Archive for October, 2010

Opportunity Knocks 4th Annual Best Nonprofits To Work For Awards

Call for Nominations!



ATLANTA, Ga. / October 13, 2010 — Opportunity Knocks is now accepting nominations for the 4th Annual Peoples’ Choice Best Nonprofit to Work for Awards. Winners will be selected by Opportunity Knocks based on a brief essay from employees on why they consider their organization the best place to work. Deadline for submissions is December 15, 2010.

Nominators should take into consideration factors that are important to them such as, quality of work/life balance, their organization’s adherence to its mission, comradery of employees, unique benefits, training programs, career paths, mentor programs, etc.

A total of fifteen (15) winners will be awarded based on three categories of operating budget size.

Winners will be published in January 2011.

Past winners include: Equality Maryland, McCullum Youth Court, The Georgia Law Center for the Homeless, The Career Wardrobe, Women Organizing Resources Knowledge & Services, Alzheimer’s Association (Orange County Chapter), CAREERS for People with Disabilities, Inc., Community Music Center (San Francisco), Girls For A Change, Love Without Boundaries Foundation, Gift of Life Michigan, Lifespan of Greater Rochester, Sheltering Arms, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Year Up.

More information can be found at http://content.opportunityknocks.org/best-nonprofit-to-work-for/

About Opportunity Knocks: Opportunity Knocks is the national nonprofit Job Board, HR Resource and Career Development website exclusively on the nonprofit community. For Nonprofit professionals, www.OpportunityKnocks.org is the premier destination to find nonprofit jobs and access valuable resources for developing successful careers in the nonprofit community. For Employers, www.OpportunityKnocks.org is the best way to find qualified nonprofit candidates and receive valuable information that nonprofit organizations need when building successful recruitment, retention and human resource strategies.

Contact: Lynne Norton, Marketing Manager, Opportunity Knocks, 678-916-3066 or lnorton@opportunityknocks.org

Tweeting Raising Awareness, But Not Direct Dollars



Only 3 percent of all Tweets by a sample of nonprofits were dedicated to fundraising or solicitation. Nonprofits are more likely to use social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, to raise awareness, reach out to constituents and promote their events and activities, according to a recent study.

Approximately 44 percent of Tweets are for creating awareness while the next highest portions, 18 percent, are for promotion and press, and reaching out, 15 percent. Only 3 percent of Tweets were dedicated to fundraising of some sort, according to the research by a Rutgers University graduate student.

The percentage of Tweets used for promotion and press ranges higher, to about 47 percent, for nonprofits categorized as arts and humanities. “The results seem fitting given the fact that the nature of the organizations chosen within the arts/humanities sectors is to have events that raise money and promote awareness for their causes.”

Organizations within healthcare communicated the most about what was specifically happening within their organizations.

The education subsector engaged in the most reciprocity with stakeholders, with 38 percent replying by Tweet.

Whitney Oppito this past spring completed her master of communication and information studies, with a concentration in organizational communication and social media, at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. She interned last year at Women’s Campaign International, a small nonprofit in University City, Philadelphia. Oppito said the organization was in the midst of experimenting with social networks, raising her curiosity about how charities use them.

A total of 309 Tweets were coded, ranging from awareness, soliciting funds, promotions/press and taking action to reaching out, reply, conversation starters and miscellaneous.

The study examined 24 of the largest organizations in the country, classifying them into six subcategories: arts and humanities, education, healthcare, human services, public/society benefit and religion. A random number selector was used to choose four from each subcategory to comprise the final 24. Some 13 Tweets from each of the 24 charities were selected to be examined and coded, with one Tweet chosen for every month from April 2009 to April 2010.

She developed a plan for her graduate paper, “Engaging stakeholders via social media: What are nonprofit organizations communicating through Twitter?”

Oppito posed two primary questions in her research:

  • What do nonprofit organizations communicate to their stakeholders via Twitter?
  • When communicating via Twitter, are there variations in their message content between different nonprofit sectors?
“Our main objective with Twitter is to distribute messages and to engage and educate people who are following us to support our mission,” said Mary Havel, director of public relations for the national office of American Lung Association (ALA) in Washington, D.C. “We’re not really using it as a platform to solicit donations,” she said.

The majority of messages that are “Retweeted” by followers are related to air quality and lung health issues, according to Havell. “The majority of our outreach is really to educate and engage people. Hopefully that will ultimately cultivate people to become supporters and make donations rather than just using Twitter as a direct donation,” she said.

ALA promotes its Christmas Seals campaign through Twitter, encouraging people to get involved, but it doesn’t involve a direct link to how people can donate, Havel said.

ALA can measure how many people are linking from different parts of its Web site through specific URLs on a Tweet, and can attribute whether people come to an event that was promoted online through Twitter or Facebook, according to Havell.

Local ALA affiliates follow similar strategies as the local office, pushing out policy positions but also promoting their own local issues or events, she said. Affiliates use Twitter and Facebook “as a tool to have more people attend their events,” Havell said. As of Sept. 1, the ALA’s Twitter handle, @LungAssociation, had 3,581 followers, and was following 1,241 users.

Havell handles Twitter responsibilities at ALA headquarters but a handful of staff have access to the account and can send messages. “We try to make it a comprehensive communications tool,” she said, often checking with various departments to send appropriate or timely messages about advocacy or education efforts.

New York City-based Girls Incorporated started using Twitter in April as part of its integrated social media strategy, according to Alexander Kopelman, director of marketing and communications at Girls.

“What we’re trying to do is to start a continuum of engagement for people,” he said. “Usually, our constituency gets very excited aboutÉour work and wants to be involved and engaged in some way.

The nonprofit aims to make Twitter, and social media in general, “a place where people can share with us and each other what they’re seeing and thinking about,” Kopelman said. That could lead to deeper engagement with the organization, whether that means subscribing to a newsletter, participating in the Facebook Causes page, donating online, he said, or even joining a larger conversation about the future for girls in the U.S. and their needs and strengths.

“It’s really building that bridge for folks that gives them the choice of how they become part of our community,” Kopelman said.

Girl Inc. uses Twitter to share information or news coverage about something that a girl might be doing, or to share information about is own projects. For instance, the organization recently Tweeted a link to promote a video package on its Web site about a corporate campaign it has for entrepreneurs. Girls who participated in the program discussed their experience, in addition to engaging video from professionals and small business owners involved, according to Cheryl Messer, manager, media relations and constituent marketing at Girls Inc. “That package lives in our site, and it’s a nice way to hear directly from girls about a program that impacted girls directly,” she said.

During natural disasters, The Salvation Army uses Twitter and Facebook to help raise funds or drive traffic to appropriate donation pages. Local chapters, as in the case of the Philadelphia chapter, also often use Twitter to let supporters know where red kettles might be located during the holiday season.

“We see all that as a way to get our message out É something that might be going on that might not make the mainstream media,” said Jennifer Byrd, director of publications at The Salvation Army, headquartered in Alexandria, Va. That might include driving traffic to an interesting blog post on the Salvation Army site or directing visitors to their Facebook page, which gained more than 4,000 fans during response efforts to the Haiti earthquake in January, she said.

The organization has one person who handles social media, though she wasn’t hired specifically for that, Byrd said. “Frankly it has kind of bled into what everybody does, including our communication staff. It’s so pervasive we are really all engaged,” she said.

“By its very nature, social media is inexpensive and easily accessible, two central factors that explain why many nonprofits actively familiarizing themselves with social media as a strategic communication platform,” Oppito wrote in her paper.

Source: Nonprofit Times

3 Reasons for Considering a Mentor




By Carol Gee

Gordon was the first graduate student ever hired to work with me under the work-study program at Emory’s School of Public Health. Traditionally, my work study students were all undergraduates. From day one, Gordon decided that he was going to do just enough to get by while completing his Masters in Public Health. He even told me that he didn’t consider his work-study position a ‘real’ job.

I, on the other hand, considered his duties performing literature searches, assisting with research grant budgets and a myriad of other tasks, a real job, and told him so. A career military Technical Sergeant, I was used to people following orders. Alas, for a time we remained at odds over the way he preformed his duties. However, there was something about him that struck a chord in me. It was at that moment that my commitment to mentoring was crystallized. Sixteen years later, Gordon is still a huge part of my life.

I learned the power of mentoring early in life. While all of the people who’ve had a profound effect on me are too numerous to remember, a few I will never, ever forget. There was Mrs. Yarborough my second grade teacher, who often taught siblings of an entire family over the many years that she taught school in the District of Columbia. Mrs. Yarborough looked beyond the drunken, slant of my cursive writing to see the individual in me. From her I learned to listen to the rhythm in my own soul.

There was Ms. Hunter, manager of the military service club on my first permanent base after Basic Training. Ms. Hunter opened her home to me, a young, female soldier recuperating from pneumonia; showing me that angels did exist. Admiring her beautiful, objects d’art, I listened as she spun tales of travels abroad. From her, I learned to appreciate the beauty of other cultures. Modern Sojourners, my mentors knew even back then, what many are discovering today, that a lack of mentors is often a barrier to success. Each in their unique way helped me to become the person that I am today.

  • Why you should have a mentor; let me count the way.
    Webster’s Dictionary defines the word mentor, as a wise and trusted counselor or teacher. Mentors are this and much more. Mentors are coaches and cheerleaders, advisers and confidants. Being a mentor requires that you be knowledgeable in a wide variety of topics that reach far beyond the field of education, or the formal classroom. Simply put, mentors bring who they are to what they do. So the careers that I chose; soldier, counselor, educator and writer seem natural prerequisites for this role.
  • Mentors can be tough, but also easy to talk with
    Long ago I learned that mentors can’t be squeamish about discussing important matters. Frustrating to many of the women that I mentor is the angst of not feeling on as equal footing as men in their careers. Sadly, this is a systematic part of organizational reality. Using the listening techniques honed as a mental health counselor, and through engaging in frank, open discussions, we arrive at personal truths that allow them to find their voice, their authenticity, while maintaining their integrity.
  • Choosing a mentoring relationship is a no-brainer
    Being a mentor does not require anything fancy. And you don’t have to dress a certain way. While mentoring may be formal as well as informal, my relationship with my mentees is pretty informal, which suits all concerned. We’ve often met during lunch hour. Over Bologna sandwiches, we have discussed resumes, and interviewing wardrobes. Frequently, my mentees have vented, brainstormed and even wept. Today, we mainly touch base by phone or e-mail.


Being a mentor is worth every laugh, every tear. And I’vegrown in more ways than I’ve ever thought possible. Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” Recently, a young woman, also an aspiring writer, asked me to be her mentor. Although, she is not sure where she wants her writing to lead, I plan to be there every step of the way.” Secure your future, find a mentor!

About the Author
Carol Gee, M.A. has worked in education for 28 years in positions ranging from teaching to administration. Currently she is an editor and business writer at Goizueta Business School at Emory University. She is also the author of books, The Venus Chronicles and Diary of a ‘Flygirl’ Wannabe (Life Lessons of a Cool Girl in Training)
www.venuschronicles.net

Related Articles:

Nonprofit New Media Marketing Dos and Don’ts




By: Isha Edwards



Thanks to technology, email accounts, social networking sites, and cell phones are now prime marketing real estate. In order to strike the right balance between marketing to the masses and generating revenue, organizations should do two things right away. First, establish communication guidelines that reflect the organization’s vision, mission, short and long-term objectives (collectively, the brand)–not what the business Joneses are doing. Second, ask constituents what matters to them.


Be it via a fundraiser, sponsorship or cash donations, organizations need to generate sales, but no one likes a pushy salesperson. So how do you implement new media marketing tactics to generate revenue without triggering a severe case of ad fatigue or worse, an increase of opt-outs?
Different from the for-profit sector, reaching donors and other supporters through marketing initiatives has more to do with relating than receiving. Instead of making marketing efforts about what you can get, consider what you can give. Also, take the position that you are a guest in a supporter’s personal space. Similar to being a house guest, do not overstay your welcome and follow all house rules.

New Media Marketing House Rules

  1. Know thy audience and their preferences for communicating.
  2. Separate your customer base by preferred method of contact, e.g., text, social media, email, website access, electronic/printed newsletter, formal correspondence, telephone, other demographics such as by region.
  3. Allow supporters to opt into ongoing communication. Doing so will enable you to filter the fanatics from friends and subsequently, increase your conversion and retention rates.
  4. Keep messages brief, concise, and accurate.
  5. State your purpose first then cut to your call-to-action (provide a link or attachment for details beyond three lines of text).
  6. Thou shall not inundate; pick a day and time to send messages. Only veer from that schedule on special occasions.
  7. Since you’re not the only one working to get supporter’s attention, make messages relevant; about shared values, milestones and accomplishments versus about your bottom line.
  8. Genuinely court supporters long before you, “ask for the sale”. A hint of sales pitch with a double dose of relevant passion goes a long way.
  9. People know when they are being marketed to. Therefore, make your messages and methods of communicating meaningful as well as memorable.
  10. Consistency is key. Do not start what you cannot maintain. For example, if you cannot Tweet regularly, update your status or even respond to Facebook queries/comments in a timely manner, employ a practical method of communicating.
  11. Use new media to garner supporter tidbits (favorites, special occasions, interests, achievements, etc.) and personalize each exchange.
Unlike most industries, technology has a short life span; a very short life span (six to nine months). The downside to increased technological advances is that it deepens market segmentation and broadens adaptation cycles both of which directly impact marketing spends. Even though most new media platforms are inexpensive, there is no need to use all of them. The best course of action is to select the new media tools that ensure you accomplish set goals without wasting time or losing focus.

Isha EdwardsAbout the Author:
Isha Edwards is an idea catalyst for individuals and organizations across 12 industries including music, media, fashion, film, academia, professional services, nonprofit, and small business administration. Through EPiC Measures, Isha provides brand-driven marketing consulting and business development services. Her skills and experience in business management, business education, and marketing enables her to implement a practical, comprehensive approach to establishing, operating, and growing a business. [Contact Isha via www.ishaedwards.com]

Related Articles:

Is Your Nonprofit a Dabbler in Social Media or an Effective Power User?



A recent survey report from Ventureneer and Caliber show that those nonprofits that invest time, energy and resources into social media become “power” users and find success in promoting their causes.

Social media are not expensive, and even small organizations can use them successfully. However, it does take commitment, planning, and staff time to make them work over the long haul.

Nonprofits and Social Media: It Ain’t Optional defines the difference between those nonprofits that use social media very effectively and those for whom it is a waste of time. The former go “all in” so to speak, while the latter go at it half-heartedly and intermittently. For example, the survey that underlies the report revealed that while 95% of the surveyed nonprofits have a Facebook page, only 22% thought that page very effective.

The Ventureer/Caliber report provides “10 Highly Successful Social Media Habits for Nonprofits.” They include:

  • Nonprofits excel at social media by dedicating the time to it. Power users typically allocate at least 25 hours of staff time to social media per week. They tweet daily and publish content to their blogs and update their social media profiles weekly at minimum.
  • Power users employ social media for more purposes. Most nonprofits that use social media do so to boost visibility; drive traffic to websites; and build community. Power users of social media also employ it to raise money, engage in advocacy, and to do cause marketing.
  • Nonprofits that are ultimately successful in using social media start slowly. They build a foundation, and then add more media (and time) to the mix. The longer nonprofits use social media, the more kinds of media they use. The more kinds they use, the more successful their social media efforts are.
  • They rely on social media to strengthen marketing, not to reduce marketing expenditures. Social media is about increasing cost efficiency and marketing effectiveness.


There is much more in this useful report, including how to pick the right medium for your message and how to lay the groundwork for better social media outcomes. For instance, the report says that each of the Big Four — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube — have their own “specialties.” Facebook, for instance, is more effective for cause-marketing while LinkedIn is best used for researching and connecting to major donors and board members.

Source: About.com

Funders Urged to Tell Better Story



Foundations can do a better job telling the story of change they are trying to create a new report says.

Staff members at many foundations say their strategies for change exist only as a chart, dashboard or diagram, strategies that can lead to misunderstandings, rather than using a narrative to explain the change they are trying to accomplish, says From Big Ideas to Big Change: A Communications Guide for Grantmakers, a report by Spitfire Strategies.

Three-fourths of foundations the communications firm surveyed agree that, for a funder’s change strategy to succeed, grantees must play a critical role in communicating about the central concepts of that change, the report says.

But nearly half those foundations concerned they do not know which grantees should be communicating about which concepts.

“Today, foundations commit more resources than ever before to communicating about their work and missions,” Kristen Grimm, president and foundation of Spitfire Strategies and author of the report, says in a statement.

“But grantees continue to give funders low marks when it comes to fostering a clear understanding of what the foundation is trying to accomplish and where they fit in. “

With many foundations “struggling with the challenge of clearly articulating” their goals and strategies for attaining their goals to grantees and the public, the report says, foundations must not only communicate their change strategy but also must “engage with grantees to describe where they fit it.”

To do that, it says, “everyone within the foundation needs to understand your change strategy and know how to talk about and engage people in this strategy.”

Lack of clarity among grantees about a foundation’s change strategy and the grantee’s role, it says, “leads to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.”

Program officers, for example, “spend more time reviewing grant applications that do not meet their needs,” it says.

“The overall impact of your foundation may diminish as projects fail to make progress toward the change you want to see,” it says, “or organizations that can help make the change happen do not apply for grants because they don’t know how they are a fit.”

In addition to measuring foundations’ communications success, grantees can also be “invaluable communicators of central concepts that are core to your change strategy,” the report says.

“If foundations don’t actively look for synergies among their work and their grantees’ work,” it says, “they miss important opportunities to further multiple agendas and create the very buzz they need to turn the changes they envision into reality.”

The report includes steps foundations can take to develop a communications strategy to support their strategies for change, as well as a planning tool to put that communications strategy into practice.

Source: Philanthropy Journal

More workers postpone retirement



The economic situation seems to be spurring workers to postpone retirement, a new survey finds.

Forty percent of U.S. workers plan to retire later than they anticipated two years ago in the hopes of ensuring a more secure future, according to the survey from professional services company Towers Watson, which talked to almost 9,100 employees in May and June.

Many of those planning to put off retirement were older or had health problems. Forty-five percent of employees in poor health are waiting to retire; 68 percent of older workers said they would work longer to keep their health care coverage, and 62 percent cited rising health care costs. Sixty-one percent of older workers said they would stay on the job because the value of their 401(k) plans had fallen.

“The economic crisis has had a deep effect on employees’ attitudes toward retirement and especially on risk,” David Speier, a senior retirement consultant at Towers Watson, said in a release. “Despite the signs that some employees are saving more, spending less and reducing debt as the economy stabilizes, workers continue to have a fear that they won’t be able to afford retirement - and that will have significant implications on companies’ ability to plan their future work force needs.”

That also could make it difficult for younger workers looking to join the work force.

Compared with early 2009, consumers now are much more focused on paying off debt (63 percent versus 33 percent) and increasing monthly savings (34 percent versus 19 percent), the survey found. More than half are trimming daily spending, and 37 percent plan to increase 401(k) contributions during the next year.

Fifty-six percent of workers indicated that they would pay more to get a guaranteed retirement benefit, compared with 46 percent who said so in February 2009. Fifty-four percent said they would pay more from their paychecks to make sure they got health care benefits if they retired before they were eligible for Medicare.

“Interestingly, not just older employees are wary,” Speier said. “Younger workers, who generally are far less risk-averse given their retirement timeline, are also willing to forgo pay and benefits today for guaranteed and predictable benefits when they retire. This issue becomes critical as employers begin to re-evaluate their overall retirement benefit and health care strategies for the future.”

Source: Kansas City Business Journal



Comment below if you are planning to postpone retirement and why?


Philanthropic Equity Yields Big Returns



Philanthropic equity, the charitable equivalent of venture-capital investment, more than triples program delivery and doubles revenue for nonprofits that conduct comprehensive campaigns to secure equity funds, a new report says.

Among 16 organizations that worked with consultant NFF Capital Partners to secure and invest a total of $312 million, nine of them increased their annual revenue by a total of $30 million, says the Portfolio Performance Report by the consultant, a division of the Nonprofit Finance Fund.

Philanthropy equity investments typically are significant, multi-year investments a nonprofit uses in trying to grow or change in a way that is sustainable.

“Like for-profit companies, nonprofit organizations need access to capital investments so they can explore better business models, scale impact and create lasting change,” George Overholser, founder of NFF Capital Partners who is stepping down as managing partner, says in a statement. “We cannot wring more ‘results’ from an overburdened sector without addressing fundamental flaws in the way nonprofits are financed.”

Launched in 2006 as a consultant to nonprofits, NFF Capital Partners has worked with nonprofits such as YearUp, DonorsChoose.org and VolunteerMatch to support their fundraising process by writing case statements and structuring their accounting in a way that shows whether they are making progress toward sustainability, Overholser says.

According to the report, based on philanthropic equity campaigns for which multi-year data are available, annual program delivery tripled, with a compound annual growth rate of 57 percent.

Annual revenue from the business models for the nine organizations with which NFF Capital Partners worked doubled on average, with a compound annual growth rate of 36 percent.

Three of those nonprofits - GlobalGiving, Ashoka’s Changemakers, and VisionSpring - posted five-fold growth in the programs they deliver.

Philanthropy equity represents “enterprise growth-level capital,” Overholser says. “It pays for the deficits incurred on route to sustainability.”

Akin to venture capital, but without investors taking an equity stake in the nonprofits, philanthropic equity is “money that can be used to build an enterprise, that other people then use to turn their money into program execution,” he says.

“It’s not program funding,” he says, “It’s for the whole organization.”

A sustainable organization, Overholser says, “is one where funders come back over and over again because they like what the organization does.”

Source: Philanthropy Journal

How to Hire a Great Accountant for Your Nonprofit



For many executive directors, hiring an accountant is fraught with anxiety. How will we find the right person? How can I tell if someone really knows accounting? Will an accountant fit in with the rest of us? As difficult as it is to hire a good accountant, hiring an incompetent or incompatible person is even worse. Here are some FAQs on hiring accountants for nonprofits, including what to do if you’re having an impossible time of it:

Where do we recruit applicants?

You may spend more time recruiting good applicants for your finance team than you may spend for program staff; after all, accounting skills are often more marketable across sectors than program skills. Competition for strong candidates can be challenging.

  • Ask your auditor: Your auditor not only is connected with the accounting world but also understands your needs. Auditors may know of good candidates who may be looking for work; for instance one of their other nonprofit clients may have just downsized. Be sure to ask for other places to recruit in your community.
  • Advertise in different places: For the accountant position, look beyond the nonprofit job listings in your community to places like the local business journal or for-profit job boards.
  • On Craigslist, post the position both in the nonprofit section and in the accounting and finance section. For that listing, don’t simply say “we’re a nonprofit;” say “agency working against AIDS.”
  • For some lower-level positions, send an announcement to the career services department and the accounting department at local colleges. Some colleges offer career services for alumni as well.
  • Announce broadly: Let your peers know that you are recruiting. Announce it at nonprofit meetings and other gatherings you attend. Send out emails to your colleagues in the sector, and ask staff to send out emails as well.


Who should be in the interview?

In the interviews you will want to assess the technical skills of the applicants, but also their ability to communicate with you, other staff, and perhaps the board. For a chief financial officer (CFO) or finance director, involve the executive director, program director, and board treasurer or chair. If your organization is smaller, the executive director and board treasurer might be appropriate. Board members often have finance and accounting skills as well as experience hiring finance staff.

A question often asked in larger organizations is whether the current accounting staff should be brought into the process when hiring a CFO. Since the ultimate hiring decision lies with the executive director, staff members shouldn’t have a “vote” for their favorite candidate, but do set up a system where they can provide input and share their thoughts on the candidates.

How can I test for technical knowledge when I don’t have it myself?

In most situations you will need to spend time on reference checks to be sure that a candidate both knows accounting and is able to get tasks done competently and on time (more on this below). For manager-level positions, be sure that you ask about nonprofit accounting experience as there are significant differences from for-profit accounting (just one example: restricted funds).

Consider having a case study where you give the candidates 20 minutes to look over some financial statements (such as yours) and ask them to walk you through the statements and explain the highlights to you. Did you understand the explanations? When you asked questions about the statements, did you like the manner and level at which the candidate responded?

It’s also useful to know if an applicant is already familiar with your accounting software. While new software can be learned, prior experience will shorten the learning curve.

What should I look for besides technical knowledge and good reference checks?

Even the most technically proficient accountant will need to communicate well with others, including organizational stakeholders who may not understand accounting. The accounting team often has to get staff to conform to disliked procedures (such as timesheet submission) and to participate in planning discussions (such as budget preparation for a grant proposal). Ask candidates about an experience where there was a conflict over accounting to how they handled the situation. Do they have the patience and understanding to work with you on tough challenges?

If cash flow is a significant problem in your organization, discuss it with the finalists. Some accountants can take recurring cash flow problems in stride, while others would rather quit before having to ask a creditor for another 30 days.

How do we decide what to pay?

Start by calling other organizations and ask what they are paying. Many executive directors are happy to share this information, especially if you offer to send them all the salary information you gather (with the organization names removed). You can also look at the Form 990 of organizations similar to yours at Guidestar; if the CFO is making over $100,000 the salary will be listed in Part VII. As with any survey of compensation, you will need to balance what accountants are making elsewhere with your own pay scale.

Ask your auditor for advice on how much to pay. In some communities a nonprofit compensation survey is conducted; ask around to see who might be producing such a survey in your region.

What are some tips for reference checks?

Ask for references and call them. But be cautious: not many people will give you a reference that is unfavorable. Ask about technical skills, about timeliness of task completion, about communication and people skills. Listen carefully to how the reference responds to you. Our favorite question: “If I were to hire this person, what advice would you give me on how best to work with him or her?”

Since this person will be managing your internal controls and accounts, also consider performing a background check. See “Criminal Records Checks for Prospective Staff and Volunteers” in Blue Avocado for more.

How can I sell an accountant on our organization, especially at a lower salary than he or she has been making up to now?

One of the biggest mistakes an organization can make when hiring an accountant is to not talk up its missions. For many accountants, doing meaningful work is exactly why they responded to your job announcement in the first place. Talk up your mission, your impact, your goals, your connection to your constituencies. Many an accountant is working at a nonprofit in domestic violence, children’s services, the environment, music, and civil rights because of a personal involvement with the issue.

In addition, everyone in your organization needs to believe in the work you do, including the accounting staff! There may be stressful times such as cash flow crunches where a shared involvement with the mission will form an important basis for teamwork.

If I hire someone and it doesn’t seem to be working out, how can I fire that person Hire me I’m an accountant without leaving myself in the lurch?

Even with the best planning and hiring processes, sometimes it just doesn’t work out. Either the person isn’t a fit with the organization or, worse, he or she just doesn’t perform. While the thought of firing your accountant and starting the search process again may be overwhelming, it is far better than keeping someone in the position who you know isn’t right for you or your organization.

But how do you cover your organizational accounting needs until you find the right person? Depending on the level of accountant, there are different options.

  • Temporary bookkeeper: There are numerous temporary agencies that specialize in accounting staff. While it’s likely that fewer of their people will have nonprofit accounting experience, such experience may be less necessary in entry-level accounting positions. There also may be experienced sole practice bookkeepers in your area to whom you can contract out your bookkeeping. Relying on these experts during transition can relieve a lot of stress.
  • Ask board members: If you are a small organization with the bookkeeping covered, but you need someone part-time to play a higher-level finance role, consider asking a board member who has finance expertise to fill that role. The board member can look over weekly reports such as payables due and cash flow, monthly financial statements for any inconsistencies or red flags, and be available to answer any questions that the accounting staff may have.
  • Ask a peer: Sometimes you can find help where you might not think. Most executive directors understand the hardship of hiring an accountant as well as the hardship of having that position vacant. A peer organization may be willing to “lend” its accounting staff to you for a couple of hours or even a day a week. While these individuals won’t be engaged in strategy, they will at least help you enter and pay your invoices and make sure that payroll is complete. In cases where I’ve seen this work, the two executive directors have a good friendship and the organization lending the staff is more than happy to offer a hand. Of course, in this economic environment they’re also happy to reduce their staffing expenses – even if only temporarily.


Last thoughts?

Source: Blue Avocado

« Prev