An all-volunteer national advocacy effort to increase financial sustainability among nonprofits through building and maintaining operating reserve funds.
Mission
To define, promote, and facilitate the practice of building and maintaining operating reserves throughout the nonprofit sector as a key strategy toward ensuring the long-term sustainability of the organizations and programs that save and enhance our lives.
Finance committees are also often charged with ensuring compliance and/or developing other policies that further serve to protect the organization and manage its exposure to risk. These include establishing policies for:
Finance Committee responsibilities relating to reporting and monitoring include:
1. Develop useful and readable report formats with staff. 2. Work with staff to develop a list of desired reports noting the level of detail, frequency, deadlines, and recipients of these reports. 3. Work with staff to understand the implications of the reports. 4. Present the financial reports and communicate the implications to the full board. 5. Monitor cash flow and ensure adequate resources are available for day-to-day operations (working capital) and mission accomplishment.
There are many payroll services that will process the regular payroll, make direct deposits, prepare quarterly and annual tax filings and remit taxes due for a very reasonable fee.
The finance committee chair is most often the board treasurer, whose specific duties are usually described in the organization’s bylaws. In practice, these duties can vary considerably from a hands-on role, in the case of the “working board” model, to a more supervisory role where transactions are largely handled by staff.
The chair of the finance committee makes sure the committee does its job. Specific duties of the chair include:
Processing the request for payment is the same whether writing checks or making wire transfers or ACH (online) payments. However, the method of making the payment differs.
When making a wire transfer or ACH payment, all documentation and authorizations necessary for any disbursement should be obtained prior to making the transfer. Further, a form should be developed that can be completed by the vendor showing:
