No matter what position you hold at your nonprofit, having at least a general understanding of your organization’s financial situation is critical to furthering its mission. Finances play a major role in nonprofit management, strategic planning, and nearly every aspect of fundraising, among other activities.
Since you likely have a lot on your plate as a fundraising professional, having resources that organize and summarize your nonprofit’s most important financial data is helpful, rather than sifting through hundreds of records to find the information you need at a given moment. Fortunately, your organization’s financial team is required to compile documents that do exactly this every year—they’re known as financial statements.
In this guide, we’ll discuss how to analyze and apply each of the four core nonprofit financial statements in the context of fundraising work. Let’s get started!
Statement of Activities
As the nonprofit parallel to the for-profit income statement, the statement of activities gives an overview of your organization’s transactions for a given year. It’s divided into three sections:
● Revenue categorized by source: Individual donations, corporate philanthropy, earned income, investments and grants.
● Expenses organized by function: Program, administrative and fundraising costs (more on these designations to come!).
● Change in net assets, which is calculated by subtracting your nonprofit’s total expenses from its total revenue.
There are several ways you can apply this statement to your work as a fundraiser:
● Setting realistic revenue targets. For instance, if you’re wondering whether it’s possible to raise $5,000 from your monthly giving program this year, you can look at your statement of activities to see how much you brought in through recurring donations last year. If you learn that you only raised $3,700 that way, you’ll likely want to lower your goal; but if you raised $4,950, you could increase your target slightly to push your team.
● Brainstorming new funding streams to add to your strategy. Let’s say that by comparing your two most recent statements of activities, you notice that you brought in significantly more revenue last year than the previous year through corporate sponsorships. You might decide to build on that success this year by exploring additional corporate philanthropy avenues like matching gifts or volunteer grants.
● Keeping tabs on restricted funds. Many grants, major gifts and planned donations have restrictions placed on them by the funder, meaning they have to be used for specific purposes at your nonprofit. The statement of activities separates these funds from unrestricted revenue so you know how much you can spend on campaigns and initiatives.
From a financial perspective, the main application of the statement of activities is informing upcoming organizational budgets, which are influenced by the information that is important for fundraising success.
Statement of Financial Position
Also known as a balance sheet, the statement of financial position provides a snapshot of your nonprofit’s financial health. Like the statement of activities, it’s compiled annually and has three main sections:
● Assets: What your nonprofit owns (cash, property, accounts receivable, etc.)
● Liabilities: What your nonprofit owes (debts, lease obligations, accounts payable, etc.)
● Net assets: What your nonprofit is worth (total assets minus total liabilities)
While this statement has fewer direct applications for fundraising professionals, it’s still helpful to understand your organization’s financial flexibility. If your nonprofit is planning for growth, you’ll need to have plenty of cash on hand to cover the additional costs associated with hiring new team members, expanding your facilities, launching programs, and other activities. Having a sense of where your nonprofit stands in this regard will help you contribute more effectively to growth planning conversations and orient your fundraising work accordingly.
Statement of Cash Flows
Both for-profit and nonprofit organizations use cash flow statements to track how cash moves in and out of the organization. For nonprofits, the three types of cash flow are
● operating,
● investing, and
● financing (capital gains) activities.
Since the statement of cash flows is usually pulled monthly rather than annually, its primary application for fundraising professionals is understanding month-to-month fluctuations in cash flow. That way, you can plan your fundraising activities accordingly and more effectively communicate your decisions to other stakeholders in your organization.
For example, individual giving to nonprofits typically peaks at the end of the calendar year and dies down in the summer. If your statements of cash flows confirm that this is true for your organization, you can prepare in advance for the additional donor follow-up work you’ll need to do at the end of the year. Or, you might propose an additional summertime fundraiser to bring in more revenue during that lull and use the data to back up your argument to leadership for why this is necessary.
Statement of Functional Expenses
The statement of functional expenses is unique to nonprofits since it demonstrates how your organization’s expenditures further its mission. The three categories of functional expenses included in the report are:
● Program costs: These are directly related to your nonprofit’s mission and vary widely from organization to organization. For example, an animal shelter would include the costs of pet food and veterinary care under its program expenses.
● Administrative costs: These are necessary to run your nonprofit day-to-day and include things like staff salaries, utility bills, and office equipment purchases.
● Fundraising costs: These are the upfront expenses associated with launching fundraising campaigns, such as event planning, marketing, and software fees.
You may have also heard the term “overhead expenses,” which refers to your organization’s administrative and fundraising costs combined. While it used to be widely agreed that nonprofits would spend at least 65% of their revenue on program expenses and no more than 35% on overhead, it’s now accepted that this breakdown looks different for every organization.
In your fundraising work, treat the 65/35 “rule” as a guideline to make your fundraisers as cost-effective as possible while still providing high-quality giving experiences to donors. Leveraging free marketing tools, securing sponsorships and in-kind donations for your events, and carefully comparing fundraising software subscription plans to ensure you’re getting the features you need for the best price can all benefit your organization long-term.
In addition to applying the four core nonprofit financial statements to your internal fundraising work, keep them on hand for external conversations. Many organizations attach these statements as appendices to their annual reports to increase financial transparency with supporters. If a potential donor (especially a major or planned giving prospect) wants to ensure your nonprofit will properly manage their contribution, you can point to your financial statements to help convert that supporter and boost your fundraising success.