Mark_Hager
Forum Replies Created
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+1 on Wade’s response. This is a colloquial use of “budget” that I avoid precisely because of this confusion. Budget means allocation of resources to strategic aims, but that’s not what people are asking when they say “what’s your budget?” They probably just want to know about how much money you spend in a typical year. They’re just asking about your size.
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Ron! Sorry that the forums are starting off so slowly… we hope it will ratchet up as the NFC gets more traction. And, ironically enough, start-up traction is right in line with the question you’re asking about. How do you get your nonprofit rolling?
You’ll find a variety of sites that are more geared toward start-up and fundraising… the Nonprofit Financial Commons is geared more toward financial operations. One place I suggest you look is Ashoka.org, an organization that has gotten a lot of traction over past couple decades in connecting social entrepreneurs and sharing models for what WORKS in helping them get established and grow. They are a treasure trove of both written resources and potential connections that hopefully will give you ideas and models for how to get further off the ground.
ashoka.org
Home | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker
Ashoka builds and cultivates a community of change leaders who transform institutions and cultures so they support changemaking for the good of society. Find out more about us, and join the worldwide network of changemakers.
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For Case Study 2: Can you tell us again what makes this a grant (contribution) rather than a contract (earned)?
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In Case Study 1: Why do we even book pledges (with restrictions)? Why not just book the contributions as received when they come in?
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Holly: I don’t think you’ll find this. It’d take some lifting by researchers, and I don’t think there are either thorough or quick/dirty takes on these models as NFC has defined them. The one big source of mission and spending info is from Form 990s, and these would have some limitations in answering your question. For one, there’s no reliable indication of whether an organization is a membership association or not. For another, government revenue is notoriously difficult to suss out of the 990, since earned income from contracts isn’t divided by source. This is a road we may try to get down a bit, but the data presents an assortment of challenges.