Financial Empowerment

"There are nine central characteristics that are found in the successful not-for-profits."

"Financially stable organizations have solid balance sheets, good cash flow, adequate resources to meet this year's demands and next year's as well."

"One of the key parts that is missing in the training of not-for-profit managers is the concept of working capital."

"A not-for-profit might earn funds from three different programs of their state welfare department or from four different programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development."

"There are hundreds of United Ways in the United States."

"There is a sequence of steps that you need to attend to if you are going to develop a business plan."

"Let's look at what I want you to do as opposed to what you may already be doing."

"You have many options in borrowing, and I want to go over the basic kinds of loans and their appropriate uses, terms, and normal rate structures."

"The essence of bottom-up budgeting is to have people who are close as possible to the provision of service responsible for budget development and implementation."

"There are four components to price: fixed costs, variable costs, profit, and market forces."

"One problem that arises with many not-for-profits is how to retain their income, or even their hard-earned fundraising dollars in a way that a funder won't come after them. Sometimes corporate restructuring is the answer."

"Let's look at what I feel are the roles of a mission-based CEO of a financially-empowered organization."

"Some of the tenets of financial empowerment may require a change in the way that your board does business, reviews financial information, sets organizational policy, takes risks, and relates to the organizational mission."