Liquidity

Once Again! Mismanagement Causes Huge Agency Failure—A Word To The Wise Nonprofit?

 

Once Again! Mismanagement Causes Huge Agency Failure—A Word To The Wise Nonprofit

By: Eugene Fram.    Free Digital Image 

Rarely do failed for-profit or nonprofit organizations get a posthumous review of what actually went wrong.The collapse of one of the largest nonprofits in the US, the Federal Employment Guidance Service (FEGS)of New York City, is a noteworthy exception. Details of the causes that led to the human service’s demise were aired widely throughout NY media. *  This organization had a $250 million budget, with 1900 employees who served 120,000 households covering a range of mental health and disability services, housing, home care and employment services.

Following are my interpretations of what its board should have done to avoid such a tragedy

.• Failure of nonprofits: Failure of small nonprofits is rampant for a wide variety of known reasons. Outside of fraud being involved, the FEGS failure demonstrates that no nonprofit is too big to fail because of a lack of board due care. Boards have to be acutely aware of the professional financial competencies of their CFO and CEO or well-meaning people who naively believe that loans could be easily repaid. There should have been a well-documented financial strategy. The nonprofit closed with $47million in loans/liabilities/debts.

• Symptoms of impending collapse: Clearly with $47 million being owed, common financial ratios should have alerted knowledgeable board members to the coming catastrophe. But in the nonprofit environment, it is not unusual to that find board members, even business executives, are unfamiliar with the fund accounting approach used by nonprofit organizations. In addition, contracting city and state agencies failed in their reviews of the organization’s finances . However, some nonprofits, either intentionally on unintentionally, can saddle contract reviewers and board members with so much information that even the most conscientious can’t spot problems. (Humorously, board members in this category are referred to as “mushroom directors” because like growing mushrooms, they are kept in the dark an covered with excrement. But this type of tactic was successfully used against IRS auditors in the famous Madoff debacle.)

• Government or Foundation Contracts: In accepting these contracts, nonprofits must be realistic about whether or not there is enough money to cover full costs. They can’t be blinded by what the contract can do for the organization’s client. If adequate overhead funding is not attached to one or more of these agreements, they eventually can cause bankruptcy, because the nonprofit eventually will have to borrow or seek additional donations to cover them.

How Nonprofit Boards Can Avoid Problems

• Review Financials: Current financials need to be given to board members monthly, or at least quarterly if the board meets less often. The very detailed budget data can often be difficult for board members without budget experience. At the least, everybody on the finance committee needs to be able to intelligently review the income statement and balance sheet. Also they need to be aware that fund accounting permits some unusual twists—food donations, for example, can be included in revenues, based on an estimate of their value. Consequently, cash revenues and expenditures need to be a focus for board members’ analysis. Make certain that financials are delivered on timely and complete bases.

A nonprofit CFO didn’t submit an accounts receivable reports for nine months because he said he was too busy to compile it. Neither the board nor the CEO demanded issuance of the report. When finally delivered, it was clear that the CFO was listing a substantial number of uncollectible accounts as active ones. Both the CFO and CEO were fired, and the nonprofit had to hire expensive forensic accountants to review the impact.

• Gaps Between Revenues and Expenditures: This is the ultimate red flag, if not followed carefully. It may vary from period-to-period in a predictable pattern that everybody understands, but if the gap continues, say for four to six months, strong board action is necessary.

• Adopt written financial policies: These are necessary to make sure all concerned with finances are on the same page. Since interpretation is often required in financial decisions, nothing should be left open to broad interpretation

.• Contracts with governments, foundations and others: Make certain that reimbursements for indirect costs are included. If not included, have a benefactor ready to step in to cover the costs.

An old Chinese proverb, “A wise man (or woman) learns from his/h own experience. The wiser man (or woman) learns from the experiences of others.” One hundred twenty thousands households and individuals lost services from an 80 year old human service nonprofit. There is much to learn from the collapse of FEGS.

* https://nonprofitquarterly.org/the-fegs-autopsy-a-case-of-bad-nonprofit-business-in-a-tough

 

What Role Should Board Nonprofit Board Members Play in Overviewing Management /Staff Talent?

What Role Should Nonprofit Board Members Play in Overviewing Management /Staff Talent? By: Eugene Fram    Free Digital Image

Nonprofit boards rarely develop an in-depth strategy for assessing its organization’s human capital. Some will keep informal tabs on the CEO’s direct reports to prepare for the possibility of his/her sudden departure or is incapacitated. Others –smaller organizations with fewer than 20 employees—need only a basic plan for such an occurrence.

Need for Strategy: In my view, maintaining a viable talent strategy to assess staff and management personnel is a board responsibility, albeit one that is often ignored. The latter stems from the constant turnover of nonprofit board members whose median term of service is 4-6 years—hardly a lifetime commitment. Like for-profit board members whose focus is on quarterly earning results, their nonprofit counterparts are likely more interested in resolving current problems than in building sufficient bench strength for the organization’s long-term sustainability.

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How Can Nonprofits Accommodate To External Influences? Some Field Observations

 

How Can Nonprofits Accommodate To External Influences? Some Field Observations

By Eugene Fram       Free Digital Image

Ruth McCambridge, former editor of Nonprofit Quarterly, points out “Our organizational management, (board) styles and structures are affected by the four external influences.” See paraphrased bolded items below. (http://bit.ly/1HSwrZY) Following are some specific field observations I have encountered that, over several decades, support her model relating to external influences.

The nonprofit’s mission field: McCambridge points out that arts organizations have dual have leadership models—artistic and business. However, unless specified which has final authority, the system can lead to continual conflict between the two; the artistic leader wanting the most authentic productions and the business leader concerned with budget realities. The final authority is often determined by which leader has the CEO title.

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A Special Relationship: Nurturing the CEO-Board Chair Bond
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A Special Relationship: Nurturing the CEO-Board Chair Bond

By Eugene Fram              Free Digital Photo

Viewer Favorite – Updated & Revised

Here are tips to assure the best possible partnership between the board chair and CEO.

Keeping boards focused on strategic issues is a major challenge for nonprofit leaders.  This leadership crisis is intensified by the fact that board chairs tend to have short terms (according to BoardSource, 83% stay in office only one or two years). Thus, nonprofit CEOs  and board chairs need to bond quickly. For the good of the organization, they must come together swiftly and create a partnership that works. Here are golden rules for the CEO and board chair to follow:

1. Be sure the CEO and board chair share strategic issues with each other—negative as well as positive ones. A failure by either the chair or CEO to share information, such as a potential cash flow issue, can be disastrous for the nonprofit.

2. It’s critical for the CEO to conduct orientation sessions with a new chair, explaining the challenges facing the nonprofit, and reviewing the fundamentals of the mission. The CEO can help the chair keep the board focused on strategic issues, whether they’re programmatic or financial.  With many nonprofits electing a new president each year, the CEO needs to prioritize these tasks.

3. Make sure staff know who has the final say. Some employees mistakenly view the board chair as the ultimate authority, even when the organizational table lists the CEO as holding that position. As a result, they may try an end run around the CEO, asking the board to overturn the CEO’s decision about salaries, promotions, or programs, for example. Both the CEO and board chair must emphasize the fact that the CEO is the final authority. If they make this message clear enough, they can probably keep staff from attempting any end runs. If an end run still occurs, the board chair must refer the issue to the CEO for resolution, except if the CEO is being charged with malfeasance.

4. The CEO should arrange for individual board members to meet with management staff on occasion so that the board can gather information about how the organization is operated and obtain an understanding of the promotional abilities of managers. The Sarbanes-Oxley act (a federal statute relating to public corporation boards) recommends this process for for-profit boards, and it’s also a good one for nonprofit board members.

5. Give staff members opportunities to participate in strategic planning and to support board committees. The board chair and CEO should work together to arrange such board-staff interactions, including joint celebrations of organizational success.

6. The CEO and board chair need to agree on the use of ad hoc board committees or task forces and their relationship to standing committees. For example, should the HR/personnel committee be a standing one or only an ad hoc one to address major personnel policies? In the 21st century, a board should only have maximum of five standing committees, many can only have three.  If task forces are used to provide provide options for occasional policy issues, for example pension plan changes, there may be little need for a standing board HR/personnel committee.

7. The board chair and CEO should be the active leaders in fundraising efforts, with the CEO as administrative leader. The board chair and other board members must provide the CEO entrée to funding sources. They often need to accompany the CEO on fundraising visits. The CEO should keep the board chair informed of all entrepreneurial development activities being explored.

8. The board has only one major employment decision to make – to recruit and hire the CEO. It’s usually a long and exhausting process. But once it’s completed, the employment of all other staff personnel is the responsibility of the CEO and the CEO’s management team. For senior positions, most CEOs ask their chairs and/or other board members to meet with candidates, but the ultimate responsibility remains with the CEO.  The board also has a responsibility to overview staffing to make certain that adequate bench-strength in in place for succession placements,  at the CEO and the senior management

9. When hiring a CEO, or soon after employment, the board chair and CEO must face a stark reality—the need for emergency leadership should the CEO become temporarily incapacitated. These plans can either be established informally by the chair-CEO partnership or more formally via board resolution. The following are possible interim CEOs: a senior manager in the organization, a semi-retired experienced CEO living near headquarters, a consultant living in a neighboring city. CEO succession planning is an important issue for the partnership should the CEO decides to leave or retire.

10. The CEO can be helpful to the board chair in recruiting new board members by suggesting possible volunteer candidates or other contacts who have demonstrated an interest in the organization’s mission, vision, and values. Board candidates will want to meet with the CEO as part of the interview process. As a result, the two partners must agree on how to present the organization to board candidates.

11. The chair and CEO need to lead in establishing meeting agendas. The two partners must work together to assure there’s sufficient meeting time to discuss and resolve strategic issue While many nonprofits call their top executive the “executive director,” the term CEO or president/CEO is a more leader-focused.

12. For the current environment, board members should be ready and willing to be ready to involved in a heightened level of board activity.   If not, the board chair and board member should determine what constraints the member needs to be in place for his/h activity.

Wanted: Nonprofit CEOs with Entrepreneurial People Skills

Wanted: Nonprofit CEOs with Entrepreneurial People Skills

By: Eugene Fram      Free Digital Image

The need for superior leadership skills is as critical to CEOs in nonprofits as it is in the entrepreneurial world. Following are four such skills and the unique challenges they bring when employed in the nonprofit environment.

 

  • The CEO’s Power of Persuasion

A nonprofit CEO and the board must take the lead in creating the organization’s mission, vision and values. However, since the board majority is usually composed of volunteers who are seldom involved in the day-to-day implementation of the organization’s mission, it becomes the responsibility of the CEO to present viable options for the future — and then to effectively share the board-approved “vision” with three discrete audiences: the board, professional staff and other stakeholders. But…

Board members, in the roles as part-time overseers, often do not have the time to critically evaluate alternatives when presented, particularly if a revised mission is under consideration.

Nonprofit staffs tend to be conservative, especially when change may jeopardize their positions. (e.g. “Don’t change the program, the position that may be dropped can be yours!”)

And foundations, donors, and supporters, who are possibly considering funding requests from other nonprofits, need to be approached by a CEO who is equipped with outstanding people skills.

While business organizations have somewhat similar challenges, obviously their revenue sources are not dependent on financial gifts.

  • The Right Hires

Just as in business, the process of judicious hiring endlessly challenges a nonprofit CEO. Nonprofit salary levels are simply not competitive with those of established commercial organizations, especially in the area of hard-to-find skills such as finance or IT. But these challenges can be overcome! I have seen nonprofit CEOs develop a collegial working atmosphere in their search for employees, resulting in new personnel who are not only dedicated to the mission but feel encouraged to exercise their own creative potential.

  • Face of the Organization

The nonprofit CEO, like his entrepreneurial business counterpart, must be the top marketing executive who is the face of the organization. While board members can assist with promotion, CEOs are the leaders to whom stakeholders and employees look to promote the organization’s impacts. Alternatively, they must take the blame for failures. No longer should a nonprofit CEO be able to use the old excuse with a failed program, “The board forced me to take the action.” But to shepherd an entrepreneurial CEO, the board needs to be able to tolerate some failures as long as they were based on reasonable “business judgment.” No one does their job with unfettered perfection.

  • Growing the Organization

If a nonprofit decides to expand the scope of the organization, the skill sets needed in a CEO are quite different from those needed to maintain a status quo operation. Rarely can the executive who simply “minds the store” adjust to the complexities of the new environment and must be replaced or moved elsewhere. A nonprofit’s commitment to expansion is both exciting and terrifying. In any case, it demands a nonprofit CEO who, in partnership with a supportive board, can handle the requisite financial development and continual networking with stakeholders.

 

What Nonprofits Can Do To Maintain Liquidity

What Nonprofits Can Do To Maintain Liquidity

By: Eugene Fram    Free Digital Image

It doesn’t take a pandemic to make a nonprofit question its capacity to survive. Events such as a loss of major funding, a damaged reputation, huge unpredicted expenses could swiftly reduce the lifeblood of the organization, plunging the nonprofit into deep concern for its long-term survival.

Any nonprofit CEO has the data to predict how long the organization can stay afloat without income. This, however, would be only one rough measure of the nonprofit’s liquidity. Board members need to take the discussion further. They need to realistically appraise total liquidly from fixed/variable expenses and income venues as they relate to mission accomplishment.

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Onboarding the New Nonprofit CEO: Who’s In Charge?

 

Onboarding the New Nonprofit CEO: Who’s In Charge?

By Eugene Fram                  Free Digital image

When the chair of the search committee announces that a new CEO has been selected, there is visible relief in the boardroom. After the stress of a waning—or even absent executive at the helm, directors tend to relax, engaging in a series of social events that provide a pleasant if superficial acquaintance with the new executive.

What actually lies ahead is much more serious and vital to the future of the organization. Call it orientation, acculturation or transitioning; it is the board’s responsibility to see that the CEO is grounded in every aspect of the organization. And that requires a plan that is carefully structured and may take a year to complete. Major responsibility for the plan and its implementation rests with the board chair and one or more senior board members. While there are many formats to achieve this goal, the best, in my opinion, is what has been described as a customized format.

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Once Again! What Are the Best Risk Levels for Your Nonprofit’s Investments in a COVID 19 environment and after it?

 

Once Again! What Are the Best Risk Levels for Your Nonprofit’s Investments in a COVID 19 environment and after it?

By Eugene Fram

Some nonprofits have significant investment accounts. The following are some guidelines to help develop investment policies during and after COVID 19. These funds may have been accrued through annual surpluses/donations or have been legally mandated to cover future expenditures through a reserve account.

  1. How does your committee define risk, and how much are you willing to take? *  Most nonprofit by-laws require a nonprofit to conservatively manage and invest its funds. This give the investment committee a wide range of policies to employ.

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6 Approaches to Innovation for Nonprofit Boards

6 Approaches to Innovation for Nonprofit Boards

By Eugene Fram                     Free Digital Image

The Bridgespan Group, supported by The Rockefeller Foundation,  completed an exciting research study. The results identified “six elements common to nonprofits with a high capacity to innovate” * Following are some suggestion how to implement these elements.

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Must Nonprofits Develop Employee Benefits That Substitute For Annual Raises?

Must Nonprofits Develop Employee Benefits That Substitute For Annual Raises?

By: Eugene Fram                      Free Digital Image

An analysis in the Washington Post reports that a tsunami-style change has been taking place in the manner in which United States employees are being paid—benefits are being offered in place of annual salary increases. (http://wapo.st/1MwoIBZ) Driving the change are the needs of a substantial portion of millennials who appreciate immediate gratifications in terms of bonuses and perks, such as extra time off and tuition reimbursement. Employers like the arrangement because they can immediately reward their best performers without increasing compensation costs. Example: One sales employee spent weeks reviewing dull paperwork, was very diligent in the process and was given three extra days of paid leave. She said, “I think everybody would like to make more, but what I liked about it was the flexibility.”

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