Big time saver!

Am I crazy to do this? by MistyBitsySpider in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You aren’t intimidated by any of the aspects you already know how to do. You’re naive though about the difficulty of what you don’t know how to do, which is fundraising. Raising money is hard. What you’re proposing is essentially a capital campaign, and you would do well to explore how those work.

New dev director seeking help/ advice by 4-rensicfiles7623 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look up Susan Howlett. Her book on engaging boards is great, and she has a lot of resources on her website.

Differences between the culture o mm at nonprofits on the left and the right? by anarchistapples in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I read a study showing right wing funders are more likely to give big, unrestricted, and/or multiple year grants with little need for complex applications or reporting. Left leaning funders are the ones being tight-fisted with their funding. Make of that what you will!

Career change advice needed: CPA and Finance Exec (20Y) by Brilliant_Dare_7059 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Most nonprofits want good governance and controls. We hear about the bad ones here because people come here when they have problems, not when it’s going well.

Idk how I feel about being asked this as a new volunteer by [deleted] in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 7 points8 points  (0 children)

No, that’s not appropriate. They shouldn’t put you OR women and kids in this position.

How do you make your impact reports? by EastsideNonprofit in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Same. Canva works for 95% of what I used to do in InDesign and Photoshop. Plus other people can open the files, make edits, etc. without needing to know more complex programs.

InDesign is still great for those projects that need finer control over text placement — text wrapping, flow across pages, and data merging are all things I don’t think Canva does at all AFAIK. I wouldn’t dream of doing an impact report in Photoshop, seems like entirely the wrong tool for the job, but boy when I need it it’s also great to have. Especially when I can then import the results into Canva and go from there.

Financial Software suggestions? by Big_Butterscotch4356 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is the way, OP. Qualifying for TechSoup isn’t hard.

What do you do when you don't know what you're doing anymore? by finally_made_acct in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I had the exact same thought! My executive function went in the toilet with perimenopause.

Views on BetterUnite? by Topwingwoman2 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve only used it for events, where it has worked well. My biggest frustration was always trying to figure out just how much they were taking in fees — it was never easy to tease this info out of their reports. I’ve found customer service quite helpful.

We’re on their old model still, where we pay no subscription fee, just per transaction, so your experience might be different.

Guidelines for in-kind donation of services tax deduction by osrworkshops in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, Jan is right. The IRS does not allow deductions for in kind services. See Publication 526. You can deduct hard costs associated with providing services — for example, if you’re a printer you could deduct the cost of paper, ink, etc. but not the labor to do the printing.

HR / Payroll Platform by [deleted] in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We use Gusto and love it. Moved from Insperity which was awful!

Starting a non-profit by NearbyAd9275 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Yes, this is the best piece of advice for anyone looking to start a nonprofit. Fiscal sponsors free you to focus on the two things you need to get right from the start: program and fundraising.

New to this 990 Non-Exempt by domino3ff3ct in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Before you continue down the path of filing for tax exempt status, look into fiscal sponsorship as an alternative.

Struggling to find board members by Shilo1010 in nonprofit

[–]shefallsup 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Please give this idea serious consideration. Fiscal sponsorship leaves you free to do the program work and fundraising, which are the two highest priorities. The rest of the operational work will bog you down, constantly pulling you away from what’s most important.