Good question. As a nonprofit accountant, I hear this question asked often. Some of the objections to learning about accounting sound very reasonable at first, especially when there's no one around to express a contrary view. So, I'll step up to the challenge and face those objections head on.

“I don’t need to learn that stuff. We have an accountant in our organization who deals with it.”

It's a good thing if you have a knowledgeable accountant on the payroll who knows the ins and outs of nonprofit financial tracking. After all, not every organization has the luxury. If you're one of the lucky ones that does, be kind to that person and tell them that you really appreciate all that they do.

Why? Many organizations need and want an accountant on their payroll. If your accountant feels under-appreciated or undervalued, he or she may head for greener pastures, leaving you without a thorough understanding of the basics of your organization’s financial results. Your remaining staff members may need at least a small knowledge of the basics to link to the new person you hire. So, don’t rely too heavily on your accountant. Attaining good financial management skills will help ensure that your organization moves forward, even without him or her.

“My brain is not designed for numbers. I supervise people that do that.”

Some people have a better understanding of…

Welcome to Research Friday! As part of a continuing weekly series, each Friday we invite a nonprofit expert to highlight a research report or study and discuss how it can inform and improve day-to-day nonprofit practice. This week, Brian Spicker of Valley of the Sun United Way sat down the with Center's Stephanie La Loggia for a short interview about the meaning of "collective impact." Below is part of the interview.

In Kania and Kramer’s article, they discuss the key elements to successful collective impact. Can you talk a little about those key elements?

Brian Spicker: What's wonderful about that article is it’s something I think all of us in the social sector have been working on, they just happened to present it elegantly. But those five elements are: a common agenda. So everyone understands the language, what it is what we’re intending to do, and it’s tied then to metrics, that it’s a shared metric system. So, that’s the second element. The third element, which is really critical, is mutually reinforcing activities. So you have a variety of nonprofits, government, and philanthropic organizations working together — they are doing their own things, but it’s mutually reinforcing that common agenda, it is tying those things together. And showing that it's moving the needle, the metric, forward. 

The…

In the age where people expect more for less and at a pace that reflects the era of an instant-gratification lifestyle, it's no surprise that associations are looking for solid leaders who will keep their mission at heart, as well as keep the association moving forward — quickly. It makes sense, right? Our members have a vested interest and passion for the livelihood of what their association is doing and how it's doing. And, as history will show, leadership is the key to success. So, if success is based on leadership, then how does an association establish great leaders for guaranteed success?

We often hear the phrase, "That person is a born leader." And many of us believe that leadership — both the good and the bad — originates from the individual and his or her personal characteristics and values. To a certain extent, this is true. Charisma, intelligence, and great communication skills all play a serious role in effective leadership. However, James Kouzes and Barry Posner — authors of The Leadership Challenge — illustrate how leadership goes beyond the individual: it's a relationship.

In The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner take a look inside various types of organizations, finding that successful and effective leadership focuses on five different practices: modeling the way; inspiring a…

"Abuses found at local charity!" It's not an uncommon headline, unfortunately. And those of us who have toiled for years in the nonprofit sector cringe every time we hear of a new scandal or fraudulent activity because we fear the fallout that inevitably occurs. After all, if one nonprofit has unscrupulous practices, then it follows that we all must.

I recently read an article about the latest nonprofit embroiled in a financial investigation. At this point, I should mention my disclaimer that I have no independent knowledge of this particular case, and the ASU Lodestar Center takes no position on any organization involved in a dispute of this kind. Whether the organization did or didn't do what it said it would do isn't even the point of this blog. The point is this:

When confronted with the funding discrepancies of the organization he had founded, the executive director, who did in fact pay himself a salary, had this to say: "I never said I was a professional at this."

I was utterly astonished and flabbergasted upon reading his statement. In what other field would the head of an organization be allowed to screw up and then claim ignorance? Can you imagine patronizing any other business, restaurant, or store, receiving no product or service in exchange for your money, and listening to the owner say, "Well... I never said I was a professional."

What would a rational response to this excuse be? Are…

Welcome to Research Friday! As part of a continuing weekly series, each Friday we invite a nonprofit expert to highlight a research report or study and discuss how it can inform and improve day-to-day nonprofit practice. This week, we're excited to have Dr. Laurie Mook join us to discuss social accounting.

I love the idea of "collective impact." We spend a lot of time and energy focusing on the impact of individual organizations, but how does that translate to the bigger picture? How might things be different if we start thinking about our collective impact?

An area I have been researching for the past number of years is a fairly new field called social accounting. Social accounting considers a much broader range of criteria than conventional accounting and combines economic, social, and environmental criteria when looking at an organization in relation to its role in the larger community. To do this, it looks at the organization's impact on a number of stakeholder groups, such as employees, volunteers, customers/clients, society-at-large, and the environment.

As a former "conventional" accountant, I found a new, yet related calling after traveling the world. Looking back, I was struck at how ahistorical and acritical my accounting studies had been. It was only when I started reading works by critical accountants (another relatively…