Human Resources for Nonprofits Update

Posted on August 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

News StandThis post is focused on some of the latest developments and issues in human resources, issues that can affect all nonprofit organizations that have employees.

Let’s start with the I-9 form. All employers are required to have these filled out by their employees.  Federal agencies are stepping up their compliance audits of companies in an effort to crack down on illegal immigrants by going after employers. It is best to make sure you have these from all of your employees.

Does your nonprofit use interns? Do you use those interns as a pool of potential employees?  Then this article might be of interest to you.

In any issue involving human resources your documentation is key. From setting performance expectations to defending yourself in court, a solid paper trail can only help. This article list seven major mistakes to avoid.

Hiring employees can be an expensive and time consuming process. As much as we strive to make the best matches not every new-hire works out. This piece has some great advice for those doing the hiring and includes questions to ask potential employees that may help us make better hiring decisions.

Your nonprofit has a policy to only pay overtime pay if approved in advance but an employee is claiming overtime hours worked that were not approved in advance. What do you do?

A disaster waiting to happen or a boon to employers? This article talks about this service from CareerBuilder.com where employers can search for information regarding potential, and current, employee’s online life. Searches of people  can be done without this service but I think this straddles the issue of work-life vs. private-life a little too much.

“That type of behavior goes on here all the time.” is not a sufficient defense against a harassment claim. All managers need to take harassment claims seriously to protect both employees and employers.

Finally, sometimes it is the little things, things that you might think will have no repercussions that get us into trouble. Here is an example of an employee who didn’t like being refereed to by his nickname on the job.

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Posted in Policies and Procedures, Risk Management

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Creating a Risk Management Culture

Posted on July 27, 2009 | 3 comments

Board MeetingHow do you create a culture of risk management in your nonprofit?  And what is a culture of risk management?

The Nonprofit Risk Management Center had a really nice piece last week about the culture of risk management in nonprofits, and how to establish it. From their article:

When nonprofit leaders reach out to the Center for advice on weaving risk management into the fabric of their organizations they often assume that what’s missing is a long list of policies. While adding new or updating existing policies may be in order, a bigger-picture issue almost always requires more immediate focus. That issue is the culture of the nonprofit, which may be either receptive or hostile to risk management. And, while culture change is a long term effort, starting as soon as possible will lend credence to everything else that follows.

As the article states, risk management isn’t just a list of policies or your insurance policies (that is risk financing, a part of risk management). But it is the tone that is set by board and management. The nonprofit’s ethics also come into play here. If the CEO walks out of the office with a ream of paper under their arm, what does this tell the staff? If the Executive Director says to the staff, “We can’t let the Board know anything is wrong!” what message are they communicating?

To me, and as the above article illustrates, a culture of risk management is one of always asking questions about our organizations.  Typical risk management questions like, “What’s the worst that could happen?” to perhaps less typical questions such as:

  • What would would happen to our event twice the amount of people showed up as we expected?
  • How do we reward staff?  Are we doing enough?
  • Is there a better way to present out financials that will make them easier to understand?
  • Are we being honest in our communications with our stakeholders?

A nonprofit organization faces risk every day just by opening its doors.  If a nonprofit serves a vulnerable population such as children or the elderly they can face even greater risks. But clearly we are not letting that stand in the way of doing needed work.  Managing the risks nonprofits face is critical to the success of meeting our goals and missions. The more we can make risk management a part of our daily processes, of creating that culture of risk management, the better our organizations will be.

Do you have any other ideas of questions we should be asking ourselves? Post them in the comments below. If you would like to immerse yourself in nonprofit risk management issues in a lively, intelligent and entertaining way please check out the Risk Management Center’s 2009 Risk Management and Finance Summit for Nonprofits.

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Posted in Policies and Procedures, Risk Management

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Workshop Resources, Questions and Answers

Posted on July 20, 2009 | Leave a comment

Questions?As part of my follow-up to recent workshops that I’ve run in the last few weeks I wanted to answer a few questions.  But first I wanted to thank Alltop.com for including this blog in their list of nonprofit blogs.  It feels great to be in such respected company!

Managing the Money, Managing the Organization

For the Managing the Money, Managing the Organization workshop in Long Beach, you can download the handouts from the event here.  For those who are interested in looking at a budget narrative I have linked to a PDF of one here.  An online search of “sample budget narrative” will reveal a lot more.

Building Financial Literacy

From part one of the Building Financial Literacy workshop in Ventura there was a question about vehicle donation guidance.  I would refer all those interested in this to this PDF from the IRS. For other IRS contributions and donation information please check the IRS links and resources to the right. For the folks who wanted information on how to value in-kind donations, please click here.

Nonprofit Summer School

Thanks to all the folks who spent the day with me talking about nonprofit accounting issues at Cal State Fullerton’s event. Many of the questions were about QuickBooks issues, I would direct you to this page of the site for more information and resources.

For more information and resources I usually mention, please check here. And if I missed your question or you have others please feel free to remind me!

More Questions and Answers – Donated Items and Services

I have received a rash of questions lately on donation and valuation information for in-kind gifts.  I mentioned my post about valuation information above.  I have another post about how to enter in donation transactions and another on valuing donated services.  I hope those help.

More Questions and Answers – Employee Time and Cost Allocation

Question: We are just starting our marketing and communications program (hiring a marketing manager, revamping our website, etc.). I do not believe that I should classify 100% of these costs as fundraising (the website is mostly about information sharing and public relations). Rather I consider classifying some as program costs, some as administrative expenses and some as fundraising depending on the activities purpose. Is that correct?

Answer: Yes. Not all of the costs described should be lumped into fundraising. The costs should be allocated between programs, admin and fundraising as appropriate.

For example, the marketing manager spends time designing some promotional materials to get word out about a particular program you do. I’d say that is a program expense. Weather particular funder allows their money to be spent on advertising is a separate matter, but the expense is still a program expense. If that same person is designing something to be used for a fundraising gala, that would be a fundraising expense. If they are designing new signage for your offices? The expenses would probably be administrative.

You can click here for many more questions and answers.

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Posted in IRS, Nonprofit Accounting, Q&A

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