Ruth.McCambridge
Forum Replies Created
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YOU ARE A RARE BIRD ORGANIZATIONALLY!!!!
You are right Nancy, it is very rare to see an organization with such a strong mix of reserves and an endowment(!) of all things. The interesting thing about your revenue mix is that you have a collection of sources that are predictable and repeatable (government and endowment interest income), and some that are less predictable (bequests) but are, in some cases, unrestricted enough to add to your capital position. It’s kind of an ideal, though by no means effort free, collection of revenue sources. The investment income is in that rare category of revenue that is both reliable and repeatable, and self directed and what an unusual profile that is among nonprofits!
That said, I know enough about you to know that your organization is a type that lends itself to bequests but IF and only if it does right by its constituents. Its a cool balance. What do you think is the driver? It seems to be the investment income which gives you enormous latitude/freedom.
It would be interesting to hear from other organizations who have built endowments – though, again, it is not for every organization by a long shot!
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What are the things you have done over the past few years that have most attended to the resilience/sustainability of your organization?
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When I wrote that article for the newsletter, I was struck once again by the many wildcards in the financial management of nonprofits. IT WAS INTERESTING TO SEE HOW MANY CURRENT PROBLEMS OF ADDED COST ACTUALLY PRECEDED THIS PERIOD OF “INFLATION” AND WERE CONNECTED TO OTHER ISSUES SUCH AS SUPPLY CHAIN CONCERNS AND EXPECTATIONS ABOUT THE BASIC EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT.
I think another issue embedded in such shake-down periods has to do with the fact that such shifts may actually open up new ways of doing business for some nonprofits. More of a particular market may open up in some cases, for instance. Is there anyone here who has experienced that?
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Jen, good question! I think there is a world of nonprofit innovation out there in terms of new benefits structures and that it touches on all kinds of equity issues both between staff members,, and between the organization and the staff’s sustainability as entities. These are questions that I have not often seen addressed in explicit ways in many organizations – I would say that now is a good time to get ahead of it all but here we are lagging well behind the surfacing of the questions.
In any case, what has your nonprofit done to restructure benefits packages, what are you considering, and do you know of resources in this area that you would recommend?
All of this, of course, relates back to the salary restructures that many were talking about in that conversational thread
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Ronald, can you say more about this model? Why do you divide it that way and what makes that sorting useful? To me, the issue is very often fungibility and margin of any particular source but a lot of us have done that with a fairly broad brush or not at all to our detriment. It still floors me when I see an organization take on too many contracts that do not pay full cost (which should include various capital needs of the organization obviously.