NonProfit contracts from government have tiny amounts of cash for leadership. They are the Head, and the NonProfit is the Hands and Feet.
Cash Flow Forecast Archives - TurnAround Executive Coaching
Is Cash difficult for your nonprofit? Coaching helps! Here are 10 ways Executive Directors can still get cash to sustain and grow
Many nonprofits are being damaged by fundraising. The change is like being hit by a fast freight. Next year will not feel like last year. Nonprofit leaders often regard charitable gifts as the first and major provider of money. It’s critical! Cash pays staff and helps clients. Three forces are changing the giving landscape. Are you ready?
First, Tax reform in 2017 doubled the standard deduction. Only richer people and tithers (people who have a spiritual habit of giving) benefit financially from gift-making. Reports indicate that gifts from individuals declined by 1.1% in 2018. Charitable gifts from corporations increased. Gifts from those over 70 years old who made gifts from IRAs also increased.
Second, the number of corporations that received half of all profits in the USA declined. In 1975, 109 companies made 50% of all profits. In 2016, the number dropped to 30. There are very big gifts but not as much capacity for small and medium gifts.
Thirdly, Christian religious affiliation is declining rapidly in the USA. Christianity has been a major inspiration for giving. Pew Research shows a decline of 12% in the last decade! It’s hard to describe what changes this rapid rejection of religion will make in American society, but charitable gifts will be affected.
Are you watching your dependence on gifts and making appropriate changes?
I coach nonprofits who face turbulence. Contact me at tompkir1@gmail.com for a free consultation.
Sources: Richard Eisenberg (Forbes, June 18 2019), Pew Research (October 2019), and Richard Wolff (Democracy at Work)
Leaders get lost in a fog of numbers when they only need 7 Key Financials to make decisions.
I hope that you can join me at OpCon, June 13th, where I will be on a panel “What Nonprofits Need to Know About Nonprofit Accounting and Finance”. If you come with a CPA, bring aspirin as they recover from an encounter with a Management Accountant. If you’re a CEO, bring champagne to celebrate as you learn about 7 numbers that actually help you manage your agency.
In my book “Doing Bad at Doing Good”, I discover that the best nonprofits have an Operations Budget model that only requires 7 key financials. I’ll have copies of that available for attendees!
When you’re ready for a coaching investment, let’s talk! https://taconsulting.live/our-nonprofit-promise/
Is your nonprofit about to lose money while you take a few well deserved days off? Can you afford to be home at Christmas?
In 2013, 19,000 children were told to take care of themselves every day of the government shutdown. Headstart had to close until government restarted..
I coach nonprofits to build a secondary source of funding. We live in a time of divided government where one party wants to shrink taxes and government provided services. Many fine organizations do not have the cash reserves to lose $100,000 in a shutdown and never get it back.
If you are in trouble, write to me and I’ll give you some ideas to survive through the President’s funding cutoff.
Photo by Miguel Constantin Montes on Pexels.com
There are four long-term sources of financing for nonprofits – Fee for Service, Government Grants and Contracts, Donor Advised Funds, and Charitable Giving.
The 990 does not make this information available easily. On Page 1, they blend charitable donations with government contracts*, Schedule B is a report of all donors over $5,000 and frequently that report is simply submitted as ‘Restricted.’ 
It’s easy to miss the point on the 990 that the four funding sources are quite different from each other and virtually no agency in the study was skilled in attracting funds from all four sources.
Charitable Giving – Non profits began in the 1800’s with charitable gifts. Often, wealthy people formed a group and funded it with gifts for orphans, destitute, etc. The charity did not begin to match the needs at that time. As ethnic groups got larger, smaller nonprofits served particular groups from a language, religious, or cultural background. Slowly, many of the oldest nonprofits (universities, for example) built endowments that were powerful and independent sources of funds. Investment money flowed from charitable gifts.
Fee For Service – Hospital fees, tuition for universities, and other fees (excluding Medicare and Medicaid) make up almost half of nonprofit income. Since hospitals and higher education nonprofits have little in common with funding sources for other nonprofits, it’s fair to say that about 10% of nonprofit income is from fee for service.
Government Grants and Contracts – States, Localities, and Federal Government increased funding in the 1960’s. The first decades were slow increases with few regulations. With budget cutting in the 1980’s, governments started regime funding – close control of process, less volunteers, and more professionals. The administrative requirements of regime funding were not calculated in costing. The idea returned to the 1800s model that the social sector must be funded in part by charitable gifts.
Donor Advised Funds – The top 20% of the population is accumulating wealth and the top 1% even more so. This concentration is leading to Giving Clubs and Donor Advised Funds where gifts produce very specific purposes and outcomes. The benefit of these funds is that they empower agencies with clear agendas and the possibility of an independent voice. The benefit can also be a liability if agendas don’t uphold values such as equality and justice for all.
With that background, what does the study of 990s show?
- Healthy nonprofits augment government contracts with either charitable gifts or fee for service of at least 10% of total revenue. This additional financing can be used to pay for strategic investments and funds payroll when government is slow to pay.
- Nonprofits that started in the 1980-2000 years of growth in government funding often pay little attention to other sources of money. They tend to have smaller boards who may not have an individual mandate to contribute. With regime requirements increasing, the government funded nonprofits are close to merger, acquisition, or bankruptcy.
- Revenue is vanity. One nonprofit with revenue of $70 million and growing quickly is 1.5 payrolls behind. While they may use a line of credit to offset the immediate need, the growth and size do not give them protection for the long term. The funding mix is far more important than the size of revenue.
- Charitable gifts generally have a practical collection limit of $5 million in the nonprofits studied. Growth above $50 million in revenue requires a revenue stream from Fee for Service to keep government contracts revenue under 90% of total revenue.
- Two new nonprofits report charitable gifts of $11 and $14 million. These represent Donor Advised giving. Both nonprofits are growing above 20% per year and already have a major voice in education reform and biological diversity.
Conclusion
Government is a major force in financing the social sector. In most cases, the contract triggers agency wide changes to comply. Boards of directors become financial watchdogs instead of protectors of the vision. Ironically, the nonprofits which are failing are those who are the most compliant with government demands!
Healthy nonprofits have to overcome the barrier of multiple funding streams in order to thrive. 10% of total revenue from charitable gifts and fee for service almost guarantees that you won’t run out of cash. And cash is cash!
*Government contracts are considered donations because there is no exchange with the public. I would argue that improvement of a person and the taxes later received do create the exchange 😊
This is the 5th of 10 articles on Sundays that look at the 990s to understand what is happening to nonprofits in general and give you some data for your own nonprofit. Today, the focus is on the ability of companies to make payroll. Is your next paycheck safe?
I advocate for nonprofits to set a 10% surplus target. Greg Crabtree has the same advice for privately owned companies. We are both worried about the bills that accumulate while waiting for cash to settle them.
- For companies that make a product, the operating cycle begins when inventory has to be purchased or built. Bills have to be paid. A sale occurs, but cash still may not appear until merchandise is shipped and the cash is transferred. The entire period has to be financed.
- For nonprofits, late payments by government can create a cash lag of months or years. Meanwhile, payroll has to be paid.
The largest nonprofit in the study so far, Children’s Village, has an Accounts Receivable of 27% of Revenue and only 3 days of its next payroll on hand in unrestricted cash. There are 1,319 people on staff!
In a study of 14 nonprofits of various sizes ($1 million – $85 million revenue), 7 nonprofits showed a decline in the ability to make payroll over 4 years. The worst performer was over 2 months in cash arrears on payroll.
What can nonprofits do?
- They borrow from their restricted funds with the promise to repay
- They borrow from prepaid tuition and fees or prepaid money on government contracts
- They finance up to 75% of the collectible cash from government with a line of credit at a bank
- They blend methods and simply tell staff that payroll will be late.
Any company with less than two payrolls in the bank in cash is putting the wellbeing of families in jeopardy who depend on regular checks. Richard Reeves tells us that jobs that pay less than $120,000 face an increasingly expensive middle class lifestyle with more and more income insecurity.
Nonprofits have missions to do good – and that includes generous treatment of staff.
Calculate your own cash for payrolls from your 990:
- Copy the number from Page 1, line 15 and divide by 26 to find the Cash for One Payroll.
- Copy the numbers from Page 11, lines 1 and 2, to discover total Cash on Hand at End of Year.
- Subtract from the Cash on Hand, restricted assets on page 11, lines 28 and 29 to find Unrestricted Cash.
- Divide Unrestricted Cash by Cash for One Payroll.
If you have 4 payrolls in the bank, you have time to maneuver if bad days arrive. If you have less and less payrolls in the bank, you need to make a plan. Scaling Up business coaching creates a plan in 90 days, a quick win in the 2nd quarter and a 20% growth in revenue in the 2nd year. We’re here for you!
Program spending is up and investment cash is down, according to the Business Wire. This has not prevented leaders from planning growth —- without cash.
74% say that lack of cash is not a problem! Unbelievable. Cash is the essential food of your company. Your strategy is worthless and your staff are underpaid if you run out of cash.
A key area of coaching is about growing and protecting cash.
If you want One Minute TurnArounds by email, please sign up!
GDPR – Your email is collected by an automated system so that the One Minute Manager posts can be sent. You will be invited twice a year to a two hour Scaling Up workshop for CEOs and EDs. Annually, you will be offered an Ebook and asked whether the resources of TurnAround Business Coaching are helpful.
A maximum of 10 companies per year develop a relationship for Business Coaching to turn around their company or scale up past a growth barrier.
If you’re out of cash, you’re not the first leader to have the experience. In 2010, the New York Metropolitan Opera ran out of cash. They were surprised. They had a balance sheet which was filled with rich things. They had a budget of $291 million.
Here they were, humiliated and humbly asking singers to take a 10% pay cut.
There is no substitute for cash. Your employees can’t be paid in dog food, bedding, free haircuts, or whatever your business produces.
Most leaders who don’t have a financial background love the profit and loss statement. It’s an unfaithful lover. Make a date with your balance sheet.
In the left-hand corner of the balance sheet, the first thing you see is Current Assets. The arrangement is that these highly liquid items are the most important because you can pay bills with them.
- Line One is Cash followed by other lines in order of how quickly they can turn into cash. Cash is good.
- Line Two is Petty Cash. It’s small. It’s hard to make payroll with Petty Cash if you pay minimum wage or more 😊
- Line Three is Temporary Investments. These are great things but risky. I invested my parents’ life savings and it was $54,000 in 2008. I cashed out when it hit $26,000. I can’t even write this without saying a prayer of forgiveness to my parents in heaven. Are you big enough to watch this daily?
- Line Four is usually Accounts Receivable. Is that money from a deadbeat government contract that plans to pay 4 months late? They won’t speed up just because you’re desperate.
- Line Five is inventory. Is this stuff that’s going to sell next week?
The balance sheet holds a truth of your company on line 1. How much cash do you have?
How did the Metropolitan Opera survive? They have some world-famous murals by Chagall and they took out a special mortgage (Chattel mortgage) to get enough money to keep payroll going. Most of us don’t have the Chagalls and Rubens hanging around the factory so don’t get excited.
What about the income statement? The problem of the income statement is that you can’t tell the difference between real cash and other things like Accounts Receivable and Depreciation. Haven’t you had times where you are running a profit and counting the pennies to make payroll? The income statement is important but it’s a dangerous tool in the hands of a non-financial leader.
The Cash tools are part of the 4 key decisions because cash shortage will put you out of business faster than any other decision you make. Cash surplus gives you time to recover from a problem in any other area of business.
Dust off your balance sheet! Then plan to build your cash with TurnAround Business Coaching.
If you want One Minute TurnArounds by email, please sign up!
GDPR – Your email is collected by an automated system so that the One Minute Manager posts can be sent. You will be invited twice a year to a two hour Scaling Up workshop for CEOs and EDs. Annually, you will be offered an Ebook and asked whether the resources of TurnAround Business Coaching are helpful.
A maximum of 10 companies per year develop a relationship for Business Coaching to turn around their company or scale up past a growth barrier.
Nonprofits under $6 million in revenue are sometimes labeled as in the ‘Valley of Death.’
That’s a term from the for-profit sector (Greg Crabtree et al.) and it refers to the need to scale up administration fast even when you can’t afford the cost of hr, legal, and marketing. Infrastructure cash problems often disappear at the $6 million and above range.
It turns out that nonprofits have a unique worry – the indifference of funders who see no need to match services with reimbursements in a timely way.
The Open Road Alliance graphic shows that nonprofit leaders only cause 27% of their own problems. 46% of the crises in the nonprofit world are from funders. Keep scaling up to get your cash reserve!
If you want One Minute TurnArounds by email, please sign up!
GDPR – Your email is collected by an automated system so that the One Minute Manager posts can be sent. You will be invited twice a year to a two hour Scaling Up workshop for CEOs and EDs. Annually, you will be offered an Ebook and asked whether the resources of TurnAround Business Coaching are helpful.
A maximum of 10 companies per year develop a relationship for Business Coaching to turn around their company or scale up past a growth barrier.