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StrongNonprofits Toolkit

September 13, 2018
Resources to strengthen your nonprofit financial management

About the Toolkit

Just like for-profit businesses, not-for-profit enterprises need strong financial management to ensure they can deliver the best services possible to the people who depend on them.

But the fact is that weak financial know-how hampers many nonprofits. In 2009, The Wallace Foundation launched a project to see if providing training and consulting could help 26 Chicago nonprofits that run respected afterschool programs build their financial management muscle. BDO’s Nonprofit & Grantmaker Advisory Services (then known as FMA), a consultancy that specializes in financial management for nonprofits, carried out the work, providing the Wallace grantees with a combination of training, tools and one-on-one assistance.

This toolkit grows out that work, offering afterschool nonprofits–and nonprofits in general–a range of free tools, articles, reports and other resources that BDO has identified as particularly useful to organizations that want to develop their financial skills. Among the resources are a number of tools that BDO has created especially for nonprofits, based on its work over the years in the nonprofit field.

How to Get Started

There are many ways to navigate the toolkit depending on your role and interests.

Role
Nonprofit Board Member
Nonprofit Executive Leader
Nonprofit Program Staff
Nonprofit frontline finance staff
Grantmaker

Start Here
Governance and Strategy
Cash Flow
Budgeting
Operations
​Data and Analysis​​​​​​​

About the 2009 Chicago Initiative

In 2009, Wallace launched a project to see if providing training and consulting could help 26 Chicago nonprofits that run respected after-school programs build their financial management muscle. BDO’s Nonprofit & Grantmaker Advisory Services (then known as FMA), a consultancy that specializes in financial management for nonprofits, carried out the work, providing the Wallace grantees with a combination of training, tools and one-on-one assistance.

A Wallace chart describes the Foundation's thinking behind the Chicago initiative, while a 2012 research report provides detail about its early successes and challenges.​​​​​

StrongNonprofits Partners

​We'd like thank the organizations whose financial management resources we are linking to on this website, including:

Accenture
Alliance for Nonprofit ​Management
Authenticity Consulting
Blue Avocado
Bo​ardStar
CPA911 Publishing
CPA Practice Advisor
Fields​tone Alliance
Greater Washington Society of CPAs
GuideStar
Independent Sector
National Center for Charitable Statistics
New York Nonprofit Press
Nonprofit Assist​ance Fund
Nonprofit Coordinating Comm​ittee of New York
Nonprofit Quarterly
Nonprofit Risk Management Center
Philanthropy Journal
Stanford Social Innovation Review
The Bridgespan Group
The Finance Project
The Grantsmanship Center
VCG Governance Matters
Westchester County Bar Association

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