Tips For Getting Your NonProfit’s Budget on Track – Part 2

Posted by Fundraising Pro on May 8, 2009

Budgets are important to every organization and especially important for non-profit fundraising groups. Non-profit groups are in existence to raise money and to distribute that money outright or in services as described in their mission.  Your board, donors and the public all expect that you are using the money wisely. It is essential that you can provide the facts and figures they need to verify the integrity of your non-profit organization.  So here are four more tips for creating a budget for your non-profit.

1.  Provide an Excel form to each manager that they can use to document their budgets by filling in amounts. Make sure there’s a row for each account in the chart of accounts and that there are no rows that don’t appear in the chart. And as the process evolves, make sure no one adds rows of their own invention! Help everyone fit their items into existing accounts – or determine that there is, indeed, a need for a new account .
2. Make sure everyone understands who is budgeting revenue.  How do departments work together to ensure that budgeted revenue is neither incomplete nor overstated?
3. Meet with each manager at least once during the process to ensure they are not confused and to provide any help they might need in fitting  their department’s plans to your budget format.
4. Be clear in your instructions about how you will handle income and expenses that occur in peaks and valleys throughout the year. Design your budget worksheet form so that it is easy for everyone to tell you when those fluctuations will occur.

 Budgeting can be a tough process. I hope that it goes smoothly in your organization. If your group needs to pursue new ways to raise money, choose the fundraising SAMARITAN CARD.  Unlike the bulky coupon books of yesterday, the SAMARITAN CARD fits in your donors’ wallets so they can receive discounts whenever they shop.