Recession Resiliant?

For those on a July to June fiscal year, you have recently received reports from your CFO on Q1.  How is your organization looking?  Did the projections in the budget your board approved last spring hold up?  If this year is like any other fiscal year I have experienced as a nonprofit leader, things probably shifted quite a bit from projections to reality. 

1.      Are all contracts registered and claims up to date at least? For those cost reimbursement or line-item budgets, have you actualized 25% of the contracts’ value?  If not, did the program start late or perhaps you had staff vacancies?  Either way, could unallocated personnel and expenses be moved into these contracts? 

2.     How do fundraising projections look? Are you on track to meet annual goals? What is in the pipeline? What is lagging? Perhaps it’s individual donor revenue that is behind? How do ticket sales to events look? Are these events still worth the overhead? Is your year-end appeal ready to go? How well is your social media generating donations? What about foundation support? These sources are both most likely and most quickly impacted by the current economy and thus, markets.  Even a foundation with whom you have a longstanding relationship may ask for a break in the spring, going into next fiscal year.  Do you have an alternate plan?  How does cultivation of new foundations look? Would potential dollars be restricted or unrestricted? 

3.     Do you have fee for service revenue streams? Did they meet Q1 revenue projections? Hopefully, summer sales helped, but will they carry the year? Are there institutional resources to which fee for service program costs could be allocated?  Should some programs close temporarily? Can fee for service staff move to support other contracted programs? Should fee structures be reconsidered to adjust for financially worried consumers?  If these programs are based on insurance billing, is there advocacy to be done around rates?

4.     Perhaps you have little to no such fund diversification? Today’s economic times prove the importance of fund diversification and braided funding.  Where could your organization grow without overtaxing your capacity  or creating mission drift? Is there an individual donor or foundation who might like to take full credit for helping launch a new pilot?

As an executive leader, do you have time to check on all of these things?  I know, for me, there never seemed to be enough time. So while you have likely asked many if not all of these questions of yourself and perhaps your development folks, do you have the bandwidth in your development team to manage new work? What about your middle managers?  Have they started to be proactive in recent months, considering ways to both curtail expenses and grow revenue?

You cannot possibly manage all these fronts successfully, alone.  However, adding staff is extremely expensive at a time you are trying to control costs - advertising, finding the right candidate in this current, ferocious development job market, onboarding, and allowing time for new staff to get up to speed, not to mention current salary expectations and the cost of benefits.  A consultant might be the better way to go.