Our Pond - Testing some blogging skills

Our pond

This is a test of the text wraparound and photo placement capabilities on the Google blogger.  This is a test of the text wraparound and photo placement capabilities on the Google blogger.This is a test of the text wraparound and photo placement capabilities on the Google blogger.This is a test of the text wraparound and photo placement capabilities on the Google blogger.This is a test of the text wraparound and photo placement capabilities on the Google blogger.This is a test of the text wraparound and photo placement capabilities on the Google blogger.This is a test of the text wraparound and photo placement capabilities on the Google blogger.This is a test of the text wraparound and photo placement capabilities on the Google blogger.This is a test of the text wraparound and photo placement capabilities on the Google blogger.

This is a continued test of the text wraparound capabilities on the Google blogger.   This is a continued test of the text wraparound capabilities on the Google blogger. This is a continued test of the text wraparound capabilities on the Google blogger. This is a continued test of the text wraparound capabilities on the Google blogger.

This is a continued test of the text wraparound capabilities on the Google blogger. 

This is a continued test of the text wraparound capabilities on the Google blogger. 

This is a continued test of the text wraparound capabilities on the Google blogger.   This is a continued test of the text wraparound capabilities on the Google blogger. This is a continued test of the text wraparound capabilities on the Google blogger. 

Nonprofit Financial Statements

Greetings!

We all want our money spent well.  One way to better understand whether what we invest in a community nonprofit is being spent well is to look at their financial statements.  Annual financial statements are usually available at Guidestar, or on the agency's website.

If I'm going to contribute a serious amount of funds to a nonprofit, I want to know the health of the agency's financial management resources.  I want to know that the systems which report and monitor the finances of the agency are working well, in order to insure that the board of directors can effectively guide the program and policy decisions necessary to protect my financial contributions.

While nonprofit accounting systems vary, all are held to something called Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).  GAAP standards for financial statements, whether monthly or annually, recommend that such statements be designed clear enough to allow donors and grantors that ability to review the health of the agency financially.

"Financial reporting is the means of communicating with those who use financial information. For this communication to be effective, information in financial reports must have these basic characteristics: understandability, reliability, relevance, timeliness, consistency, and comparability."

Here are links to some of the nation's Community Action Agencies, established in 1964 under the Economic Opportunity Act, to deliver vital services to the low income sector through community-based nonprofit organizations.  They are the largest collection of nonprofits currently being held to GAAP standards through annual federal audits.

Kern County

Madera County

Silicon Valley

San Luis Obispo


A common design in these financial reports in the separation of assets, liabilities, and fund balances between unrestricted, restricted, endowment, and plant.  This best allows the board of directors to examine its resources, and make decisions on the health of the agency.

Another criteria which should be used to measure the health of a nonprofit to which you are considering donating to is the degree to which these statements are reviewed.  Many nonprofits are able to produce excellent financial statements, but only reviewed annually, and by staff and perhaps the board's finance committee.  I believe that a healthy organization produces consistent financial reports monthly, and shares them with the board of directors.

Here are examples agendas for some more of the same agencies cited above.

SETA (Sacramento)

NCO (North Coast Counties)

Monterey County

Inyo County

CSET (Tulare County)

Another good clue to the strength of an organization is their annual report and strategic plans, and how easy they are to access, and how widespread is their distribution.  Here are a few examples of excellent reports.

Monterey County

Merced

Kings County

Contra Costa

San Diego

San Bernardino

Orange County

Santa Barbara County

Santa Cruz County

Why this blog?

Greetings!

My wife and I are retired, and have spent many decades in our professional and volunteer lives working with causes and nonprofit organizations. We've been on lots of boards of directors, served in staff positions, and given time and money to many fundraising efforts for them. We've also ended our professional careers with over a decade each in governmental positions in which we provided funds for hundreds of nonprofits in the fields of health and human services.

In retirement, while we have scaled back our direct involvement with the nonprofit sector, we have expanded our work identifying the causes we want to support. We now have more money than we plan to spend on ourselves, or leave to someone else to spend. Our plan is to spend, in equal amounts, all of what our net worth generates to traveling and philanthropy. Some of the traveling is just plain fun and adventure, some of it helps inform our philanthropic work.

So why write about this in a blog?

We know that there are others in the world who struggle to do good philanthropy, and who have chosen to decide who to give to themselves. This is not to downgrade the value of utilizing foundations, or of establishing a private family foundation, only to emphasize that some of us feel capable of, and interested in, doing some of the work ourselves.

So this blog exists to allow us to share this experience. And to encourage others to join us in sharing their experiences. We are a community with unique interests and needs, and we can gain by learning from the work of each of us. If you are reading this, you've been invited to join a group which cannot exceed 100 members. If you know of someone who you think should be included, contact us.

Gregory Fearon