As we come to the close of the budget season, here are
some reminder questions for both staff and board.
- What percentage of your program budget are you
dedicating to staff training? If it’s not very much, how can you ensure
your programs are the best they could be?
- What percentage of your budget will be dedicated to
program needs vs. administration / fundraising?
- What percentage of your budget will result
directly from ideas generated from your strategic plan?
- What percentage of your budget is dedicated to
making your administrative staff more knowledgeable about the things that
affect your NonProfit’s management? Management issues will include
everything from fund development to human resource law to IRS rules changes.
How will you ensure your staff is up to date on these issues that affect your
organization’s day-to-day life?
- What percentage of your budget is dedicated to
outreach, to get more people into your programs, or to make more people aware
of the issues your organization addresses?
- What percentage of your budget is dedicated to
improving the performance of your governing board? Are you expecting the board
to know how to do its job without any training?
- On a $1 million budget, 1% is $10,000. If you feel
any of the line items listed above are important to the ongoing performance of
your organization, are you dedicating even 1% of your budget to those line
items?
And one last question
- When it comes time for the board to decide whether
or not to approve the budget, what will they base that decision on? How will
they know whether or not they should approve the budget?
It's never too late to determine how the board can
perform its budget-approval role better - how it can be more responsible and
accountable. And it's never to late to get training to do that job better.
Because the buck truly does stop with the board.
And before you start asking "So where's the money
going to come from for all this?", the answer is simple: It will come from the
same place the rest of your budget will come from - donations and grants and
all those other income sources.
Remember: If you don't even budget for
increasing your organization's effectiveness, you absolutely won't do it. The
budget gives you something to strive for, a reminder that this is something you
think is important.
So take a step towards increased effectiveness.
Budget this year to make your organization better!
For more information about training your board to
govern towards the future, please see the following resources
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