As a director or manager of a nonprofit, you require monthly budget assessments to track and manage your nonprofit’s finances. Monthly meetings, which should happen after a cost-benefit analysis, should involve your finance committee, budget staff, and/or budget task force. These meetings should go over management efficiency and include these items:
Review budget projections and compare the projected budget to actual results. To ensure that you have revenues to take care of expenses, evaluate what happened the previous month and what the impact will be on future months. Make adjustments to future planned actions based on your actual results to date.
Trim the fat from your budget. Analyze every line item and look for ways to cut costs.
Seek ways to cut variable costs. To do so, change them to fixed costs or eliminate them altogether.
Meet with your budget task group to analyze every cost and get rid of unnecessary ones. Consider everything that will keep you efficient without compromising program quality.
Submit grant proposals and contracts to stabilize your funding streams. Be aggressive in seizing funding opportunities to sustain and expand your organization’s existing programs while adding new ones.
Search your local newspaper for new businesses in your area that may support your cause. Find out what their areas of interest are and talk to them about working together.
Look for ways to collaborate with other nonprofits in your community. Form partnerships with larger nonprofits for fundraising activities.
